OntheWilderSide

from the  Jewish Peace Fellowship

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Dear Friend of the Jewish Peace Fellowship:

Right now our need for funds is DESPERATE! We are almost out of money and we need your help badly so as to continue as a viable organization in these trying times of war and terrorism. We have no wealthy patrons, no one but those of you who have always supported the JPF.

As we write this, the war goes on even as hard-liners are demanding that the war be expanded to Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, North Korea, and who knows where else? And if any of these new wars should occur, who can be confident that the draft will not be reinstated?

Recently, we published Wrestling With Your Conscience: A Guide for Jewish Draft Registrants and COs. It should be in synagogue libraries, Hillels, and Jewish and secular schools and colleges, but isn’t because we don’t have to the money to advertise or distribute even as we have volunteers willing to be trained as draft counselors should the need ever arise. Should there ever be a draft, we will counsel young Jewish men who wish to know their legal rights if they decide to consider CO status, as we have since 1941, the year of our founding.

Meanwhile, while we (or thus far, anyone else for that matter) can’t solve the Israeli-Palestinian civil war, we are among the few American Jewish organizations, together with the majority of Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, who support an end to mutual violence, a Palestinian state and a freeze and reduction of settlements. We’ve joined a coalition urging our Congress to accept the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission because we believe the killing has to be stopped. We co-sponsored Uri Avnery’s speaking tour while supporting as best we can those Israeli draftees and reservists who refuse to serve in the savage civil war. And we’ve celebrated and publicized Israeli peacemakers, most recently at our Heschel Award ceremony.

We could do far, far more but cannot because our budget is so limited. Other than one part-time assistant we are all volunteers. No fancy offices. No huge salaries. No generous perks for our officers, or Executive and Advisory Committee members. No donations from corporate sponsors or foundations.

Still, we carry on as best we can. We practice what we preach and believe ever more firmly in Zechariah’s “Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.”

Please send us what you can. The donations we receive go entirely for our work. Thank you.

Shalom,

Rabbi Philip Bentley, Stefan Merken & Murray Polner

P.S. Here’s an added incentive. Contribute $200 or more and we’ll send you a free copy of “Challenge of Shalom: The Jewish Tradition of Peace & Justice” edited by Murray Polner & Naomi Goodman plus “Wrestling With Your Conscience: A Guide for Jewish Draft Registrants & Conscientious Objectors.”

Filed under: international politics, Peace Tagged: | jewish