Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on
By January 8, 2014, as Congress approached a vote on whether to threaten even more draconian sanctions against Iran, 121 Jewish clergy (Rabbis, Cantors, Maggidim, Kohanot) -- -- twelve minyanim -- have signed the Rabbinic Statement “Step by Step toward Shalom with Iran.”
Luminaries of the Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and Humanist streams of Judaism have signed. Among them are Rabbis Leonard Beerman, Aryeh Cohen, Amy Eilberg, Sue Levi Elwell, Everett Gendler, Dan Goldblatt, Marc Gopin, David Gordis, Sharon Kleinbaum, Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Mordechai Liebling, Ellen Lippmann, Andrea London, Gerry Serotta, David Shneyer, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Jonathan Slater, Susan Talve, Arthur Waskow, and Sheila Weinberg, Cantor Steven Puzarne, and Rabbi/Kohenet Jill Hammer.
Please see below the full list of signers up to now.
The statement sets forth a balanced path of shalom that protects the peace and security of Israel, the US, and Iran -- and is concerned with both immediate practical steps and the deepest of spiritual hopes.
Why do we think it important for Rabbis, Cantors, etc., to make public a statement along these lines?
For the deep past and the deep future — and for the fierce urgency of Now.
First, for the sake of publicly reaffirming, honoring, and embodying the powerful prophetic and rabbinic voice, now millennia-long, that has called on us all to “seek peace and pursue it.” One of the sacred Names of God is “Shalom.” To advance it is one form of making holy the Name – a nonlethal form of Kiddush HaShem.
Second, because in this moment the rabbinic voice can actually matter in the broader world. There is a real question whether the forward momentum of diplomacy so far can be maintained in the face of hostility from ultranationalist elements in Iran and demands for more draconic sanctions against Iran coming from some elements in Israeli and American politics.
The agreement calls for suspension of Iranian nuclear enrichment and reductions of the enrichment level of some nuclear materials, along with a partial easing of some sanctions. That would seem to be the first step – only the first step, but a necessary one – in seeking shalom and pursuing it for all the parties involved – Israel, Iran, the whole region, and the US.
Security for each people to live under its own vine and fig-tree with none to make them afraid.
As the debate intensifies between worsening threats and calming steps, we think the Rabbinic voice can make a difference.
Step by Step toward Shalom with Iran
As Rabbis, Cantors, and other Clergy serving the American Jewish community, we are deeply committed, as Jewish tradition teaches –
§ to the shalom –- peace, social justice, functioning democratic process, and ecological sanity –of the country where we live – all of which would be damaged by still another unnecessary war;
§ to the shalom, peace and security, of the State of Israel, to its democratic character, and to its special relationship with the Jewish people;
§ to unequivocal action by all the Arab-majority and Muslim-majority states to make peace with Israel, and to Israel’s unequivocal action to make peace with all its neighbors, including an emergent Palestine;
§ to our respect and our prayers for salaam, peace and justice, among our cousins in the Abrahamic tradition, Arab and Muslim civilizations;
§ to the peace and prosperity of all the “70 nations” of the world;
§ and to the healing of our wounded planet.
For all these reasons, we welcome warmly the greatly increased possibility of a peaceful resolution of the conflicts among the US, Iran, Israel, and other nations.
We especially welcome the new attitudes toward the Jewish people and toward the nuclear issue set forth by the new President of Iran, and his assertion that Iran will never hold nuclear weapons. We also recall the fatwa and repeated assertions by Grand Ayatollah Khamenei that for Iran to possess nuclear weapons would violate Islam.
We urge the US and Iran to move swiftly to agree on a step-by-step process of reducing and ultimately ending sanctions against Iran in accord with steps by Iran to make its nuclear research transparent and to allow verification that its research is directed wholly toward civilian uses of nuclear energy. We believe that such a step-by-step process is the best way to guarantee that both parties are fulfilling their commitments.
We urge Iran to make clear its full acceptance of Israel as a legitimate state in the fabric of international relations, protected like all other states from aggression and attack.
We urge the Government of Israel to welcome steps by Iran to make clear and verifiable its commitment to use nuclear energy and research for peaceful purposes only, not for pursuit of nuclear weaponry, and while this process is under way, we urge Israel to end hostile acts and statements toward Iran.
We urge the peoples of the United States, Iran, and Israel to reject and oppose all statements and actions from whatever source that undermine the swift and thorough achievement of agreements to ensure the civilian nature of Iran’s nuclear program and to end sanctions against Iran.
