A Call to Civility

IN WAKE OF “MENGELE” COMMENTS BY RICHARD LAND, SIMILAR INCIDENTS
THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY ISSUES A STATEMENT
CALLING FOR CIVIL DISCOURSE AND RENOUNCING OF NAZI IMAGERY

October 21, 2009 (New York, NY) – Following several recent incidents in which Nazi imagery has been inappropriately invoked by public figures, the Rabbinical Assembly, together with Rabbi David Wolpe, senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, have issued a call to America to renounce the use of rhetoric designed to equate policy positions with the practices of the Nazis during the Second World War.

The members of the Rabbinical Assembly, constituting 1600 Conservative rabbis, have therefore issued a statement in which they collectively and individually call on all people of conscience to renounce the use of this language and to reject the representations of any speaker who would exploit the suffering of others for political gain.


STATEMENT BY THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY ON MISUSE OF NAZI IMAGERY

As rabbis who deal daily with the sick and dying we are aware that these are extraordinarily sensitive issues. Our tradition reminds us that the more urgent the issue the more important it is to choose one’s words with care.

We note with dismay the vehement rhetoric swirling around the health care debate. An alarming number of public figures have embraced this imagery in attempt to demonize the opposition. In recent weeks alone, they include

Rev. Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention called health care reform proposals “what the Nazis did” and invented the “Dr. Josef Mengele Award” to present to health care policy-maker, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel.
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) referred to the current health care system as a “holocaust in America.”
The Republican National Committee posted a video on-line showing Adolf Hitler discussing health care proposals.

Each offense was later moderated, but not until a hue and cry arose from opponents and supporters of the sources alike. The willingness of supporters of public policy positions to employ the demonizing rhetoric of Nazism not only does nothing to move conversation forward; rather, it has a chilling effect on people of conscience who find the appropriation of such imagery to be disrespectful of the victims and reinforcing of the politics of personal attack that has damaged public discourse in the United States.

The use of Nazi and other drastic imagery is categorically unacceptable. Not only is such bluster inflammatory, but it impoverishes the discussion.

We plead -- indeed we demand -- that civility govern these crucial deliberations. “Sages” warned the Rabbis of the Talmud, “take great care with the words you speak.”

When one has a public platform one cannot allow the heat of rhetoric to outrun its reason.

As we discuss issues of life and death let us not ignore the words of Proverbs: “Life and death are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21.)”

Angry words and hateful images will not bring us closer to the healing we all seek.