(JTA) – Deborah Lipstadt, the prominent Holocaust historian, is resigning her membership in her local synagogue because it belongs to a movement that defended an Israeli political deal with the extremist right wing. Lipstadt belonged to Young Israel of Toco Hills in Atlanta, an Orthodox congregation. The broader Young Israel movement, in a statement Feb. 25 to JTA, defended an agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Power, a far-right political party. Critics of the deal note that Jewish Power is led by followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu acted to get right-wing parties to merge in order to meet the threshold necessary to secure a victory in the election,” read the statement by Farley Weiss, president of the National Council of Young Israel. “We understand what Prime Minister Netanyahu did, and he did it to have ministers of the national religious and national union parties in his coalition.”

The rabbi of Lipstadt’s synagogue, Adam Starr, himself condemned the statement in a Facebook post on Feb. 25, writing “Not in my name and not in my shul’s name!” But Lipstadt still felt that she could not continue to be associated with the Young Israel movement, despite having fond words for her synagogue and rabbi. “I cannot be associated with an organization that gives such racism, celebration of violence, and immoral policies a ‘heksher,’” or imprimatur, she wrote in an open letter posted to Facebook Feb. 26. “At this time of rising antisemitism, Jew hatred, and prejudice of all kinds, each of us – and not just our spiritual leaders – must speak out and act individually and collectively. And so I speak out with deep sadness that such a despicable action is given ‘cover’ by people who claim to walk in the ways of the Kadosh Baruch Hu,” a Hebrew term for God.

Lipstadt said she felt a particular urgency to act because her latest book is about present-day anti-Semitism.

“This is a party that has racist views,” she said. “This is a party that condones murder. This is a party that condones the man who committed the largest mass murder in Israel by a Jew. Those are all things that I find despicable, and to say it’s just politics is really bad.”