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| | Legislative Action Message: July 27, 2010 | |  | | | | | Iran: Help Prevent A WarSee the printer-friendly version of this alert A new House resolution could lead to a U.S. war with Iran--even if the bill never becomes law. Please urge your representative to oppose and denounce this resolution. The resolution, H. Res. 1553, claims to assert Israel's right to defend its sovereignty but actually signals to Israel
that the United States will unconditionally back Israeli "use of military force" against Iran. It's a green light
to war. Similar extreme resolutions have been introduced before, but this one already has the support of a significant
number of representatives-nearly one-third of the Republican caucus. Whatever the conflict between Israel and Iran,
war is not the answer. Why could this resolution lead to war? - If enough members of
Congress cosponsor the resolution, Israel could perceive that it has a "green light" to attack Iran in the months
ahead.
- If Israel attacks Iran, the United States will almost certainly be drawn in, either because Iran retaliates
against U.S. forces in the region, or because the United States feels pressure to help Israel if its assault falls short.
H. Res. 1553 is, in effect, a U.S. declaration of war on Iran. Peace between Iran and the United States
is still possible through peaceful means, and, today, contrary to this bill's premise, Iran does not pose a nuclear threat
to Israel. Another Middle East war would have catastrophic consequences on the people of the region and on U.S. interests.
The Iranian government says that it is not developing nuclear weapons. The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad says that ,even
if Iran is secretly developing such weapons, it will not have a deliverable nuclear weapon for four years. Time is on
the side of a peacefully negotiated outcome.
Take Action
Urge your representative to denounce H. Res. 1553 as a flagrantly irresponsible encouragement of a catastrophic war with Iran. Ask five friends to write as well. Background The operative part of the resolution states Resolved,
That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran
for its threats of `annihilating' the United States and the State of Israel, for its continued support of international terrorism,
and for its incitement of genocide of the Israeli people;
(2) supports using all means of persuading
the Government of Iran to stop building and acquiring nuclear weapons;
(3) reaffirms the United States
bond with Israel and pledges to continue to work with the Government of Israel and the people of Israel to ensure that their
sovereign nation continues to receive critical economic and military assistance, including missile defense capabilities, needed
to address the threat of Iran; and
(4) expresses support for Israel's right to use all means necessary
to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran, defend Israeli sovereignty, and protect the lives and safety of the
Israeli people, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within a reasonable time.
Read
the full bill text. On the 2C blog, FCNL's Jim Fine talks more about how the U.S. could indirectly declare war on Iran. Contacting LegislatorsContact your members of Congress through FCNL's web site. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 Sen. ________
U.S.
Senate Washington, DC 20510 Rep. ________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515 | | | |
2010 Advocacy Conference Report Attendees, click here to give feedback! Return
to conference homepage Church advocates and clergy from around the country gathered in Washington June 13-15 for fellowship,
study, prayer and advocacy on behalf of peace for Israelis and Palestinians. "Pursuing Peace Together: Working for Reconciliation in the Holy Land" was the theme of CMEP's 2010 advocacy conference that sought to build urgent bi-partisan support in Congress for
the President’s efforts to achieve a two-state solution as part of a comprehensive Middle East peace. The
conference was a unique ecumenical gathering of 180 Christians from 18 denominations, including Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant
traditions, committed to a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ensuring security,
human rights and religious freedom for all the people of the region. (CMEP advocates asking questions
during the lobby day prep session where they learned about best practices for holding meetings with Members of Congress and
their staff and a review of CMEP’s talking points and asks of Congress.) During the gathering
and opening worship session on Sunday, June 13, Warren Clark, CMEP Executive Director, issued opening remarks for the prayer
service. Rev. John H. Thomas, past General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ and current Chair of CMEP’s Leadership
Council, provided witness to the Word with an inspiring and heart-felt sermon focusing on the "vocation of prayer"
and the "vocation of attentiveness," reminding all of us of our responsibility to stand courageously with those
who are overlooked or forgotten. During the offering conference attendees articulated what gifts they offer for peacemaking,
including "Diligence in continuing to raise and keep raised my voice of hope." The following
day, Warren Clark offered opening remarks. During the regional perspectives on peace plenary, Brian Katulis from Center for
American Progress, Joel Rubin from National Security Network and Trita Parsi from the National Iranian American Council talked
about important regional dynamics related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the role of key state actors like Iran,
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Qatar. |
Speaking out against anti-Semitism in Edison October 05, 2009, 3:29PM
 Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesBy David Bossman and Paul
Gibbons/ NJ Voices Guest Bloggers During the Jewish High
Holydays a number of anti-Semitic incidents took place in Edison. Whether they
were a planned series or merely coincidental, they should not be happening here, they should not be happening now. We speak
out to condemn such activities and affirm our solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters. We do not want only to deplore
these actions, but also to show why they have no place in our world. They are un-American, unchristian,
unhistorical. We point this out in the slight hope of reaching the small minded bigots but in the much greater hope of alerting
men and women of good will of the necessity of standing against this evil. It
seems to us that anti-Semitism is first of all un-American. Our country is founded on the principle that we are all free to
practice whatever religion we choose, or none at all if that is our preference. The practical outcome of this principle is
that all religions have an equal right to the public square and are to be treated justly. There is nothing American about
anti-Semitism. Secondly anti-Semitism, in spite of its convoluted history, is clearly unchristian.
