Blogging the Omer, Day 11: Don’t go to China
Week Two, Day Four
Netzach of Gevurah
Orthodox Rabbis Irving “Yitz” Greenberg and Haskell Lookstein have begun a drive asking Rabbis to sign a statement asking Jews not to attend the Olympic Games in China. JTA reports that more than 175 Jewish leaders, including the heads of the Reform and Conservative movements, have signed the appeal. Rabbis Greenberg and Lookstein, began circulating the petition, timed to be released before Yom Hashoah commemorations Thursday, after they learned that Beijing had set up a kosher kitchen to accommodate Jewish tourists.
“We are deeply troubled by China’s support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas,” the statement says. “Having endured the bitter experience of abandonment by our presumed allies during the Holocaust, we feel a particular obligation to speak out against injustice and persecution today.”
