Rabbis, Vietnam War Vets Plan to Plant Trees in Vietnam

The Vietnam Veterans Against The War inaugurated a project with five Washington area rabbis today to plant $50,000 worth of trees in Vietnam as a means of “repairing the ecological destruction caused by American defoliation.” The project is directed to the Washington Jewish community. According to Rabbi Joseph P. Weinberg, of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, it is “a vehicle for the Jewish community to express concern over the war in a Jewish context.” The anti-war group joined by the rabbis and local students held a formal signing ceremony of the Peoples Peace Treaty. The original was signed in Dec., 1970 by American, South and North Vietnamese students opposed to the present government in Saigon and demanding immediate total withdrawal of American forces from Indo-China. Bruce Waxman, a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against The War, called on the Jewish community “to end the separation between being Jewish and being people.” He urged Jews to oppose the war as Jews, out of religious and ethical scruples. “We can’t just feel Jewish on Yom Kippur,” Waxman said. In addition to Rabbi Weinberg, the rabbis participating in the signing today were Eugene Lipman, of Temple Sinai; Harold White of the American University Hillel chapter; Bernard Nehlman, of Temple Micah and E. William Seaman of the Washing ton Hebrew Congregation.