January 21, 2022

The Central Conference of American Rabbis demands that the United States Senate move expeditiously to a vote to confirm Dr. Deborah Lipstadt as U.S. Ambassador for Global Antisemitism.

Antisemitism has been dramatically on the rise, in the U.S. and around the world, since 2017. Just days ago, antisemitism hit home hard in our own community, when a gunman took our CCAR colleague, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, and three of his congregants hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. As Rabbi Cytron-Walker has told the world: The terrorist acted on the antisemitic falsehood, shared by extremists right and left, that Jews possess outsized power in America and worldwide.

President Biden could have chosen no more qualified nominee for this ambassadorship than Dr. Lipstadt, a world-renowned expert on antisemitism and Holocaust denial. Reform rabbis are appalled that partisanship has led Senate Republicans to refuse even to permit a hearing on Dr. Lipstadt’s confirmation. The CCAR urges Sen. James Risch to agree to proceed with hearings—or, failing that, we urge Senate Democrats to exercise the power of their narrow majority—to move toward Dr. Lipstadt’s confirmation.

The eyes of the American Jewish community and the world are on the United States Senate. We hope that the Senate will take the scourge of antisemitism as seriously as we do.

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass
President

Rabbi Hara E. Person
Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

January 16, 2022

The Central Conference of American Rabbis is grateful for the safe release of our colleague, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, and three congregants who had been taken hostage during Shabbat morning services at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. Throughout Shabbat and into Saturday night, Reform rabbis, the communities we serve, and our partners and friends watched in horror and gathered in prayer. We are grateful that our prayers have been answered.

The CCAR expresses thanks to the FBI and all law enforcement officials who worked diligently and successfully to secure the release of Rabbi Cytron-Walker and his congregants. Reform rabbis value our partnership with the Union for Reform Judaism, ADL, Secure Communities Network, and all in our North American Jewish community who joined together in response on Shabbat afternoon and Saturday night. We are grateful, too, to good people of all faiths—across Texas, throughout North America, and around the world—who joined us in prayer for the wellbeing of our dear colleague and his community.

The CCAR pledges its ongoing support to Rabbi Cytron-Walker, to his wife and children, as well as their families, and to their congregational community as they seek healing in the aftermath of this most frightful of days.

“Give thanks to Adonai, for God is Good. God’s loving kindness is everlasting” (Psalms 107:1).

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass
President

Rabbi Hara E. Person
Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

November 4, 2021

The Central Conference of American Rabbis is dismayed by antisemitic incidents that have stricken Austin and San Antonio within the last two weeks. Reform rabbis were appalled by actions such as Holocaust deniers touting their lies outside the San Antonio Jewish Community Campus while a Holocaust symposium was taking place inside. The antisemitic outbreaks in these cities turned violent on Sunday, when an arsonist struck Congregation Beth Israel in Austin, a Reform synagogue served by CCAR members. We are only grateful that nobody was physically injured this time.

Antisemitism has reared its ugly head increasingly in recent years. In addition to the horrifying events in Texas, earlier this week at a fraternity at George Washington University, a Torah was desecrated and thrown on the ground. We risk becoming inured to these heinous events, and we note that the national press has largely ignored this unacceptable situation in South-Central Texas. Reform rabbis stand in solidarity with our CCAR colleagues in Austin and San Antonio, with the communities they serve, and with the broader Jewish communities there. We commend our colleagues for their appropriate response to each incident. We are grateful for cooperation exhibited across the Jewish communities in both cities and by the support those communities received from interfaith partners and local governments. The CCAR lauds the critical work of the Anti-Defamation League in response to these and other antisemitic outbreaks, and we praise the partnership between ADL and our Union for Reform Judaism.

Antisemitism should have no place in this world. The CCAR and its members will continue to raise our voices in opposition to white supremacy and antisemitism wherever they are found.

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass
President

Rabbi Hara E. Person
Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

October 8, 2021  

The Reform Jewish Movement is appalled by the brutal assault on innocent Palestinians in and around their homes in Khirbet al-Mufkara, in the South Hebron Hills on September 29, 2021.    

