Jewish Leaders to Participate in Interfaith Anti-war Protest

Rabbis and Jewish leaders from Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey and other parts of the country will converge on the nation’s capital tonight to participate in an inter-faith protest against the war in Vietnam. Speaking on behalf of the Jewish groups at a meeting tonight will be Rabbi Balfour Brickner, director of interfaith activities for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

The protest, which is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee and Clergy and a Laity Concerned, is aimed at getting religious groups into the offices of Congressmen. It will also feature a candlelight procession tonight to the White House. Tomorrow the various groups will march to the capitol and attempt to lobby individual Congressmen. At a press conference later in the afternoon Rabbi Brickner is expected to discuss the issue of American prisoners of war.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Board of Rabbis has asked President Nixon “to call a halt to the escalated bombings in North Vietnam and to return to the stance of negotiation with patience and with firmness.” In a resolution adopted unanimously by the board, the rabbis declared that “we stand appalled and shamed by the renewed brutal bombing of North Vietnam. To move so suddenly from a posture of negotiation to an unconscionable attack that makes little distinction between civilian and military targets can evoke-only our sorrow and pain.”