Voice for Equality: Menachem Z. Rosensaft

February 12, 2009

Menachem Rosensaft is the founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and was recently appointed as general counsel to the World Jewish Congress. He is an internationally recognized advocate promoting a tolerant State of Israel and racial/ethnic peace worldwide. He works against racism, bigotry, and religious intolerance in every form. "The critical lesson we have learned from our parents’ and grandparents’ tragic experiences is that indifference to the suffering of others is in itself a crime. Our place must be at the forefront of the struggle against every form of racial, religious or ethnic hatred.” (Speech, JTA News Bulletin, April 17, 2005)

On January 14, 2009, he wrote an op-ed in Jewish Week supporting marriage rights and criticizing religious leaders for attempting to impose their moral views on secular law.

"But aren’t gays and lesbians among those whom such judges and, for that matter, our legislators, serve? ...Republicans who tolerate their party’s platform calling for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages should be reminded of a similar constitutional amendment to prohibit interracial marriages proposed by Rep. Seaborn Roddenberry, Democrat of Georgia, in 1912 on the ground that 'intermarriage between whites and blacks is repulsive and averse to every sentiment of pure American spirit. It is abhorrent and repugnant.' We must also bear in mind that the invidious 1935 Nuremberg Laws criminalized both marriages and extramarital intercourse 'between Jews and subjects of the state of German or related blood'..."

Thanks to Michelle Marzullo for the nomination!

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