Jewish, Christian, Muslim Leaders Say Support of Religious Communities Essential to 2-State Solution in Mideast
National
Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East
E-Mail: usicpme@aol.com
Website:
www.nili-mideastpeace.org
We
write to you on behalf of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for
Peace in the Middle East (NILI) that involves present and past heads of
twenty-five Jewish, Christian, and Muslim national religious organizations.
Several leaders of NILI were privileged to attend your briefing in Georgetown
on the current status of negotiations for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
We
look forward to continuing progress in the negotiations. We agree with you that
public
support by leaders and members of our three religious communities, both
here and on the
ground in the region, will be
essential to encourage success in negotiating a final peace
agreement between
Israelis and Palestinians.
In
this context, we request a meeting with you at an appropriate time to discuss
how we can
help here at home. We also would urge you to meet personally with
religious leaders on the
ground in Jerusalem, most importantly including
leaders of the Council of Religious
Institutions in the Holy Land (CRIHL).
CRIHL includes the highest official local religious
leaders who have
consistently condemned incitement and hateful acts of vandalism against
any holy sites. At its founding, these leaders declared that nothing in their
three traditions
justifies killing of innocents and in 2010 CRIHL wrote to
Special Envoy George Mitchell supporting negotiations and reiterating “the
importance of respecting the attachments of
the three religions – Jewish,
Christian and Muslim – in the holy land
and
especially in Jerusalem.”
We
believe the coming months are critical to achieving a negotiated two-state
peace
agreement, the only realistic resolution of the conflict. While we know
that some in our communities will oppose any compromises, as leaders of NILI we
support benchmark
principles and practical ideas developed in earlier official
and informal negotiations that
pr ovide
possible elements for necessary compromises on key issues that could be
acceptable to majorities of Israelis and Palestinians.
We
look forward to meeting with you and to working with you for
Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Respectfully,
List
of endorsers follows -
NILI
Letter to Secretary of State Kerry
February
2014
List
of Endorsers
Christian
Leaders:
Bishop
Richard E. Pates,
Chairman,
USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace
Theodore
Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington
Bishop
Denis J. Madden,
Auxiliary
Bishop of Baltimore
Archbishop
Vicken Aykasian,
Director,
Ecumenical Affairs, Armenian Orthodox Church in America
Archimandrite
Nathanael Symeonides,
Office
of Ecumenical Affairs, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Jim
Winkler,
President/General
Secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ USA
The
Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton,
Presiding
Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Most
Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori,
Presiding
Bishop and Primate, Episcopal Church
Reverend
Gradye Parsons,
Stated
Clerk, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Reverend
Geoffrey Black,
General
Minister & President, United Church of Christ
Reverend
Dr. Sharon Watkins,
General
Minister, President, Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ)
Bishop
Mary Ann Swenson,
Council
of Bishops, United Methodist Church
Bishop
Neill L. Irons,
United
Methodist Church
Richard
Stearns,
President,
World Vision US
Reverend
Leighton Ford,
President,
Leighton Ford Ministries,
Board
Member, World Vision US
David
Neff,
former
Editorial Vice ‐President, Christianity Today
John
M. Buchanan,
Editor
and Publisher, Christian Century
Jewish
Leaders:
Rabbi
David Saperstein,
Director,
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Rabbi Elliot Dorff, Ph.D.
Rector
and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, American Jewish University
Rabbi
Burt Visotzky
Rabbi
Jason Klein,
President,
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Rabbi
Amy Small,
Past
President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Rabbi
Peter Knobel,
Past
President, Central Conference of American Rabbis
Rabbi
Paul Menitoff,
Executive
Vice President Emeritus, Central Conference of American Rabbis
Rabbi
Alvin M. Sugarman,
Rabbi
Emeritus, The Temple, Atlanta, Georgia
Muslim
Leaders:
Imam
Mohammed Magid,
President,
Islamic Society of North America
Dr.Sayyid
Muhammad Syeed,
National
Director, Islamic Society of North America
Naeem
Baig,
Executive
Director, Islamic Circle of North America
Imam
Feisal Abdul Rauf,
Founder
of ASMA Society and the Cordoba Initiative
Imam
Yahya Hendi,
Founder
and President, Clergy Beyond Borders
Dawud
Assad,
President
Emeritus, Council of Mosques, USA
Eide
Alawan,
Interfaith
Office for Outreach, Islamic Center of America
Iftekhar
A. Hai,
Founding
Director, United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance
*Organizations
for Identification Only
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