|
Civil Liberties
A major focus of JCUA’s recent work has involved questioning and, when necessary, challenging the many civil liberties intrusions imposed after the horrible terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Beginning soon after September 11, we have stood in solidarity with Muslim and Arab-Americans, who found themselves suddenly the objects of paranoia and hatred. As we began and deepened conversations with Chicago-area Muslims, Arabs, and other Jews, JCUA began questioning the USA PATRIOT Act and related executive orders and federal agency regulations.
These law enforcement and surveillance measures offend two areas where Jewish law speaks loudly— the rights of immigrants and the right to privacy:
First, Jews are obligated to protect the rights of immigrants. The Torah teaches, “There shall be one law for the citizen and for the stranger who dwells among you” (Exodus 12:49). The ger toshav—the biblical “stranger” who is not fully an outsider, but who never fully becomes an insider—enjoys legal protections equal to or greater than those of the native-born citizens.
Second, Jewish law mandates the protection of individual privacy. The Talmud establishes the category of hezek ri’ah, literally—damage done by looking into the private property of another. In medieval times, a takkanah (enactment) by Rabbenu Gershom, a leading legal authority, extended this category to prohibit reading someone else’s mail and thereby “looking into” the private world of another person.
Drawing upon the lessons of our own tradition, JCUA played a leadership role in the Chicagoland Coalition for Civil Rights and Liberties, a coalition of community leaders who, in October 2003, persuaded Chicago’s City Council to pass a resolution opposing the USA PATRIOT Act. With this decision, Chicago became the largest city in the country to pass such a resolution.
To ensure the success of this resolution, JCUA staff, members, and Rabbinic Advisory Board members worked closely with Muslim partners, civil rights organizations, and aldermen such as Helen Shiller and Joe Moore. Building on our experience, JCUA then assisted community groups across the nation, from Glencoe, Illinois to Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas, in passing similar local resolutions.
More recently, JCUA has worked with local and national coalitions on a variety of initiatives, including an effort to pass in Congress the Civil Liberties Restoration Act, which restores some of the civil liberties threatened by the USA PATRIOT Act, and which attempts to stem the tide of anti-immigration sentiment in the federal government. |
|
Advocacy, Policy and Coalition Building