Jesus Christ was born a Jew to a Jewish mother and foster-father. All of his apostles and many of his disciples were
also Jewish. Jesus himself celebrated the feasts and holydays of his Jewish religion, worshipped and taught in the Temple
in Jerusalem, which he called his Father’s House. Jesus also attended synagogue and listened and read aloud the same
readings from the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings that Jews are reading and listening to today, as in fact are many of
the Christian churches. For a Christian to be anti-Semitic he must first of all hate his own Savior Jesus of Nazareth, as
well as many of Jesus’ disciples. No one who loves Jesus or calls him Savior can be an anti-Semite. No one who hates
Jews can be called a Christian. Thirdly anti-Semitism is unhistorical. As we learn more
about how to understand the Gospels in their own context, a very different picture of Jesus and His time emerges. Based on
the clearer grasp of the historical situation, the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church issued the document Nostra
Aetate which states, “neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time nor Jews today
can be charged with the crimes committed during his passion”. The Romans certainly were part of the story. The Romans
held to themselves the death penalty and it was Pontius Pilate who had inscribed on the cross the political, not religious
(at least to him), charge: Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. The Church also affirms in this same document, with St. Paul,
that the Jews remain very dear to God who will never take back the gifts he bestowed on the Jews or the choices
He made. We thus stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters in denouncing acts of
vandalism and symbols of hatred. It is the least we can do to express our shared beliefs and moral outrage at those who belittle
anyone’s identity or religious faith. David Bossman is executive director of the S. Rose Thering Endowment .
Paul
Gibbons is chairman of the board.
Learning from LunaSep. 3, 2009
RON KRONISH , THE JERUSALEM POST Luna's Life
A Journey of Forgiveness
and Triumph
By Luna Kaufman
Comteq Publishing
326 pp., $19.95 Luna's Life is a poignant memoir of a strong and determined Holocaust survivor who makes remarkably significant
contributions to the Jewish and Christian communities - and to Jewish-Christian dialogue and mutual understanding - in the
postwar period and until this very day. Subtitled "a journey of forgiveness and triumph," this is the story of Luna
Kaufman, who returns to Poland, lives briefly in Israel and then moves to the United States, a story of her zest for life
which is undoubtedly what enabled her to survive the concentration camps. This beautiful book was published in May marking Kaufman's receipt of an honorary
degree at Seton Hall University in New Jersey for her work benefiting the Sister Rose Thering Endowment for Jewish-Christian
Studies at this university. In the preface to the book, Msgr. Robert Sheeran, the president of the university, pays tribute
to Kaufman: "The strength of character that enabled her to survive imprisonment during the darkest time of the 20th century
shines through even today."
About one-third of the book is based on Kaufman's memories of growing
up in Krakow and surviving the war "after being enslaved for four years in the depths of hell called concentration camps."
Her story of how she survived,
with her mother, is rivetingly told from her own point of view, mixed with much passion and even some humor. It is a gripping,
moving, personal story - complete with detailed descriptions of unbelievable cruelty, accompanied by threads of hope amid
terrifying despair. Most of the
book, however, is her post-Holocaust journey, which takes her back to Krakow for five difficult years, then to Israel in the
early 1950s, followed by her marriage and emigration to the US in 1952. The thrust of this book is how this Holocaust survivor remains an eternal optimist
and devotes her life to making the world a better place for all human beings, not just members of her tribe. Rather than remain bitter, Kaufman felt that
her wartime experiences sparked a need to teach tolerance and mutual respect. She places herself among a group of Holocaust
survivors who feel that they must use their lives constructively "as a debt to the non-Jews whose help on our behalf
threatened their own existence and to the liberators who sacrificed their lives to free us."
Indeed
one of the most remarkable aspects of this book - and of Luna's life - is the friendship that she established with Sister
Rose Thering, a Dominican nun, who paved the way in the 1950s and 1960s toward the Roman Catholic Church's formal repudiation
of anti-Semitism and who was instrumental in establishing the teaching of the Holocaust as a permanent feature of Catholic
education in the United States. In addition, Sister Rose was a great lover of Israel. Not only did she create and lead the
National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel for many years, but she brought over 50 groups of Christian leaders from
the US to Israel, to put them in touch directly with the challenges and dilemmas of the Jewish state. I had the privilege of knowing Sister Rose Thering through my work
in Jewish-Christian relations, and I have the pleasure of knowing Luna Kaufman through my work as a Jewish educator at her
synagogue in Plainfield New Jersey in 1972-73, when I was a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion in New York. I was also fortunate to reconnect with her and Sister Rose when they came together on a solidarity mission
from New Jersey at the beginning of the second intifada in October 2000 and again in January 2002, this time with the National
Christian Leadership Conference for Israel, when almost no one was coming. They were full of energy, commitment and hope,
which was infectious to everyone who traveled with them.
