On January 7, 2020, T’ruah joined with other leading Jewish organizations to affirm our commitment to bail reform. According to both Jewish and US law, every person is innocent until proven guilty. That principle is inconsistent with New York’s money bail system, which has resulted in the detention of countless people for no crime but lack of money.
STATEMENT BY JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS & SYNAGOGUES IN SUPPORT OF BAIL REFORM
NEW YORK – Today, leading Jewish organizations and synagogues, including Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Avodah, Kolot Chayeinu, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, The Worker’s Circle, and Congregation Beth Elohim released the following statement in support of bail reform:
“Jewish organizations and congregations in New York are proud to have helped pass historic bail reform legislation that went into effect last week on January 1, 2020. As Jews, we are called to support bail reform because our values tell us that we must not accept a justice system that criminalizes poverty or that perpetuates racial injustice.
We are dismayed that some elected and law enforcement officials are responding to the tragedies taking place in Jewish communities with an attempt to roll back bail reform. Bail reform represents real progress in making our criminal justice system more fair. The many violent incidents targeting Jews in 2019 and bail reform are not related, as bail reform only went into effect a week ago. We need real solutions to the danger facing the Jewish people, not regressive political moves that will needlessly hurt thousands of New Yorkers. We call on New York’s elected leaders to fully implement the new laws and work to ensure equal justice for all.
Jewish people will keep fighting for the safety of all New Yorkers— and we know that the path to safety requires affordable housing, economic and educational opportunities, quality health and mental health care, and increased solidarity between communities experiencing harm, not money bail or needless pretrial detention.
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,000 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.