JLC Extends Condolences to Families of Victims of Shooting at AME Church;
Calls for Removing all Public Manifestations of the Confederate Flag
June 26, 2015 - The following statement was issued today by the Jewish Labor Committee:
American Jews, as a minority group, know what it means to suffer oppression. Whenever another minority is threatened or oppressed, we feel the need to speak out and to offer support, solidarity and solace. Indeed, in the United States, prejudice against Jews and blacks has often gone hand-in-hand. The latest example is Dylann Roof, the confessed perpetrator of the heinous murders last week of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, an historic black church in Charleston , South Carolina ; Roof's "manifesto" demonstrated pathological hatred of Blacks, and also of Jews.
We are not at all surprised that at this sad time, the organized American Jewish community is standing united in its support of the African-American community. All denominations within the American Jewish community will participate in a "Shabbat of Solidarity" this weekend, when rabbis and Jewish community members around the country will reach out to AME churches with messages of support and speak out in their synagogues against racism, bigotry and extremism.
The Jewish Labor Committee extends its condolences to the victims' families, their congregation and their community, and rededicates itself to the fight against racism, prejudice, and discrimination of all varieties. And we call for all state governments and businesses to take a meaningful symbolic step in that direction by removing all public manifestations of the Confederate flag, a symbol that is as much an anathema to the African-American community as the swastika is to the Jewish community.
