Forward Interviews Kurtz on J Street’s Handling of Sexual Misconduct Claims
Daniel Kurtz, Chair of Pryor Cashman’s Nonprofit + Tax-Exempt Organizations Group, spoke with Forward for a recent article examining J Street’s handling of sexual misconduct claims lodged against prominent Israeli author Ari Shavit.
The claims were brought by a staff member of J Street – a nonprofit pro-Israel advocacy group – who informed her supervisor that in 2014 Shavit behaved inappropriately towards her at a conference sponsored by the organization. In response, J Street decided it would no longer invite Shavit to lecture at its events and extended its sexual harassment policy to include event speakers.
Notwithstanding these measures, J Street received harsh criticism from other Jewish groups who claimed that it acted irresponsibly by not warning others about Shavit’s behavior.
Still, spreading the word of its decision to bar Shavit from future speaking engagements could have exposed J Street to potential legal consequences, as Kurtz explained to Forward: “I’m not saying they couldn’t have conveyed that information, but I think you would want to be very careful about doing it. Unless you’ve really got him dead to rights, I think you would be taking a risk.”
To read the full article, please visit here.
