Reform and Conservative rabbinical leaders called for increased gun controls in the wake of a spate of shootings.
“Our tradition teaches: ‘Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor’ (Leviticus 19:16),” said a statement Aug. 16 issued by Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly. “As people of faith, the Rabbinical Assembly unequivocally calls upon lawmakers to take all available measures, to ensure the safety of the public to limit the availability of guns and the permissibility of their concealment.”
Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, noted the Aug. 15 shooting at the Family Research Council, in which a guard was injured, and alluded to shootings this summer at a cinema in Colorado and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that have claimed 18 lives. — jta