Rabbis for Human Rights/ North America, 1/28/2005

Dear friends,

The letter below has gone out to American rabbis from Rabbis for Human Rights/ North America. It seeks signatures from rabbis and from social-justice-committed Jews in general, as well.

We at The Shalom Center helped get this letter going, strongly support it, and encourage Jews, whether rabbis or not, to sign it.

Of course, you don't have to be Jewish to love social justice, or condemn torture. The teachings in the letter may also be useful to those of all religious, spiritual, and ethical communities. We encourage ALL our readers to draw on it for their own letters to Senators or to the public press.

Please note that the RHR letter ask for donations to RHR to support their work against torture. The conventional wisdom is that one social-justice outfit never asks people to give money to another one. It is true that for us at The Shalom Center to carry on our own work against torture, our own work to help create the "Tent of Abraham, Hagar & Sarah" that brings together Jews, Christians, & Muslims, our own work toward the remarkable confluence of next fall when Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Gandhi's birthday, and Francis of Assisi's saint's day all come together — OUR OWN WORK AS GADFLY TO GET OTHERS MOVING — we need your gifts. (See the donations button right nearby.)

But we have always swum upstream against the conventional wisdom, and we encourage you to give BOTH to RHR and to The Shalom Center.

RHR's letter follows.

Shalom,
Arthur
(Rabbi Arthur Waskow)

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to sign our Rabbinic letter on torture, the centerpiece of our recently launched North American Human Rights initiative. The text of the letter is attached and in the body of the email below.

We have just sent a copy this letter to all the members of the Senate in the name of Rabbis for Human Rights. In the letter to the Senators we added a paragraph calling on them to reject the nomination of Alberto Gonzales given the way he evaded questions and refused to repudiate the use of torture at his hearing. Unless he commits himself to appoint an independent special counsel to investigate the development and implementation of U.S. interrogation and torture policies and to fully release all torture related documents, we urge the Senate to reject his nomination.

The rabbinic letter that we are asking you to sign is a rabbinic statement against the use of torture that will be used for education and advocacy a part of a longer-term campaign against torture. The rabbinic statement does not refer to the Gonzales nomination at all.

Our letter is the first ever inter-denominational rabbinic statement on the issue. [Not quite. The letter from 21 Philadelphia-area rabbis to Sen. Arlen Specter, initiated by The Shalom Center, was the first. — AW] It is our hope that we will get a few hundred rabbis from all the movements to sign this statement and also over the next few months invite Jews (hopefully a few thousand) to sign as well.

In terms of education, the text of the letter, along with other material that we hope to develop, will be used to generate moral discussion and debate in synagogues, Hillels, Federations, community relations councils, Jewish community centers and other communal institutions.

The letter would also be used as part of an advocacy campaign for a ban by the United States government on the use of torture. We plan to organize meetings by local groups of rabbis with their senators on the issue and to join with other religious groups and human rights groups that are working towards the repudiation of the use of torture by the United State government.

You can help with this campaign in any one of the following ways:

1. Most importantly, please read the letter (which is attached and printed in email text below) and then sign on by copying the form at the end of thi letter and mailing it to office@rhr-na.org or to brianwalt@rhr-na.org Please send this email to any rabbinic colleagues who you think would be interested in participating.

2. Please indicate if you are prepared to participate in a rabbinic delegation in your local area to meet with your Senator.

3. Please indicate if you have any resources on this issue that may be helpful to rabbinic colleagues or if you able to do some research and writing of materials on the issue.

4. Lastly we need funding for the project. Do you know someone who would be interested in funding this particular project? Would you commit some tsedakah for this project?

If you can do any one of the above, it will be a big help. If we get funding, we will create a brochure on Judaism and Torture that could be made available in synagogues. We also hope we will create a longer rabbinic resource on texts that relate to the issue.

This is only the first North American human rights issue that we will address. We are considering also addressing the issue of the rights of immigrants and the rights of children. At this point in time, we barely have enough resources to deal with this one issue along with all the work we do to support the work of RHR in Israel. Hopefully we will be successful in generating grants and donations to expand our staff. Any help that you can offer in this regard would be deeply appreciated.

If you wish to see more information about a campaign against torture, I recommend you look at the website of Human Rights First or Human Right Watch which are two of the human rights organizations doing work on thi issue.

