Comments (0)Obama to Speak at G.A.
October 29, 2009Washington
JTA Wire Service
President Obama will address next month’s General Assembly of UJC/Jewish Federations of North America.
The speech, set to take place Nov. 9, will be his first as U.S. president to a broad Jewish audience. Some Israeli figures and some leaders of the organized Jewish community have complained that Obama has not done enough to explain his positions on Middle East peacemaking.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also will announce this weekend that he is attending in person, sources said.
Drop Holocaust references in Public Debate, Religious Leaders Urge
A group of prominent religious leaders called for an end to the use of “inappropriate Nazi and Holocaust references” in public debate.
In an open letter to religious leaders, politicians, pundits and the public, the group wrote that it has seen “an alarming number of public figures use the Nazis and the Holocaust as metaphors in public debate on issues critical to this country,” listing a number of recent examples.
“The Nazi regime that perpetrated this mass genocide was one of the most horrific in world history,” says the letter, organized by the Interfaith Alliance and signed by Jewish, Christian and Muslim clergy and faith leaders. “There is no place in civil debate for the use of these types of metaphors. Perpetrators of such language harm rather than help both the integrity of the democratic process and the credibility of religious commentary.”
The letter also asks that those involved in public debate to generally “help restore civility to our national dialogue.”
Among the 15 signatories are Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Rabbi Jack Moline of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Va.; Rabbi David Gelfand of Temple Israel of the City of New York; Imam Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society Freedom; and Sayyid Syeed of the Islamic Society of North America.
Agudath Israel Backs Hate Crimes Bill
An Orthodox Jewish group has come out in support of federal hate crimes legislation.
Agudath Israel of America announced Wednesday that it would support a bill expanding federal involvement in investigating hate crimes as well as the federal definition of such crimes to include those motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.
Conservative Christian groups have opposed the legislation because—contrary to the assertions of supporters—they claim the bill would allow prosecutions of those who hold or express religious beliefs opposing homosexuality. But in a statement, Agudah said the legislation “goes far in alleviating these concerns.”
Agudah said provisions in the legislation preserve “a religious adherent’s constitutional right to the free exercise of religion and makes clear that the legislation cannot be construed to infringe, prohibit, diminish or burden that right,” including a section stating that “no one can be prosecuted solely because he or she maintains a certain religious belief or identifies with a certain religious denomination.”
Agudah also noted that the legislation could help in cases of concern to the Jewish community. For instance, limitations in the law that impeded the federal prosecution of Lemrick Nelson for the stabbing of Yankel Rosenbaum in the 1991 Crown Heights riots would be eased.
The legislation is awaiting action in the U.S. Senate; it passed the House of Representatives earlier this month. President Obama has said he would sign the measure.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.