Kaufman continues to possess great energy for life, even at 82. She always
looks forward, while maintaining and cherishing her memories of a very difficult past (she lost her sister and father and
many other relatives during the Holocaust). Indeed, in the final chapter of the book, she tells a wonderful story of how she celebrated her bat mitzva at 80, using
a tallit given to her that had belonged to Sister Rose (she had been given this tallit by a synagogue where she once spoke).
Reflecting on the fact that Sister Rose devoted her life to fighting anti-Semitism and this did not make her any less of a
Christian, Kaufman writes: "That is why I decided to reaffirm my Judaism by having my bat mitzva, to prove that working
with the Christian world did not make me any less a Jew. It is my hope to become the Jewish counterpart of Sister Rose, and
that all my grandchildren will become a bar or bat mitzva in this tallit and pledge to perpetuate the values fostered by Sister
Rose." What a remarkable
statement by a loving mother and grandmother, who not only survived the Holocaust, but raised a wonderful family in America
and continues to devote her life to the causes in which she believes deeply.
The writer, a rabbi and educator, serves as
director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel. www.icci.org.il
Americans for Peace in Israel Link
Mid East Summer Peace Opportunities
Churches for Mid-East Peace
Jewish//Muslim Dialogue
Peace Now.org
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A simple idea
turned into a kind of grassroots movement among rabbis as Pope Benedict was about to arrive in Israel. Angelica Berrie, president of the Russell Berrie Foundation of Teaneck,
and I thought it would be appropriate to publish in Ha’aretz a note of welcome to Pope Benedict signed by a few Jewish
leaders. What we uncorked was a flood of support among rabbis and Jewish leadership of all denominations. A few days, emails,
and phone calls later, we had some 200 leaders committed to our letter of welcome. Not one person said no. In this small act, something became unremittingly
clear: This unexpected outpouring testifies to Jewish concern for, and endorsement of, genuine dialogue. And what became
clear during the pope’s first visit to the Holy Land is that he is deeply committed, too. Speaking upon his departure from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport,
the pope said: “We are nourished from the same spiritual roots. We meet as brothers, brothers who at times in our
history have had a tense relationship, but now are firmly committed to building bridges of lasting friendship.” As
for the Holocaust, he was clear: “That appalling chapter of history must never be forgotten or denied. On the contrary,
those dark memories should strengthen our determination to draw closer to one another as branches of the same olive tree...”
I believe Pope Benedict is demonstrating his
interfaith commitment by trying to understand Jews the way Jews understand and recognize themselves, and that is the heart
and soul of interreligious dialogue. In the more than years that I have worked in interfaith dialogue, I have come to believe
that to be truly engaged, each of us must ask ourselves three questions: “How can I be true to my faith without being false to yours?”
“What is the place of the other religions
in our own self-understanding?” “What
are the common moral and ethical elements of our religions?” First, in order to be true to our own faiths and not distort the other, we must find new
terminology. Common words mean very different things in different traditions. Only dialogue can bring about clarification
so that our own and the other’s religion can be accurately described. One must recognize oneself as properly characterized
by the other in the dialogue process. Not simply to see other people as they are, but to try to understand with what eyes
they see you. A process of re-cognition must take place. The second question — “What is the place of other religions in our own self-understanding?” —
requires us to review our theologies and past teachings about the other, and find a proper place for the other. This requires
a renewed effort to accurately educate our own adherents to the values and beliefs of others. Thirdly, we must dialogue to discover the common moral and ethical
elements of our religions, and try to unite on a common objective and universal ethic. This is of the utmost importance,
since we cannot expect religions to agree on fundamental theological issues. There is no doubt that the last 45 years have seen revolutionary changes on the part
of the Catholic Church to begin to view Jews as Jews view themselves. From the 1964 Nostra Aetate to Pope John Paul’s
welcome visit to the synagogue in Rome; from the Vatican-Israel accord to the papal visits to Israel — these are great
efforts to create a totally different atmosphere for Catholic-Jewish relations. This forward momentum has laid a path and
now is the time to truly engage in serious interfaith dialogue by asking and answering these three key questions.
Religions wield great power. They influence
millions of people. Interreligious dialogue has shown it can be a model for real change. In fact, it must be — because
those millions of resources who make up the world’s religions are ultimately the world’s hope for peace.
It’s is a tall order, but as Pope John
Paul II reminded us, “Our heritage tells us that as the Children of Abraham we are to be a blessing for all the earth;
we should begin by being a blessing to one another.” Rabbi Jack Bemporad, the executive director
of Center for Interreligious Understanding (CIU) in New Jersey, is on the faculty of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) Pontifical
University in Rome. A version of this article appeared in “On Faith” the Newsweek/Washington Post online religion
Website. For more information, visit www.faithindialogue.org.
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