Jewish community leader Mark Pelavin addressed the vigil on behalf of the North American Union for Reform Judaism.
VOA: standard.2009.08.04
Mr. Yigal, 54, is a quiet African-American from Tennessee who says he converted to Judaism in 2000, adopted an Israeli-sounding name and moved to Binghamton in 2005 to buy an inexpensive house near a synagogue.
Led by the new anti-Israel Jewish lobby J Street, and supported by groups like Americans for Peace Now, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the National Jewish Democratic Council, the American Jewish Left supports the White House's hostile positions on Israel as an ends unto themselves.