{"id":18218,"date":"2014-09-08T17:17:26","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T23:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=18218"},"modified":"2014-09-08T17:17:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T23:17:26","slug":"chloe-valdary-christian-black-and-a-rising-star-of-pro-israel-campus-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/chloe-valdary-christian-black-and-a-rising-star-of-pro-israel-campus-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"Chloe Valdary: Christian, black and a rising star of pro-Israel campus activism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By MIRIAM MOSTER and ANTHONY WEISS<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) &#8212; Growing up in New Orleans, Chloe Valdary kept kosher, studied the Jewish Bible and celebrated\u00a0Jewish holidays with festive meals. In recent years she has become an outspoken pro-Israel campus activist, contributing regularly to the Jewish press, and speaking and posting widely about the merits of the Jewish state on social media.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18221\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a title=\"Chloe_Valdery holding flag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18221\" class=\"wp-image-18221 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Chloe_Valdery_flag\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah.jpg 960w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18221\" class=\"wp-image-18221 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Chloe_Valdery_flag\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery_Torah.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-18221\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chloe Valdary called her AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel &#8220;life changing.&#8221; (Lauren Clarice Cross)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But the senior at the University of New Orleans is not Jewish. She is Christian &#8212; a member of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.intercontinentalcog.org\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Intercontinental Church of God<\/a>, whose adherents revere the Hebrew Bible and follow the Jewish calendar &#8212; and she is black.<\/p>\n<p>In July, Valdary, 21, garnered widespread attention for a Tablet\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/jewish-news-and-politics\/180382\/students-justice-palestine\" target=\"_blank\">piece<\/a> in which she accused pro-Palestinian activists of misappropriating the rhetoric of the black civil rights movement. In the piece, titled \u201cTo the <a href=\"http:\/\/sjpnational.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Students for Justice in Palestine<\/a>, a Letter From an Angry Black Woman,\u201d Valdary addressed the campus group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou do not have the right to invoke\u00a0<i>my<\/i>\u00a0people\u2019s struggle for your shoddy purposes, and you do not get to feign victimhood in our name,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Valdary also listed prominent black civil rights-era Zionists, telling Israel\u2019s college-age critics, \u201cYou do not get to pretend as though you and Rosa Parks would have been great buddies in the 1960s. Rosa Parks\u00a0<i>was<\/i>\u00a0a real Freedom Fighter. Rosa Parks\u00a0<i>was<\/i>\u00a0a Zionist.\u201d (Parks signed a 1975 <a href=\"http:\/\/beyondtherivers.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/basic-reproduction1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a> by the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee, backing Israel\u2019s right to exist.)<\/p>\n<p>Her outspoken support for Israel in the name of civil rights not only cuts against the arguments of Students for Justice in Palestine and other critics of Israel, but also against the drift of much black civil rights rhetoric over the past few decades.<\/p>\n<p>While a number of early civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., were supportive of Israel, subsequent black leaders &#8212; particularly starting with the black power movement in the late 1960s &#8212; often have been sharply critical of the Jewish state.\u00a0Black power leader Stokely Carmichael\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jta.org\/1970\/04\/10\/archive\/stokely-carmichael-contends-palestinian-arabs-in-just-struggle-against-israel\" target=\"_blank\">described<\/a>\u00a0Israel as a \u201csettler colony,\u201d while more recently, professor and activist Cornel West <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdsmovement.net\/2011\/dr-west-endorses-bds-6943\" target=\"_blank\">endorsed<\/a>\u00a0the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/electronicintifada.net\/blogs\/nader-ihmoud\/video-obama-and-netanyahu-are-war-criminals-says-dr-cornel-west-washington\" target=\"_blank\">called<\/a>\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a \u201cwar criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Against that backdrop, Valdary\u2019s stance and identity make her a uniquely compelling voice in the world of Israel advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause so many prominent black leaders are hostile to Israel, it makes it even more powerful to have someone who\u2019s black supporting Israel,\u201d said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, a hardline Israel advocacy group.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, a number of pro-Israel organizations, including AIPAC and Christians United for Israel, have made concerted efforts in recent years to develop ties with African-American supporters.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18222\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a title=\"Chloe_Valdary_activist\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18222\" class=\"wp-image-18222 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Chloe_Valdary1\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery1.jpg 720w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 225px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 225\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18222\" class=\"wp-image-18222 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Chloe_Valdary1\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Chloe_Valdery1.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-18222\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chloe Valdary spent the summer in Boston working as a consultant for Camera. (Chris Keuhl)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>According to recent public opinion surveys by Pew Research Center focused on the conflict in Gaza, black Americans have tended to be somewhat less sympathetic toward Israel (64 percent expressing \u201ca lot\u201d or \u201csome\u201d sympathy for Israel, versus 70 percent for whites), and somewhat more critical of its response to Hamas, with 36 percent saying Israel\u2019s response had gone too far, compared to 22 percent of white Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Valdary, who grew up attending grade school with a number of Jewish friends, said that despite their common religious practices, she didn\u2019t feel a particular sense of personal connection to Jews. That changed in her freshman year of high school, when Valdary saw the 2007 film \u201cFreedom Writers,\u201d in which a high school teacher uses the Holocaust to teach her minority students about facing discrimination in their own lives.