The horrific attack by dozens of masked West Bank settlers threatened Palestinians’ lives and vandalized their property. The assailants wounded six innocent people, including a three-year-old child, whom they continued to attack while the child was inside the ambulance en route to the hospital. As rabbis, cantors, and Jewish leaders, we are deeply troubled not only by the fact of this attack itself but also that it took place on Simchat Torah when Jews around the world celebrate not only the renewal of the Torah cycle but also recognize that each of us is created in the image of the Divine (Genesis 1:27).   

​We commend Israeli Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid for issuing the following condemnation on the day of the attack: “This incident is horrific, and it is terror. This isn’t the Israeli way, and it isn’t the Jewish way. This is a violent and dangerous fringe, and we have a responsibility to bring them to justice, yet we know that this is not the first of such attacks, and we are deeply troubled by the increasing severity and frequency of such attacks.”  

However, the IDF is the ruling security authority in the West Bank, and this is not the first of such attacks—none of which resulted in arrests or indictments. We expect the new Israeli government and Defense minister Benny Gantz, as well as Internal Security Minister Omer Bar Lev, to thoroughly investigate the chain of events that led to the attack and its escalation, and to find all of those responsible for the attack.  

The attack is a clear distortion of our Jewish religious and Zionist values, and anything less than its full condemnation is unacceptable. We demand that the Israeli government invest all necessary resources to prevent such horrendous attacks in the future and protect the lives of innocent civilians on all sides.  

We share the words of Moses in the book of Numbers, as we pray for the healing and well-being of those injured innocent human beings.   

אֵ֕ל נָ֛א רְפָ֥א נָ֖א לָהֶםּ׃   
 “O God, pray heal them!”  

We hope and pray that Israel can live up to its highest values and, to the fullest extent of Israeli law, move forward with the prosecution of the assailants and to bring them to justice.  

Union for Reform Judaism
Jennifer Brodkey Kaufman, Chair
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President 

Central Conference of American Rabbis
Rabbi Lewis Kamrass, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive 

American Conference of Cantors
Cantor Claire Franco, President
Rachel Roth, Chief Operating Officer 

September 24, 2021

The Central Conference of American Rabbis is appalled by the hasty deportation of some 1,400 Haitian migrants and asylum seekers. Many of these people left Haiti in the wake of the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, finding homes and work in Central and South America, before walking across Mexico in the hope of finding greater opportunity in the United States. Now, without due process, they have been deported to a country they barely know, and which is in no condition to receive them, following recent political turmoil and yet another deadly earthquake, followed by a devastating tropical storm.

We are horrified, too, by scenes of United States mounted immigration officers, apparently using their horses’ bodies and their reins as whips to force Haitian migrants and asylum seekers across the Rio Grande River into Mexico.

As we celebrate in our Sukkot this week, our attention is drawn to the fragility that characterizes the homes and lives of far too much of the human family. From its beginnings, Haiti has known a disproportionate share of that fragility. Forcibly returning migrants and asylum seekers to Haiti is a cruel and unconscionable act by the Biden Administration, particularly absent any determination that the deportees pose any danger to the United States.

Because of the pandemic, the walls of many of our Sukkot this year are more open than usual, reminding us of the tent of Abraham and Sarah, which, according to our Sages, was open on all four sides, ever ready to receive guests.[i] The North American Jews among us are grateful that the “tents” of the United States and Canada were open when generations of Jews before us sought refuge and opportunity here. We seek the same for Haitians and others who want nothing more than our own immigrant forbears.

The CCAR demands that President Biden and his Administration immediately stop deporting Haitian migrants and asylum seekers without due process. We further call for a full investigation of the actions of mounted border police, followed by discipline of wrongdoers and prosecution of those who broke the law while purporting to enforce it.

America must live up to the promise engraved on the Statue of Liberty, inviting the world to “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.”[ii]

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass
President

Rabbi Hara E. Person
Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

[i] Genesis Rabbah 48.

[ii] Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis strongly supports H.R. 5323, legislation to fully fund replenishment of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

The Iron Dome is a miracle of technology. Developed by Israel’s defense industry, it has served as an essential component of security when the Jewish State has been under missile attack, primarily and most recently by Hamas, the ruling terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. The Iron Dome has saved countless lives-of Jews, Palestinians, Bedouins, Druze, and others-during these attacks.

