Dr. Daniel Thursz, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International, said that the “invisibility” of the poor, homeless and hungry in America, whose increase he termed “shocking,” has “made possible the dismantling of programs and structures that aimed at a more just society.”
He made this statement at the plenary session of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC), which met here last week, at a forum on the religious response to poverty. Also addressing the forum were San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn and the Rev. Joan Campbell, Assistant General Secretary of the National Council of Churches.
Thursz called upon the 450 plenary delegates to “apply Torah to our society and to use moral principles to aid the poor and helpless.” A restatement of the commitment to social justice is necessary, he said, to reverse the current trend of “social dislocation and despair for some, and uncaring affluence for others.”
The B’nai B’rith leader then addressed himself to the U.S. Bishops’ “Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy,” published in draft form in November and discussed at the session by Quinn.
Quinn, a past president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the forum that “poverty diminishes the dignity of the human person. ” He listed five “basic human rights” that must be fulfilled to ensure human dignity: the rights to employment, an adequate income, medical care, education, and private property.
“Economic practices which violate the common good or violate human dignity in the name of private property are not morally defensible,” Quinn said. Therefore, he continued, monopolistic pricing, unfair labor practices, sub-minimum wage rates and environmentally destructive practices are “immoral.”
Responding to Quinn, as well as to Campbell — who called for a united effort on the part of a rebuilt interfaith coalition to address the world’s economic inequities — Thursz called for the discovery of “a commonality between our own Jewish faith and the faith in the Catholic and Protestant communities, so we can join hands in building a more just world for all.” He suggested the creation of joint commissions to recommend specific issues and to program for joint efforts.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
