Jews organize to end arms, poverty, death penalty

Friday, July 21, 2000 | by

SHARON SAMBER

Nearly 100 Jews from across the country were expected to attend the "Fast for Peace and Justice" on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol yesterday.

Participants were slated to lobby members of Congress later in the day to urge them to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to sign a federal living-wage law and to implement a federal moratorium on the death penalty.

Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) was scheduled to speak at the event.

The Jewish Peace Fellowship, one of the organizers of the event, chose July 20 as the day for the fast because it corresponds with the Jewish practice of fast on the 17th day of Tammuz, which commemorates when the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.

David Shneyer, director of Am Kolel, a Judaic resource and renewal center in the Washington area, said fasting demonstrates the seriousness of the issues.

Ken Giles, a member of the Jewish Peace Fellowship's executive committee, said it is important to let Congress and the non-Jewish community know that these matters have widespread support in the Jewish community.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism endorsed the event.

But Shneyer said it is difficult to get synagogues involved in these issues because the leadership is not seriously committed to raising consciousness among its members.

Am Kolel recently received a $20,000 grant from the United Jewish Endowment Fund to help develop social action programs in synagogues and temples.

"There is a commitment to community service, but political action is not that strong," Shneyer said. "Hopefully that can change."

Thursday's event is part of the 40-day "People's Campaign for Nonviolence" sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a national interfaith organization.

The campaign ends, coincidentally, on Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of Av, when fasting and mourning commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples.

This year, Tisha B'Av begins at sundown Aug. 9.

For more JTA stories, go to http://www.jta.org