The CCAR deplores attempts by either party to make Israel and its defense a partisan issue. We anticipate adoption of H.R. 5323 by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress and President Biden’s signature, emblematic of longstanding bipartisan U.S. support for Israel and its defense.

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass
President

Rabbi Hara E. Person
Chief Executive

Central Conference of American Rabbis

September 1, 2021

In response to a new Texas anti-abortion law that came into effect today, leaders of Reform Jewish Movement institutions issued the following statement:

We denounce, in the strongest terms, the law that went into effect today in Texas, effectively making abortion care illegal in that state. In the most insidious state abortion restriction adopted to date, this Texas law makes abortion illegal as early as six weeks, before many are even aware that they are pregnant. The law is manipulatively designed to thwart courts’ ability to protect reproductive freedom, prohibiting state officials from enforcing the law but empowering any Texan to sue any person—an abortion provider, a counselor, a member of the clergy, a clinic worker, even a driver who delivers a person to a clinic, to name a few examples—who assists in accessing abortion care. For this reason, many Texas clinics are now unable to provide abortion care at all, as they are understandably unwilling to place their workers at intolerable risk from potentially ruinous lawsuits enabled by this Texas law.

We are concerned about individuals who cannot afford to travel long distances to secure abortion care in neighboring states. We are also deeply concerned about Jews who will be unable to pursue an abortion in keeping with Jewish law, which mandates abortion when necessary to preserve the pregnant person’s well-being. With respect to Judaism’s own limited approval of abortion: “as we would not impose the historic position of Jewish teaching upon individuals nor legislate it as normative for society at large, so we would not wish the position of any other group imposed upon the Jewish community or the general population.”[i] We also ground ourselves in kavod habriyot—the sacred obligation to provide medical care.

We will continue to work to overturn this law, prevent similar laws from being adopted in other states, and affirm the right of every person to make their own reproductive health decisions.

Central Conference of American Rabbis
Rabbi Lewis Kamrass, President
Rabbi Hara E. Person, Chief Executive

Union for Reform Judaism
Jennifer Brodkey Kaufman, Chair
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President

Commission on Social Action and Religious Action Center
Susan Friedberg Kalson, Chair
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director

Women of Reform Judaism
Sara Charney, President
Rabbi Marla J. Feldman, Executive Director

Women’s Rabbinic Network
Rabbi Mary Zamore, Executive Director
Rabbi Beth Klafter & Rabbi Emily Segal, Co-Presidents

American Conference of Cantors
Cantor Claire Franco, President
Rachel Roth, Chief Operating Officer

NFTY, the Reform Jewish Youth Movement
Lev Mosbacher, President
Lynne Butner, Director of NFTY Engagement

Reform Pension Board
Leonard Teitelbaum, President
Michael A. Kimmel, Chief Executive Officer

Program & Engagement Professionals of Reform Judaism
Jason Plotkin, President

Association of Reform Jewish Educators
Marisa Kaiser, President
Rabbi Stanley T. Schickler,  Executive Director

Men of Reform Judaism
Rob Himmelstein, President
Steven Portnoy, Executive Director

National Association for Temple Administration
Jack Feldman, President
Michael Liepman, Executive Director

Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism
Fern Katz, President
Tricia Ginis, Executive Director

National Association of Retired Reform Rabbis
Rabbi Sheldon Harr, President
Rabbis Julian & Susie Cook, Co-Executive Vice Presidents

[i] “State Restrictions on Access to Reproductive Health Services,” Resolution Adopted by the CCAR, April, 2008, State Restrictions on Access to Reproductive Health Services – Central Conference of American Rabbis (ccarnet.org).

August 19, 2021

For decades, the Central Conference of American Rabbis has decried human rights abuses in Afghanistan—refugees left homeless by years of civil war predating American intervention, subjugation of women, civilian massacres, and religious persecution, among other atrocities wrought by the Taliban terrorist regime which has now returned to power. Tragically, twenty years of U.S. military intervention, sacrificing Afghan and American lives and trillions of dollars, failed to establish a stable Afghan government or rid Afghanistan of the Taliban and its repressive ways. In the wake of the U.S. military withdrawal, freedom-seeking Afghans are terrorized, their lives very much at risk.

