[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 6 (Friday, January 10, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E43-E44]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      RABBINIC STATEMENT: ``STEP BY STEP TOWARD SHALOM WITH IRAN''

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 10, 2014

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight a Rabbinic 
Statement, ``Step by Step toward Shalom with Iran.''
  Signed by 120 Rabbis, including my own Rabbi, Andrea London of Beth 
Emet Synagogue in Evanston, IL, the statement opposes any actions that 
would undermine ongoing negotiations, emphasizes the importance of 
peaceful conflict resolution, and welcomes the possibility of 
negotiations with Iran.
  As we continue to work to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear 
weapons, I believe that the Rabbinic Statement offers an important 
perspective.

      Rabbinic Statement: ``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 U.S., 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 
     Government's intervention in 1953 to overthrow the 
     democratically elected reform government of Iran; U.S. 
     actions to support the tyrannical regime of the Shah until 
     the Iranian people overthrew it in 1979; and U.S. support for 
     Iraq's wars of aggression against Iran in the 1980s, 
     including U.S. support for Saddam Hussein's use of chemical 
     weapons to kill 100,000 Iranians.

[[Page E44]]

       We urge the Iranian people to do tshuvah for their 
     government's demonization of the United States and Israel, 
     for its holding U.S. 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:
       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 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 Julie Saxe-Taller, 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, Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, Hazan 
     Gregory Yaroslow, Rabbi Barbara Zacky, Rabbi Laurie 
     Zimmerman.

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