[The following, by Charles Jacobs, is crossposted from The Jewish Advocate. Jacobs, among other things, exposes the hypocrisy of some people at Temple Beth Avodah in Newton for complaining about Jeremy Ben Ami's being kept out of a speaking date there. Jacobs discloses that he himself was kept out of the venue by some of the same people now screaming free speech.]

That ripping sound over at the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) is the Big Jewish Tent tearing at the seams. Last week, Jewish Boston woke up to discover that J Street has membership status at the JCRC. Even some of the folks who fund JCRC didn't know.

J Street, seen by many as an anti-Israel group that falsely proclaims itself "pro-Israel, propeace," snuck quietly through the back flap of JCRC's tent almost a year ago by special arrangement: While every other Jewish organization must pass through a vetting process to ensure it is what it says it is, J Street never applied for membership, never had to submit to an examination of its funding, support and mission, and never faced a vote. It simply merged with Brit Tzedek v' Shalom, a minor left-wing "peace group" that was already a JCRC member - but one which, to its credit, is not funded by George Soros and Arab groups.

Ever since the Israeli Left lost its political power with the Oslo debacle, it has worked to achieve its goals by other means, actively undermining Israeli government policies. J Street hopes to enlist American Jews to lobby Washington to press Israel toward the policies desired by J Street, regardless - in spite, actually - of the wishes of Israel's citizens. It hopes thus to circumvent Israel's democratic process, and to do so, J Street doesn't shy away from deception.

Since its founding in 2008, it had strenuously and repeatedly denied that it was funded by George Soros. Yet a few months ago, it turned out that while Soros may not have provided the seed money, he and his children were earlier contributors, and they have donated a total of $745,000.

Soros is a piece of work and deserves a whole column. A Jew born in Hungary, Soros was saved from the Nazi ovens when his father had him adopted by a Christian whose job was to confiscate property from Jews being sent to their deaths. Soros accompanied and helped his adopted father steal Jewish assets, writing later that the period of the Nazi occupation was the happiest time of his life!

Soros is not J Street's only interesting funder. J Street received more than $811,000 from a mysterious Hong Kong woman, Consolacion Esdicul, whose donation constituted half of the group's budget the year it was given.

J Street also received funds from lawyers for rich Saudis, from the National Iranian American Council, a Palestinian billionaire and a Turkish-American man who was involved in the production of the blood-libel Turkish blockbuster "The Valley of the Wolves."

Why would such donors be attracted to J Street? Well, because J Street operationalizes their radical agenda. It publically opposed strong sanctions against Iran until such a stance became politically untenable. J Street's PAC funded 24 of the 54 congressmen who signed on to an unprecedentedly critical statement attacking Israel for its defensive actions in Gaza.

Recently, members of Temple Beth Avodah in Newton forced the cancellation of a talk by J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami. The J Street spin of its dis-invitation is characteristically misleading. Temple members refused to allow Ben- Ami to speak not as an act of censorship, but in frustration and protest over the censorship already practiced by the temple. I should know - Beth Avodah's leadership denied requests by its congregants to host an open discussion with my organization, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, on the challenge and threat of radical Islam in New England.

J Street's exclusion was the exception, not the rule: Left-wing speakers are not censored in our community, but those deemed "right wing" and even those who address politically incorrect subjects are - even when the matter at hand is vital to the well-being of the community. For example, there are rabbis who sermonize about the need to reach out to Muslims who may be extremists, yet won't be caught in the same room with evangelical Christians who fervently support Israel.

Here's a free-speech test: Try asking your rabbi if you can invite a speaker from Likud or the Zionist Organization of America, or better yet, ask if the synagogue would host a talk on Islamic anti-Semitism, which the Anti Defamation League says (whispers, actually) is the biggest threat to Jewish life since WWII. Ask if you could host a talk on human rights abuses in the Arab/Islamic world. Or ask your rabbi to invite me to speak. Responses to these requests would be eye-opening.

If our leaders do not work hard to create honest open discussions on the major challenges facing us, we will fail as a community.

J Street has been dishonest in describing its funding and has raised significant concerns about its true agenda. It has yet to demonstrate that it respects Israeli democracy and the best interests of the Jewish community. It has yet to demonstrate that it is not a Soros subsidiary promoting the demise of the nation-state system and the establishment of transnational governance. The JCRC and other Boston Jewish groups should not encourage it by giving it privileged status and unchallenged platforms.