FEATURED JOBS
From the piece “End Death Penalty” we learn that “Jewish tradition for the past 1,700 years has strongly and unequivocally opposed” the death penalty.
I am far from an expert on Judaism, but my memory goes back to the arrest and trial of Eichman in the early 1960s. What sentence did he receive from an Israeli tribunal? Death by hanging, a sentence promptly carried out.
Do the writers condemn this sentence? Presumably they must, for if not they would be acknowledging that the death penalty is not universally wrong — and Jewish tradition has not unequivocally or consistently opposed it — but its use is dependent upon the nature of the crime committed.
Gerald Langbaum
Baltimore