We urge the American people to recognize and do tshuvah (“turning” or “repentance”) for the ethical errors of our own government toward Iran – particularly, the US Government’s intervention in 1953 to overthrow the democratically elected reform government of Iran; US actions to support the tyrannical regime of the Shah until the Iranian people overthrew it in 1979; and US support for Iraq’s wars of aggression against Iran in the 1980s, including US support for Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons to kill 100,000 Iranians.
We urge the Iranian people to do tshuvah for their government’s demonization of the United States and Israel, for its holding US diplomats hostage for more than a year in 1979-1980, and for the support it seems to have covertly given for attacks on Israeli citizens.
We believe that this combination of governmental acts and public rethinking and re-feeling can move American society, the entire Middle East, and the world toward the shalom that Judaism yearns for.
Signed:
To add your name to ours, please click here – <https://theshalomcenter.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=4&reset=1> and be sure to list your prefix-title (Rabbi, Cantor, Hazan, Maggid, Kohenet) with your name and Email.
Shalom,
Initiating Signers:
Rabbi Amy Eilberg
Rabbi Everett Gendler
Rabbi Marc Gopin
Rabbi Dr. David Gordis
Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Rabbi Ellen Lippmann
Rabbi Gerry Serotta
Rabbi David Shneyer
Rabbi Susan Talve
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Rabbi Sheila Weinberg
Rabbi Rebecca Alpert
Rabbi Ethan Bair
Kohenet Ellie Barbarash
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat
Rabbi Benjamin Barnett
Rabbi Eliot Baskin
Rabbi Renee Bauer
Rabbi Dennis Beck-Berman
Rabbi Leonard Beerman
Rabbi Marjorie Berman
Rabbi Phyllis Berman
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner
Rabbi Binyamin Biber
Kohenet Shoshana Bricklin
Rabbi Jason Bright
Rabbi Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus
Rabbi Joshua Chasan
Rabbi Aryeh Cohen
Rabbi Andrea Cohen Kiener
Rabbi Hillel Cohn
Rabbi David J. Cooper
Rabbi Robert Dobrusin
Rabbi Art Donsky
Rabbi Doris Dyen
Rabbi Renee Edelman
Rabbi Diane Elliot
Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell
Kohenet Ahava Lilith EverShine
Rabbi Ted Falcon
Rabbi Charles Feinberg
Rabbi Michael Feinberg
Rabbi Fern Feldman
Rabbi Brian Field
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone
Rabbi Nancy Flam
Rabbi Jeff Foust
Rabbi Ruth Gais
Rabbi Hillel Gamoran
Maggid Andrew Gold
Rabbi Dan Goldblatt
Rabbi Laurie Green
Rabbi Dr. David Gordis
Rabbi Julie Greenberg
Rabbi Moshe Halfon
Rabbi/ Kohenet Jill Hammer
Rabbi Edwin Harris
Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann
Kohenet Judith Hollander
Rabbi Linda Holtzman
Rabbi Shaya Isenberg
Rabbi Burt Jacobson
Rabbi Josh Jacobs-Velde
Kohenet Sharon Jaffe
Rabbi Melissa Klein
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
Rabbi David L Kline
Rabbi Debra Kolodny
Rabbi Douglas Krantz
Rabbi Hannah Laner
Rabbi Daniel Lehrman
Rabbi Jason van Leeuwen
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Kohenet Carly “Ketzirah” Lesser
Rabbi Richard Levy
Rabbi Annie Lewis
Rabbi Andrea London
Cantor Abbe Lyons
Rabbi Jeffrey Marker
Rabbi Nathan Martin
Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon
Maggid Melvin Metelits
Rabbi Yocheved Mintz
Kohenet Tiana Mirapai
Rabbi David Mivasair
Rabbi Lee Moore
Hazan Judith Naimark
Rabbi Laura Owens
Cantor Steven Puzarne
Rabbi Victor Reinstein
Cantor Stephen Richards
Rabbi/ Kohenet Margie Klein Ronkin
Rabbi Moti Rieber
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Cantor Aviva Rosenbloom
Cantor Richard Rosenfield
Rabbi Jeff Roth
Kohenet Mei Mei Sanford
Hazan Pamela Sawyer
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Rabbi Chaim Schneider
Rabbi Randy Schoch
Kohenet Alumah Schuster
Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal
Rabbi Jonathan Slater
Rabbi Eric Solomon
Cantor Robin Sparr
Rabbi David Spitz
Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Rabbi Margot Stein
Rabbi Naomi Steinberg
Rabbi Gershon Steinberg-Caudill
Rabbi Danielle Stillman
Rabbi Alana Suskin
Rabbi Louis Sutker
Rabbi Daniel Swartz
Rabbi Renae Toben
Rabbi Brian Walt
Hazan Gregory Yaroslow
Rabbi Barbara Zacky
Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman
