Posted on 01/16/2013 4:15:56 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Jewish leaders representing the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist movements are all answering the nation’s call for ideas to end gun violence.
Together, they have held news conferences, written to Vice President Joe Biden’s gun control task force and sent letters to Congress.
On Jan. 15, which would have been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 84th birthday, members of an interfaith alliance known as Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence held a news conference to urge Americans to work together to help curb gun violence.
They called for a ban on assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines as well as improved background screening of gun buyers. They also spoke of a need to improve the way people with mental illnesses are helped.
These ideas were included in their two-page letter to Congress, which urged its members to lead the way toward a safer society that not only protects children in schools against a mass shooter, but also stops individual inner-city gun murders as well.
The letter was signed by 47 religious leaders from numerous faiths including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement, the Rabbinical Assembly, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and Women of Reform Judaism.
Rachel Laser, deputy director of the Religious Action Center, said at Tuesday's news conference that there has been “Enough pain. Enough despair. Enough injustice. Let us learn from our grief and the errors of the past and resolve in this very moment to do better.”
Laser announced that religious leaders throughout the country will mobilize their congregants to join in an Interfaith Call to Prevent Gun Violence on Feb. 4. On that day, Americans will call their Congress member and ask that they be “held accountable for the safety of our communities.”
On Jan. 14, a similar letter was sent to both the president and vice president. It, too, makes an urgent plea to address effectively the subject of gun violence. The letter was spearheaded by the Rabbinical Assembly’s Rabbi Julie Schonfeld and organized by Susan Stern of the Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
“As religious and non-profit leaders, we commit to building consensus and support in our communities for steps that will turn our collective grief into shared hope. We acknowledge that the privilege of American freedom also carries a moral responsibility,” the letter read in part.
Another letter sent to Biden’s task force came from Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox organization in New York.
"Violent incidents that have occurred in school settings during the past numberof years have demonstrated that the need for securiy hardware – cameras, metal detectors, barricades, etc. – is particularly compelling. Unforutnately, despite the need for increased school safely – whether in the realm of disaster preparedness or crisis management – budgets put forward by the Bush and Obama administrations – and passed by various Congresses – have significantly and steadily slashed funding for these purposes – the the point where meaningful federal school safety assistance is virtually non-existent," Agudath's Rabbi Abba Cohen wrote.
Cohen also pointed out the unique threat that Jewish schools face, from outside the school and ouside the community in the form of terrorismand extremism.
It worked out well for them last time. /s
The same Jewish self-haters who voted in Obama are now American self-haters who want to take away American liberties.
I am not an anti-semite. Anything but, but these religious people should mind their religion and Shut up about taking away America’s rights.In the long run they would come out ahead.
“Cohen also pointed out the unique threat that Jewish schools face, from outside the school and ouside the community in the form of terrorism and extremism.”
So the idiot understands the threat, yet he wants to respond with cameras and barriers?
He needs to take a trip to Israel and note that the barriers and cameras are paired with weapons in proficient hands.
A camera without a gun only gives you more time to contemplate your impending doom.
Very hard.
God help these Jews that have such ‘leaders’.
Kapo mentality.
“The letter was signed by 47 religious leaders from numerous faiths including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement, the Rabbinical Assembly, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and Women of Reform Judaism.”
So six of the 47 letter signers were Jewish. Never heard of them nor have no idea of how many members they represent or whether these “members” voted on anything. Just another dog and pony show. Recall the press conference pre passage of Obamacare where a few dozen doctors in white coats provided another dog and pony show at one of Obama’s press conferences? All pre arranged propaganda brought to you by the ministry of truth and their criminal front groups.
Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement, the Rabbinical Assembly, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and Women of Reform
ALL of these are so far left they walk sideways.
As for Agudah, they said nothing about gun control, but they don’t sit high on my respect list either. At any rate, it looks as though they threw the Orthodox in there to make it seem as if they were in agreement with their not so well loved jinos. The truth is Agudah forbids their members to join with any of them in any forum or coalition for any reason whatsoever.
“commonly known as Haredim or “ultra-Orthodox” Jews representing Torah Judaism in North America. Not all Hasidic Jewish groups are affiliated with Agudath Israel. For example, the Hasidic group Satmar dislikes Agudah’s relatively moderate stance towards the State of Israel.”
The ultra orthodox are just as bad in their way as the ultra left is in its way. Patriarchal and extremely restrictive.
What idiots! Some people just never get it. How meekly they were destroyed by a tyrant.
No one? You need to get out more.
Well no, not only that. It also gives archeologists documentary evidence of your stupidity.
When the end comes to their doors, the cry will go out, “O Lord, how could you let this happen once again?”
A heavenly voice will reply, “But this is just what you voted for-—TWICE!!”
Meanwhile, “some of us” have revived an old saying, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”
There are no orthodox groups mentioned, though the JTA misleadingly claims so.
....“All schools face internal threats from the school or from the local community,” states Rabbi Cohen, “but certain schools face threats from the outside as well — from racists and other extremists bent on death and destruction.” To these schools the potential for violence is a constant reality and they must always be on high alert.
Agudath Israel’s message to the Vice President is that the source of the threat is irrelevant — it makes no difference whether the threat is internal or external, whether it is the random act of the mentally disturbed or the deliberate act of a religious or political fanatic. All children must be protected from all threats...
Useful idiots?
WWII wasn’t even that long ago on the history timeline.
Whoaa! Not so fast! Note that the Orthodox spokesman, however, recommends increased surveillance (cameras) and other security measures; but he did not jump on the frenzied gun-control bandwagon.
Nonetheless, I am constantly amazed by the attitudes of the majority of Jews in this country. The original Jewish tradition and religion is wonderful: it is the root of Christianity, and has given Islam its best features.
The scholarly tradition of Judaism is unsurpassed in its accomplishments. The conservative movement in America is strongly influenced by Jews among its best thinkers: Milton Friedman, Frank Meyer, and many others — and the whole Austrian School of economics (Menger, Hayek, von Mises). And Mark Levin and Dennis Prager!
And yet Jews (who are the one ethnic group strongly overrepresented in the U. S. Senate) have only representation as Democrats in the Senate. In the House, only about one of the Jewish representatives is a Republican, and he was not from a strongly Jewish district. 78% of the Jewish vote went to 0bama in the last election, in spite of the administration’s obviously hostile attitude toward Israel. What were they thinking? Only African-Americans have a stronger tendency to vote as an unreasoning ethnic block.
Many Jews are descendants of immigrants who came to America to escape political persecution. They profess to love America, and yet have contributed a majority of the members of the CPUSA, and have staffed and funded most of the radical organizations in the country. They have supported disproportionately almost every movement which tends to undermine American culture and values, most notably Alinskyism, the ACLU, modern-day feminism, and abortion and the culture of death.
Italians brought us pizza; Germans brought us good beer; and the Jews (especially those from Russia) brought us socialism.
Dennis Prager has said that no group has as many self-haters as the Jews. As he also puts it, no other ethnic group has so many members who hate everything for which their own tradition stands. Why? Are Jews simply a suicidal group? They seem to act that way, and it’s very sad.
But, but, it’s no wonder no one likes us. Isn’t it?
All other violence is fine.
If you read accounts from the ghettos, many Jewish leaders were opposed to using guns against the Nazis for fear of reprisals. That was before they were all sent to the camps and killed.
That Agudath orthodox spokesman did not speak at all in connection with the leftist groups mentioned, nor did he call for any kind of gun bans. Falsehood by the JTA.
BTW, there would probably be no effective post-WWII American conservatism without Jewish intellectuals that gathered around Catholic William F. Buckley in the ‘50s.
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