We, the undersigned Rabbis across denominations, express our opposition to the use of the death penalty in America. As Jews and citizens, we believe that governments must protect the dignity and rights of every human being. By using the death penalty, our country fails to live up to this basic requirement. Too often, the wrong…
The death penalty for murder in a terror act that incoming Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman seeks will only apply to military courts, said a Likud source involved in the talks to bring Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party into the governing coalition. Such a move, which Lieberman demands if his party is to join the government, would…
Israel’s Knesset voted down a bill that would allow judges to more easily sentence a terrorist to death. By a vote of 94-6, the bill was rejected in its first reading on Wednesday. The six votes came from members of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, which proposed the measure, The Jerusalem Post reported. In the March…
Remember the name Bezalel Smotrich. Yes, the same far-right activist who was once reportedly held by the Shin Bet on suspicion of endangering human life, malicious damage, membership in a banned organization and sedition. The same Smotrich who once organized the “march of beasts,” parading donkeys through Jerusalem streets to protest Gay Pride parades, and…
The ruins of a gas chamber at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp / Getty Images Lying at the heart of every political position I hold is an undying faith in human fallibility. Not only might we get things wrong, we will get things wrong – just as we got things wrong last week and last…
According to Amnesty International, the United States ranked fifth in the world in the number of its citizens who were executed in 2010. And what company we keep! China, Iran, North Korea and Yemen bested us in this dubious competition, but at least we beat out Saudi Arabia. How’s that for American exceptionalism? Ever since…
The execution by lethal injection late last night of Troy Davis, a Georgia death row inmate convicted of the killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989, gained the attention of many in the U.S. and throughout the world. Among those protesting the impending execution earlier this week were a number of celebrities, including Jewish…
The heads of seven major Orthodox organizations wrote a joint letter to Florida Governor Charlie Crist on February 9, asking for clemency for a Jewish man, Martin Grossman, 45, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection next Tuesday, February 16, at 6:00 p.m. Separately, some 200 Jewish and non-Jewish organizations appealed to Crist on…
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