TORONTO (JTA) – The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto has dissociated itself from an event at one its beneficiary agencies featuring controversial U.S. playwright Tony Kushner. In a statement last week, the federation said after “thoughtful consideration” it would not support the May event at the Koffler Centre of the Arts because Kushner is a member of the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace, “an organization that supports boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.” Though Kushner “has publicly stated that he does not support the BDS movement, UJA Federation has concerns about [his] association with JVP, and we will not support an event where there is any link to organizations supporting BDS.”

In response, the arts center said it is “very fortunate that Tony Kushner, one of the world’s greatest living playwrights and certainly among the most significant thinkers of our time, has accepted our invitation to visit Toronto for an evening.”

Kushner has said Israel committed “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians during its 1948 War of Independence. In 2010, he supported 60 leading Israeli actors and playwrights who refused to work at a new theater in Ariel, one of Israel’s largest West Bank settlements.