Presbyterian, Jewish Leaders Meet

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The New York Sun

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church and the Jewish community met yesterday for the first time since a decision by the church to divest in companies that do business in Israel.


At its General Assembly in July, the Presbyterian Church voted by a wide majority for divestment and issued a condemnation of the Israeli security barrier, but failed to pass a motion to end funding of recruitment efforts focused on Jews.


Church leaders said yesterday they had not yet created a plan for divestiture and were waiting for the divestiture committee to move forward. Yesterday leaders of the two religious groups had the chance to begin a dialogue.


Jewish leaders took issue with a declaration the church adopted that said “the occupation [is] at the root of evil acts committed against innocent people” while it failed to condemn as evil the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Palestinian Arabs. On the issue of the security wall, the church passed a resolution that said it “ghettoizes the Palestinians and forces them onto what can only be called reservations.”


The president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, called the church’s statements “unbalanced,” and said the divestment campaign has “echoes of South Africa, which is totally inappropriate.”


At a press conference at the Union of Reform Judaism following the hour-long closed-door meeting, the Reverend Clifton Kirkpatrick said that the church committee in charge of the divestment plan will not meet to formulate its plan until November.


“We would have serious conversations with those companies [that do business in Israel] and possibly take shareholder action before we would divest,” he said. One company that could come under scrutiny is the Caterpillar Company, which sells bulldozers to Israel that are used to destroy Palestinian homes, he said.


“The core of the problem is the cycle of violence fed by terrorism on the one hand and occupation on the other,” Rev. Kirkpatrick said. “We must find a way to break this cycle so that one day Israel will live in peace and the Palestinians will live without occupation.”


Religious leaders in attendance, including members of the Anti-Defamation League, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the National Council of Synagogues, and leaders from the Presbyterian Church, pledged at the end of the meeting to push for a resolution to the Middle East conflict.


The church also promised it would keep in mind concerns raised by the Jewish community while deciding on their divestment campaign and other Israel-related resolutions passed in July. Both groups proposed more dialogue at the local level.


“The Christians focus on the suffering of Palestinians and the Jews focus on the issue of terrorism,” Rabbi Yoffie said. “Both are legitimate, but we each have to expand our visions, and be sensitive and aware of the other.”


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