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Tuesday January 7, 1997

Kehilla breaks ground with public statement on peace

LESLIE KATZ
Bulletin Staff

Kehilla Community Synagogue in Berkeley has issued a public statement urging an Israeli-Palestinian peace, becoming what may be the first Northern California congregation to make such a move.

"Our love of Israel and our profound concern for the Palestinian people move us to speak out," reads the Jewish Renewal synagogue's statement, which appears in an advertisement on Page 17 of this week's Bulletin.

"We believe that Israelis and Palestinians can only come to know peace and security when the aspirations of each for a secure homeland are satisfied."

The statement calls upon both sides to carry out the Interim Agreement -- the post-Oslo Accords document that spells out Israel's withdrawal from much of the West Bank and Gaza -- and to restrain further violence, coercion or extremism.

It further calls on Israel to "halt both the confiscation of Palestinian lands and the creation of new settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; redeploy troops from Hebron; and release Palestinian political prisoners as agreed."

The statement, "is powerfully motivated by pikuach nefesh [the sanctity of life]," said Alan Solomonow of Kehilla's Israel Mideast committee, "and the need to breathe not just the letters but the spirit of life into the peace process."

Kehilla members say they plan to send the statement to other local synagogues in the hope that they will take similar public stands.

"This is spearheading them to stand up at a point when Jewish lives and Palestinian lives and peace are very much at stake," Solomonow said.

He and other Kehilla members say the Israeli government has slowed the peace process by such acts as the controversial opening of an archaeological tunnel that runs alongside Jerusalem's Western Wall and vows to expand Jewish settlements in the territories.

"Making promises in Israeli society that are opposed to the peace process requires an equivalent response from people who don't see this as being [compatible] with peace," Solomonow said.

Known for its emphasis on social and political activism, Kehilla has taken public stands on the Mideast before. In the late 1980s, it became the first local synagogue to publicly call for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict.

More recently, Kehilla's board of trustees sent a letter to its 245 members, warning that the Interim Agreement is in danger of collapse and asking how congregants felt about issuing a public statement.

"American Jewry, has, for the most part, been silent," the letter stated.

More than 50 responses came back, all of them in favor of the statement, together with donations to help pay for an advertisement.

Dolores Taller, another member of Kehilla's Israel Mideast committee, was not surprised by the overwhelming support.

"Here is the voice of American Jews who love Israel and who are concerned about Israelis and their future," she said. "We think we need to speak out."

The statement, which calls for an end to the expansion of Jewish settlements, could spark some opposition.

But whether or not people agree with the content of Kehilla's statement, speaking out on issues of concern is important, said Rabbi Samuel Broude, rabbi emeritus of Reform Temple Sinai in Oakland.

"One of the functions of Judaism is to help people take a stand on ethical issues," said the rabbi, who with Rabbi Michael Oblath is filling in for Rabbi Steven Chester while he's on sabbatical.

"To take a quiet stand on an ethical issue...so what? If the stand being taken has to do with something `out there,' then it's necessary to put the statement `out there.'"

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