Thanks so much for joining together in creating a rabbinic voice that will speak to issues of human rights in the United States as well as Israel.

Rav Todot,

Gerry Serotta Chair,
Rabbis for Human Rights North America

Brian Walt Executive Director,
Rabbis for Human Rights North America

Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, N.Y.
Rabbi Simkha Weintraub N.Y
Rabbi Alana Suskin, Washington D.C.
Rabbi Edward Feld, MA
Rabbi Roberto Graetz, CA
Rabbi Joyce Galaski, CA.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, PA
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, PA.

RABBINIC LETTER ON TORTURE

January 26, 2005 Shevat 16, 5765

Dear President Bush and Members of Congress:

On behalf of Rabbis for Human Rights North America, we write out of a deep sense of concern about the erosion of Americas longstanding commitment that torture is absolutely reprehensible.

All of us have been shocked by the published pictures of the behavior of some American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. We applaud the fact that thi administration is prosecuting some of the worst offenders there as well a several soldiers who were responsible for the deaths of Afghani prisoner under their protection in that other theater of war.

What is most disturbing, though, is that the documents that have been made public as these cases move forward demonstrate that the use of torture ha been approved at the highest levels of the Administration, that commander in the field have permitted much of this behavior, that directives from the Department of Defense appear to advocate the use of torture, and that even today the position of the Administration is that the members of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are not covered by the provisions of the Geneva Convention. Recent reports from the Red Cross and from FBI agents, for example, raise new concerns about American treatment of detainees at Guantanamo.

We are not addressing the technical legal arguments that characterize thi discussion. Rather, we want to express our moral concerns about the human situation concerns that stem from the heart of Americas values, the essence of democracy, and the soul of Jewish tradition.

We understand that the most fundamental ethical principle, which result from our belief in God as Creator of the world and Parent of all humanity, is that every human being is seen as reflecting the Image of God. Torture shatters and defiles Gods Image. The purpose of torture is to remove a persons pride, humiliate them, or make their lives so painful that they say or do whatever the interrogator wants. Torture works by attempting to deprive a human being of will, spirit, and personal dignity. The humanity of the perpetrators is inevitably compromised by the use of torture.

Jewish tradition calls for humane treatment even of ones adversaries. In the Book of Exodus (23:4), the Bible teaches, When you encounter an enemy ox or donkey, you must take it back to him. Here the religious test is, strikingly, not how one would treat a friend, but how one relates to one enemy.

Classical Rabbinic texts are rigorous in prohibiting acts of humiliation. In Jewish tort law, an additional penalty is assessed against one who ha physically injured another person when it is found that the victim also suffered, humiliation (boshet), while being wounded. Even verbal humiliation is said to be the equivalent of shedding blood. We are particularly appalled by the infliction of sexual humiliation on prisoner under United States custody. Jewish tradition upholds a high standard of personal modesty. Indeed the Bibles term for prohibited sexual behavior i to uncover the nakedness of another. However, even non-sexual acts that overpower a person and attempt to break their will and diminish their dignity are acts of humiliation that Jewish tradition abhors. It i significant that nowhere in the 3000-year long corpus of Jewish law is there any allowance for acts of physical coercion in interrogations.

Consider the ruling of the Supreme Court of Israel, which outlawed the use of torture in interrogations, despite the fact that terrorist organization have Israels annihilation as their expressed goal, carry out attacks that murder scores of men, women, and children, and do not distinguish between civilian and military targets. Despite this constant reality of cruelty and merciless savagery, the Supreme Court of Israel found no reason why tactic other than face-to-face interrogation should be allowed against any prisoner. After the fact, if/when an interrogator is charged with a violation, he is permitted to raise a defense of necessity i.e., hi actions were necessary to prevent an imminent attack endangering human life; but no permission is given before the fact, even in a country facing life-threatening terror.

At the conclusion of their decision, the Israeli jurists acknowledge that forswearing inhumane means such as torture, even for honorable ends, is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it, and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless ha the upper hand. Preserving the rule of law and recognition of an individual s liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day, they strengthen its spirit and it strength and allow it to overcome its difficulties.

We therefore plead, first of all, that the United States of America and all members of this Administration adopt a policy which states in unequivocal terms that the use of any tactics of physical abuse, the deprivation of food, water, sleep, disorientation, or purposive humiliation of a prisoner is prohibited. This must be a basic understanding for the treatment of any captive, whether or not he or she originates from a country or belongs to a group that is a signatory to the Geneva conventions.

