In the face of mounting charges of anti-Semitism at Occupy sites nationwide, Jewish groups have been attempting to spin the protest movement as Jew-friendly and even representative of Jewish ideals.

Most prominent among the groups is Jewish Funds for Justice, or JFFJ, which is funded by billionaire George Soros. A number of other Soros-funded progressive groups are also behind the drive to deny that Occupy contains significant anti-Semitic elements.

KleinOnline found that JFFJ is led by individuals associated with communist and socialist groups.

JFFJ activists reportedly led high-holiday services in New York City, Boston and Los Angeles Occupy sites. The group also helped erect sukkot at Occupy sites.

An article in the San Francisco Sentinel, titled "Occupy Wall Street Movement Brings Jewish Ethos to Demonstrations," quoted Regina Weiss, JFFJ's communications director, stating of the movement: "For many of us, social justice is where we find our Judaism."

"For many there is no more important way to stand up and express Judaism on the holiest night of the year than to stand with people who are hurting and to stand up for greater equality in the country," Weiss said of Occupy's Yom Kippur services.

Elissa Barrett, chief of regional operations for the JFFJ and its partner, the Progressive Jewish Alliance, explained how a sukkah espouses Occupy ideals.

"I think of a sukkah as a structure that's full of vulnerability," Barrett said in a widely circulated article published by a Jewish syndication service. "It forces us to look at what's happening in the world around us."

Aryeh Cohen, a JFFJ board member who serves as associate professor of rabbinic literature at the American Jewish University, wrote an opinion piece for the Soros-funded Center for American Progress glorifying the anti-Wall Street protests while arguing the movement expresses Torah values.

"The just society that emerges from a reading of the classic canon of rabbinic literature, is what I call a 'community of obligation.' Residency in a city is determined by the assumptions of the obligations of the city," Cohen wrote at Think Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress.

JFFJ was founded by Si Khan, who serves on the board of the Rosenberg Fund for Children, which seeks to aid the children of parents the group deems "targeted, progressive activists." That group was founded by Robert Meeropol, whose parents Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were accused of passing crucial nuclear secrets to the Soviets and executed in 1953.

JFFJ board member Amy Dean, meanwhile, has keynoted a Communist Party event and was involved with a U.S. socialist party.

She keynoted the Chicago Communist Party USA's 22nd Annual People's World Banquet, which took place last December at a local restaurant. At the event, CPUSA labor secretary Scott Marshall deemed Dean's work visionary and innovative.

Dean also was involved with the New Party, a controversial 1990s political party that sought to elect members to public office with the aim of moving the Democratic Party far leftward to ultimately form a new political party with a socialist agenda.

This column previously reported on evidence from the party's own newsletter listing President Obama a member of the New Party. JFFJ board member Janice Fine was also a New Party leader and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

JFFJ runs a Selah Leadership Program, which provides community organizing training to local leaders. As of mid-2007, more than 200 leaders from 165 organizations had gone through the program. Past participants include Heather Booth, founder of the radical Midwest Academy, which teaches the tactics of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky and has been training unions recently on how to hijack the economic crisis to cause more financial chaos.

JFFJ is funded by Soros's Open Society Institute. In 2009, Open Society provided a $150,000 grant to the JFFJ and its associated group, the Funder's Collaborative on Youth Organizing. Last year, Open Society provided a $200,000 grant to last a period of two years.

Accusations that the Occupy movement is anti-Semitic gained traction when videos of anti-Jewish sentiment at nationwide Occupy sites went viral on the Internet and protesters were quoted blaming Jews for corruption on Wall Street. The movement, however, argues this sentiment is fringe and does not represent Occupy ideology.

Just last week, a coalition of 15 progressive Jewish activists, former politicians and union leaders released a statement denouncing opponents of Occupy Wall Street for accusing the movement of anti-Semitism. The letter was signed by Jeremy Ben Ami, founder of the Soros-funded J Street; former SEIU President Andy Stern; and Hadar Susskin, vice president of the Soros-funded Tides Center.

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