As we are about to usher in the High Holidays, the United States Congress will be voting about whether we should respondto the terrible crime against humanity committed by the Assad regime in Syria. Enclosed is a letter (see below) we have just sent to each U.S. Senator andRepresentative urging them to vote for the President’s proposal of a limited strike against the Assad regime.
I have no doubt that Simon Wiesenthal, who spent his whole life preserving the legacy of the Holocaust would have been the first to speak out against such a crime.
Wishing you and your family a healthy and happy New Year!
Rabbi Marvin Hier Founder andDean Simon Wiesenthal Center
September 3, 2013
It was seventy-one years ago in August 1942, just a few weeks before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, that GerhardRiegner, the World Jewish Congress representative in Switzerland informed the US and British governments of the diabolical plan to exterminate Europe’s Jews using gas.Riegner had learned of the plan from a source close to the highest Nazi officials, German industrialist Eduard Schulte. Both governments were skeptical about theinformation and tragically wasted precious months doing nothing about it. By 1945, six million Jews were murdered; most gassed in Nazi death camps in what became knownas the Holocaust, the greatest crime in the annals of human history.
Since then every American President, British Prime Minister and other political leaders around the world have pledgedagain and again that they will never allow history to repeat itself.
But on August 29, 2013, when the British parliament was presented with incontrovertible evidence that the regime ofSyria’s President Bashar Assad used illegal chemical weapons against his own people, murdering 1,400 innocent men, women and children, they again opted to donothing. Now, on September 9, it will be up to you to vote, following President Obama’s request for Congressional approvalbefore embarking on a limited strike against the Assad regime.
On behalf of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, we urge you to vote for the limited strike, because to do otherwise wouldonly embolden the perpetrators and encourage them to gas more victims, while at the same time signaling the world that America’s assurances and promises mean nothing atall. This may not be the perfect solution, but it will send a dramatic signal to the Assad regime and all others, that youwill have to pay a very high price if you continue to perpetrate such crimes against humanity.
As you contemplate your vote, we ask you to reflect on the lesson taught in the Ethics of the Fathers, “In a placewhere there are no men (leaders), strive to be a man (leader).” We hope you will support taking action against Assad’s crimes against humanity.
Thank you and Happy New Year,
Rabbi Marvin Hier Founder and Dean Simon Wiesenthal Center
Rabbi Abraham Cooper Associate Dean Simon Wiesenthal Center
voting about whether we should respondto the terrible crime against humanity committed by the Assad regime in Syria. Enclosed is a letter (see below) we have just sent to each U.S. Senator andRepresentative urging them to vote for the President’s proposal of a limited strike against the Assad regime.