Rabbis join interfaith bid to ban torture

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Rabbis for Human Rights joined an interfaith coalition to stop U.S.-sponsored torture.

Banners Across America, a project of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, has launched an effort to get houses of worship to hang banners reading “Torture is a moral issue” and “Torture is wrong.”

As of Thursday, 27 synagogues were among the nearly 300 U.S. congregations that had agreed to hang the banners.

“We’re really excited by the enthusiastic response of the Jewish community to this program,” Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, the director of education and outreach for the North American wing of Rabbis for Human Rights, said Thursday in a conference call with reporters.

Kahn-Troster said opposing torture is a “Jewish religious imperative” because torture “denies that divine spark” in every human being.

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