In an unprecedented e-mail, mail, and fax vote tallied in New York City last week, the board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations overwhelmingly approved a resolution drafted by the Movement's Commission on Social Action. The resolution calls for support of the NATO campaign "while deploring our nation's and NATO's failures to respond decisively and in timely fashion to the unfolding crisis," and urges the War Crimes Tribunal to prosecute "those responsible for the atrocities committed in Kosovo, including Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic."

"Time is of the essence in this tragedy, and I'm grateful that our board members responded so quickly in their voting," said Jerome Somers, chairman of the board of the UAHC, an organization that represents 1.5 million Jews in more than 880 synagogues across the U.S. and Canada. "I can only hope that their strong message-that the Reform Jewish community wants to see this tyranny end-is heard unequivocally by the Clinton Administration, our elected representatives, and our NATO allies."

The resolution also received a strong show of support from approximately 500 Reform clergy members and lay leaders at a noontime rally on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on April 26. Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, told the gathering: "We cannot forget that after World War II, it was the Jews who were a refugee people in Europe. To be Jewish is to feel responsibility for all humankind, but surely it is also to feel responsible for these particular human beings, these particular refugees, at this time and in that place. These people are not abstractions or statistics; they are Children of God, and they are in pain."

The war in Kosovo strikes deeply into the hearts of Jews, who compare the expulsion of the Kosovar Albanians from their lands to the centuries-long history of persecution of the Jews, particularly Germany's attempt to exterminate them, Yoffie noted.

The Commission on Social Action, which drew up the Kosovo resolution last week during its Consultation on Conscience in Washington, DC, is sponsored by the UAHC and by the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the Reform rabbinical association. The Consultation is a biennial conference that briefs Reform Jews on key legislative issues. Kosovo was high on the agenda at this year's Consultation, along with gun control, the environment, religious liberty, and economic justice.

In addition to passing the resolution calling for the end to ethnic cleansing, the Reform Movement expects to send a delegation of Reform leaders in a few weeks to the refugee camps outside Kosovo to deliver a check to the rescue organizations. Contributions can be made to the UAHC KOSOVO RELIEF FUND, c/o UAHC, 633 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-6778.

The full text of the resolution follows.

Background

The current Kosovo tragedy has unfolded at least since 1989, when the Serbian National Assembly ratified constitutional changes that essentially deprived Kosovo of the relative autonomy that it had enjoyed, returning Kosovo's judiciary and police to Serbian control. In the ensuing years, Serbia removed Kosovo's ethnic Albanians from positions of power in Kosovo, leading the ethnic Albanians -- 90 percent of Kosovo's population -- to develop alternative schools and other autonomous institutions. Serbia's military offensive against the ethnic Albanians began in 1998, and led to a substantial gain in the support for and the strength of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a militant body seeking independence from, rather than autonomy within, Serbia.

Serbian aggression against the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo escalated, and American and European efforts to broker a cease-fire and a peaceful resolution of the bloody conflict did not succeed. Accordingly, and after repeated warnings to Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic, NATO decided to intervene with a sustained campaign from the air. The campaign is ongoing.

Whatever the responsibility of the various parties to the conflict -- and of the European nations and the United States -- for the current crisis, we are now faced with the horrendous fact of mass "ethnic cleansing," with all its attendant brutality. We are witness to an exodus of Biblical proportions - but this time, it is not an exodus from slavery to freedom; it is an exodus into exile.

What is happening in Kosovo -- and in Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania - has unavoidable echoes for us, as Jews.

This time, however, there is intervention on behalf of those who are being persecuted. In the course of that intervention, innocent people have been and will be killed and wounded. That is a terrible cost, and we lament it. But absent such intervention, the world would once again be turning its back on genocidal behavior. Our tradition teaches us to stand against such behavior: "Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor" (Leviticus 19:16).

In 1994, faced with similar moral, political, and strategic choices, the Executive Committee of the UAHC Board of Trustees, adopted a resolution on the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, holding that the concept of pikuach nefesh was at stake during the long months when ethnic cleansing and other genocidal activity was at the heart of our concern in Bosnia. That resolution "calls upon the United States and its allies, in consultation with allied military leaders and the United Nations, to undertake selective air strikes against military targets in Bosnia-Herzegovina when necessary for the protection of Bosnia's civilian population." So, now, again NATO's intervention, which must always remain sensitive to casualties, must be designed to put a prompt end to the Serbian campaign of "ethnic cleansing," to remove all Serbian military forces from Kosovo, to enable the exiled to return to and rebuild their homes, and to ensure that peace reigns within Kosovo's borders.

THEREFORE, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations resolves to:

Support the NATO campaign, while deploring our nation's and NATO's failures to respond decisively and in timely fashion to the unfolding crisis in the former Yugoslavia;

Implore President Clinton, Congress, and our NATO allies immediately to take whatever steps are necessary, including the introduction of ground troops, to end and reverse the "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo;

Acknowledge and commend the deployment of our military forces for humanitarian purposes in response to the critical needs of the growing number of refugees in Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, and Montenegro;

Commend our congregations for their generous participation in the effort to provide humanitarian assistance to the refugees from Kosovo and urge them to expand such efforts; and

Call for the prosecution by the War Crimes Tribunal of those responsible for the atrocities committed in Kosovo, including Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Most recent update 4 May 1999