Secondly, we note that in the trial of Specialist Charles A. Graner, Jr., his defense lawyers have argued that he was simply following the lessons he had learned in civilian life as a prison guard. It is shocking to think that the prelude to Abu Ghraib may have been the treatment of our people in our own prisons. The demonstration of the administrations commitment to human dignity must begin at home, to insure that the same principles of human dignity we are urging the administration to adopt regarding foreign captives be equally applied to American prison inmates. Otherwise, we become what we claim to abhor.

As Jewish leaders representing all the movements of our Jewish community, in consonance with world consensus and with the teachings of Jewish tradition in every age, we call for complete repudiation and prohibition of torture for any purpose, in any instance. Furthermore we call for full investigation of all allegations of torture committed in settings under United States control and for proper legal sanctions to be applied against individuals who are found to have committed acts of torture.

We call on you as leaders of our country to ensure that the United State ban the use of torture in any and every setting under United State jurisdiction.

We look forward to hearing your views on this question and hope that you will provide much needed moral leadership for our nation.

With blessings of Shalom,

Rabbi Gerry Serotta
Chair

Rabbi Brian Walt
Executive Director

Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, N.Y.
Rabbi Simkha Weintraub N.Y
Rabbi Alana Suskin, Washington D.C.
Rabbi Edward Feld, MA
Rabbi Roberto Graetz, CA
Rabbi Joyce Galaski, CA.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, PA
Rabbi Arthur Waskow,

RESPONSE FORM FOR RABBINIC LETTER ON TORTURE

____ Yes, I want to join rabbinic colleagues nationwide as a signatory to
the Rabbinic Letter on Torture

NAME: (as you want it to appear on the letter)

INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION (for identification purposes only)

ADDRESS

PHONE:

Work ___________________ Home _______________________________

_______ I am willing to participate in a rabbinic delegation to meet with
the Senators of my state.

_______ I have resources that I am willing to share or am willing to work
on developing materials on this issue.
Funding: I will contribute ______ for this project.

________I can suggest some donors and/or could raise some money myself for
the North American Human Rights Initiative

Please mail this form to office@rhr-na.org or to brianwalt@rhr-na.org

Rabbi Brian Walt
Executive Director
Rabbis for Human Rights North America
Box 1539
West Tisbury, MA. 02575
Phone: (508)696-1880
Fax:(508)696-8048RABBINIC LETTER ON TORTURE

RESPONSE FORM FOR RABBINIC LETTER ON TORTURE

____ Yes, I want to join rabbinic colleagues nationwide as a signatory to
the Rabbinic Letter on Torture

NAME: (as you want it to appear on the letter)

INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION (for identification purposes only)

ADDRESS:

PHONE:

Work ___________________ Home _______________________________

_______ I am willing to participate in a rabbinic delegation to meet with
the Senators of my state.

_______ I have resources that I am willing to share or am willing to work
on developing materials on this issue.

Funding: I will contribute ______ for this project.

________I can suggest some donors and/or could raise some money myself for
the North American Human Rights Initiative

Please mail this form to office@rhr-na.org or to brianwalt@rhr-na.org

Rabbi Brian Walt
Executive Director
Rabbis for Human Rights North America
Box 1539
West Tisbury, MA. 02575
Phone: (508)696-1880
Fax:(508)696-8048

RESPONSE FORM FOR RABBINIC LETTER ON TORTURE

____ Yes, I want to join rabbinic colleagues nationwide as a signatory to
the Rabbinic Letter on Torture

NAME: (as you want it to appear on the letter)

INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION (for identification purposes only)

ADDRESS:

PHONE:

Work ___________________ Home _______________________________

_______ I am willing to participate in a rabbinic delegation to meet with
the Senators of my state.

_______ I have resources that I am willing to share or am willing to work
on developing materials on this issue.

Funding: I will contribute ______ for this project.

________I can suggest some donors and/or could raise some money myself for
the North American Human Rights Initiative

Please mail this form to office@rhr-na.org or to brianwalt@rhr-na.org

Rabbi Brian Walt
Executive Director
Rabbis for Human Rights North America
Box 1539
West Tisbury, MA. 02575
Phone: (508)696-1880
Fax:(508)696-8048