T. Belman. Given what is included in “reparations”, “expressions of remorse”, they aren’t so horrendous. There is a huge difference between “expression of remorse and with “monetary compensation”. I find that odd. Why did they not back one or the other? I have no trouble with a formal apology, but I am against reparations, big time.
Conference resolution says they can be anything from expression of remorse to education to monetary compensation
AP Photo/Jay Reeves
The Reform movement, the country’s largest Jewish denomination, declared its support for reparations for African-Americans at its biennial conference.
The resolution, which was approved Friday by voice vote at the 5,000-person gathering of the Union for Reform Judaism, calls for “a federal commission to study and develop proposals for reparations to redress the historic and continuing effects of slavery and subsequent systemic racial, societal, and economic discrimination against Black Americans.”
It said that reparations can take the form of anything from an expression of remorse to education to monetary compensation.
Reform leaders painted the resolution as the next step in the movement’s historical support for civil rights. The movement passed its first resolution in support of civil rights in 1950 and has passed four more. Two came in the past five years, addressing reforms to the way law enforcement treats African-Americans, and racial inequities within the Reform movement.
“Combating hate is the most urgent call of our time,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said in a keynote address Thursday night. “We must be anti-racist. That means taking an active part to eliminate racism in our society. It’s our job as Reform Jews to continue this fight. We must face down the structures of racism and we must knock them down.”
The resolution is part of a growing movement in progressive American circles to support reparations that was galvanized in 2014 by an essay written by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic called “The Case for Reparations.” Democrats have introduced bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to create a commission on studying reparations. Several Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, have supported the measures. Booker introduced the Senate version.
The Reform resolution cites the biblical precept that humans are created in God’s image and the rabbinic emphasis on all of humanity being equal given its shared descent from Adam and Eve. The resolution also calls on Reform congregations to study systemic racism, undertake efforts to combat it and actively promote racial equality.
Two other resolutions approved Friday also address issues in American society at large. One seeks a ban on private prisons and the closure of those that currently exist. Another calls on the government to increase funding and encourage medical treatment to combat the opioid addiction crisis.
Jacobs said the reparations resolution is part of the movement’s ongoing efforts to work on behalf of people of color. In his speech, he mentioned the movement’s fellowship for Jewish minorities. The biennial conference also included sessions on addressing racial justice and creating space for Jews of color and other marginalized groups in Reform synagogues.
“Schedule a training about equity, inclusion and anti-racism in your community,” Jacobs said. “Learn about unconscious and implicit bias and how to be a better ally. When marginalized members of your community find the courage to speak up, treat this as a gift and listen deeply to what they have to say.”
I think that for Jewish organizations to take official stands on issues that are not confined to advocacy for Israel and for Jewish civil rights opens up all Jews to violent attacks from anyone on the left or right who objects to those positions, as we have seen.
@ Buzz of the Orient:
There has been some but it was to specific individuals who could prove loss as have all reparations up to this point, the sole exception being West Germany paying reparations to Israel and Germany and Hungary to the Soviet Union right after the war. Making it open-ended would result in something like UNRWA. https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/26/politics/american-indian-settlment/index.html
Personally, having had lifetime relationships wit Native Americans, it is my opinion that Native Americans deserve reparations just as much as African Americans. The Native Americans I know are not only friendly and respectful of Jews, but they are also supportive of Israel, and even consider that there is a commonality with Israelis.
Somebody should ask them whether they endorse reparations to the Jews who were expelled and expropriated from Muslim countries.
Should include reparation to those who fought and died to eliminate slavery. Therefore many “white” families must be compensate as well.
I suggest that the US kleptocrats create a fund for REAL education for the true victims of slavery! Cannot be controlled by leftists who will as they do now divert $ to their owns!
@ Arthur Wellesley:
The USA does have a sorry history with slavery which eventually it rectified. I could visualize that it issues a statement about the wrongs of the past. Financial restitution at this point would cause a major divide in the USA and not be justified.
People who immigrated to the USA 100 years after slavery and have no relatives who had a part in slavery why should they pay another part of the population reparations 150 years after slavery was stopped?
My ancestors came to America between 1890 and 1905. decades after the Emancipation Proclamation, and anyway I can pretty much guarantee they never owned any slaves. While I’m sorry for the African-American experience I don’t owe a penny.
They don’t care about their fellow Jews. Anybody but. That’s clear. They think their virtue signaling is admirable.
Be interesting to see how the squad qualifie themselves as to be african americans. no doubt anything for a quickie buck.