Reform rabbis applaud the United Nations Security Council, which this week called for “an immediate cessation of all hostilities and the establishment, through inclusive negotiations, of a new government that is united, inclusive and representative—including with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women. [The Security Council] underlined that … the safety and security of all Afghan and international citizens must be ensured.”[i]

The Biden administration has—rightly, and of necessity—deployed troops to secure Hamid Karzai International Airport to ensure the evacuation of both American personnel and Afghans who aided the efforts of the United States and its allies during the twenty-year struggle. The United States has a moral obligation to Afghan citizens who are in danger after having stood up to terror and human rights abuses alongside the U.S. and its allies; the U.S. must not abandon this mission until every person who can be rescued has been safely evacuated from Afghanistan.

Recalling the Reform Jewish community’s legendary support for the Vietnamese boat people, Reform rabbis demand that the Biden administration and Congress expedite legal immigration status for Afghans who are now at risk. We urge CCAR members and the communities we serve to join in the humanitarian effort that will be necessary when these refugees reach safe haven in the United States, Canada, and other allied nations.

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass
President

Rabbi Hara E. Person
Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

[i] UN Security Council Press Statement on Afghanistan, August 16, 2021, https://usun.usmission.gov/un-security-council-press-statement-on-afghanistan/.

June 13, 2021

The Central Conference of American Rabbis congratulates Knesset Member Yair Lapid, who has succeeded in assembling a new governing coalition in Israel, uniting a wide array of political parties with vastly different priorities and outlooks. We congratulate incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and all members of the coalition and its Knesset supporters, historically including an Israeli Arab party.

Reform rabbis celebrate the fact that the new government includes parties and ministers who share some of the CCAR’s most cherished goals for the Jewish State: achieving a two-state solution and equal religious rights for all Israelis. This government offers a historic opportunity to preserve and build Israeli democracy and the rule of law, stem the growth of West Bank settlements, defend the Jewish State when it is under attack, and enhance the rights of its Arab citizens. We are grateful to our IMPJ colleagues in Israel who intend to hold the new government to their promises in this regard.

The announcement of this new government offers the possibility of normalcy to the Israeli body politic, exhausted after four elections within the last two years. Israel now has a government empowered to adopt a budget, rebuild Israel’s depleted civil service, and serve its citizens as any government is obligated to do. Israel will also no longer be led by a prime minister under indictment for official corruption.

Reform rabbis are excited for a renewed opportunity to lead our communities in deeper connection with Israel and its highest aspirations. We wish the new government success, pray for peace and security for every resident of Israel and its Occupied Territories, and pledge our enduring support to the Jewish State.

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass           
President                               

Rabbi Hara E. Person
Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis

June 2, 2021

The Central Conference of American Rabbis warmly congratulates Isaac “Bougie” Herzog on his election as the eleventh President of the State of Israel. In his current capacity, as Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel—and in his previous positions as Chairman of the Labor Party and of the Zionist Union alliance—President-elect Herzog has been a friend of our Reform Movement, supporting religious pluralism in Israel and a strong, productive, and mutually supportive relationship between the world’s two largest Jewish communities, in Israel and North America.

President-elect Herzog is worthy of the traditional greeting to the Israeli President, K’vod HaNasi, “Honorable President.” As we learn in Pirkei Avot 4:1, the person deserving of honor is one who honors others. As rabbis on the receiving end of President-elect Herzog’s kavod (honor), we look forward to honoring him in Israel and in North America.

At this time of presidential transition in Israel, Reform rabbis also salute Reuven “Ruvi” Rivlin, the outgoing tenth President of Israel. As President, Rivlin has evidenced high regard for the Reform Movement in Israel and worldwide. We particularly appreciate his advocacy for minority rights in Israel, including that of Israeli Arabs.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis looks forward to a continuation of its longstanding collaboration with President-elect Herzog and pledges its support to his every worthy endeavor in his well-earned, most honorable new role.

Rabbi Lewis Kamrass
President

Rabbi Hara E. Person
Chief Executive
Central Conference of American Rabbis