<\/p>\n<p>Inspired by the movie, Valdary began to read voraciously about the Holocaust and Jewish history, as well as novels such as \u201cExodus\u201d by Leon Uris and \u201cThe Town Beyond the Wall\u201d by Elie Wiesel.<\/p>\n<p>The themes raised in her reading, combined with hearing news about anti-Semitic incidents around the world, sparked Valdary\u2019s passion for Zionism. \u201cExodus,\u201d a fictional and highly sympathetic account of the founding of the State of Israel, was particularly influential.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe importance of Jewish pride as a theme throughout the book really inspired me to take action and do something about the rising anti-Semitism,\u201d Valdary told JTA.<\/p>\n<p>Once she arrived at the University of New Orleans, Valdary threw herself into campus activity, both at her school and nearby Tulane University, which unlike UNO has a substantial Jewish population. Her work caught the attention of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, or Camera, which has funded Valdary\u2019s own campus organization, Allies of Israel, at UNO.<\/p>\n<p>One of her pro-Israel rallies at UNO also was noted by a coordinator for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which then sponsored her to come to an AIPAC policy conference and subsequently paid for her to take a 10-day trip to Israel &#8212; a trip Valdary described as \u201clife changing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Valdary has worked with and spoken to a number of pro-Israel groups. She spent this summer in Boston employed as a paid consultant for Camera, which is still funding Allies for Israel, and will resume working for the group later this month.<\/p>\n<p>Her mentor, Dumisani Washington, is a black minister who serves as the Diversity Outreach Coordinator for Christians United for Israel, an evangelical pro-Israel group led by Pastor John Hagee. Valdary also was a featured speaker at the ZOA\u2019s national convention in March, and she has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_3AR5gvoDXI\" target=\"_blank\">recorded<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=P5oLXb9FtLA\" target=\"_blank\">videos<\/a> for Americans for Peace and Tolerance, which was founded by conservative pro-Israel advocate Charles Jacobs.<\/p>\n<p>But Valdary also has found a receptive audience beyond the more hardline groups. In August, she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6bu0tpeb5uI\" target=\"_blank\">spoke<\/a> at an event organized by The Alumni Community, a New York-area alumni group for Birthright Israel, which is less ideologically oriented. And not all of her fans consider themselves conservative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe&#8217;s a champion on campus of a Zionism that doesn&#8217;t apologize and also comes from a deep place of humanism,\u201d said Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, Calif., who describes himself as a \u201cprogressive Zionist.\u201d \u201cHer rejection of the demonization of Israel is not based on being a talking head on the right or the left. It&#8217;s based on being a very articulate and thoughtful leader on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although her views on Israel tend to be aligned with more right-leaning pro-Israel groups, Valdary maintains that her opinions are based on liberal ideals. She argues that Israel\u2019s sovereignty over Arab citizens \u201cspeaks to the concept of indigenous people\u201d &#8212; the Jewish people, according to Valdary &#8212; thus is a liberal value. This places her at odds with a number of Israel critics, as well as black leaders such as Carmichael and Angela Davis, who have argued that the Palestinians are indigenous while Jewish-Israelis are colonizing interlopers.<\/p>\n<p>Valdary says that \u201cIsraeli society, like any other society, has issues with discrimination, but in terms of systematic discrimination, like apartheid in Africa or Jim Crow, that does not exist in Israeli society.\u201d She says that she opposes a two-state solution, favoring a \u201cJewish one-state solution\u201d in which all citizens in Israel and its territories can vote, but \u201cthe culture, the personality\u201d of Israel is Jewish.<\/p>\n<p>Valdary\u2019s political views, and her invocation of civil rights history and rhetoric in the cause of Zionism, has made her a controversial figure and a lightning rod for criticism. Some of the criticism has been racially derogatory, as when blogger Richard Silverstein posted an article of Valdary\u2019s on Facebook with the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.timesofisrael.com\/in-defense-of-liberty\/\" target=\"_blank\">note<\/a>, \u201cThey finally did it: found a Negro Zionist: Uncle Tom is dancin\u2019 for joy!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other criticism has focused more on her aggressive attacks on critics of Israel. In a speech at Brandeis University, writer and filmmaker Max Blumenthal, a harsh critic of Israel, after describing a pair of <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.timesofisrael.com\/judith-butler-our-will-to-survive\/\" target=\"_blank\">Valdary<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.timesofisrael.com\/the-soldier-and-the-refusenik-a-case-study-in-psychopathic-self-abhorrence\/\" target=\"_blank\">critiques<\/a> of Israel critics Judith Butler and Maya Wind,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zXKqUtPmwwY\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>,\u00a0&#8220;This is a perfect example of where the Israel lobby is heading, of where Zionism itself is heading, is that a right-wing evangelical has been recruited to attack Jewish intellectuals and to tell them that they are bad Jews.&#8221; (Valdary does not consider herself an evangelical or right wing.)<\/p>\n<p>Blumenethal added, &#8220;I find it peculiar that someone with no credentials is so outspoken, so heavily promoted on this issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.timesofisrael.com\/a-letter-to-the-all-knowing-max-blumenthal\/\" target=\"_blank\">response<\/a>\u00a0to Blumenthal, Valdary herself invoked race, when she and co-author Daniel Mael accused Blumenthal of classifying critics like Valdary as \u201cblack people who obviously have no capability to think for themselves.\u201d Blumenthal did not mention Valdary\u2019s race in his comments at Brandeis.<\/p>\n<p>After she graduates from the University of New Orleans, Valdary hopes to intern at The Wall Street Journal, on the opinion side, and to study at the Tikvah Advanced Institutes, a right-leaning series of political and economic seminars. She also wants to spend a year in Israel. Upon her return, Valdary hopes to start a \u201cZionist movement,\u201d though her plans on that front are still hazy.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever it turns out to be, though, Valdary will have fans eagerly awaiting her moves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHer heart is beautiful, her mind is beautiful, her words are powerful,\u201d the ZOA\u2019s Klein said. \u201cShe\u2019s really the whole package.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Chloe%20Valdary%3A%20Christian%2C%20black%20and%20a%20rising%20star%20of%20pro-Israel%20campus%20activism\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5985,8790,8795,8788,3757,5986],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18223,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18218\/revisions\/18223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}