Wiesenthal Center Urges United Church of Christ Members To Vote Down Anti-Israel Resolutions

July 1, 2005

Wiesenthal Center Urges United Church of Christ Members To Vote Down Anti-Israel Resolutions

Hours before the United Church of Christ convened its national Synod, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, flanked by Christian leaders and a community activist who lost two nephews in a terror attack, urged UCC members to vote down 3 anti-Israel resolutions.

"It's the wrong message at the wrong time," charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Jewish Human Rights group. "Demanding that Israel remove its anti-terrorism fence and threatening one-sided economic sanctions, not only will embolden those who want to destroy Israel, it will damage Christian-Jewish relations here at home.

One Christian leader, Richard Weinghagen, who will lobby for the resolutions' defeat called them "functional antisemitism" that could fuel antisemitism domestically. Others participating in the news conference were Rev. Runion-Bareford, Executive Director of the Biblical Witness fellowship, Bishop Medyeshi, Pastor Niederfrank and Rabbi Michael Broyd, Academic Director of the Law and Religion Program at Atlanta's Emory University.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, and the OSCE.

For more information, please call Rabbi Abraham Cooper at 310 210-9750, or contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, or visit www.wiesenthal.com.