'Truth to Power'

NEW YORK—Influential leaders of several Jewish groups signed a declaration urging Jews around the world to boycott the Beijing Olympics. The release of the statement—spearheaded by a past chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, and leader of New York's Congregation, Kehilath Jeshurun and the Ramaz School—coincided with Yom Hashoah on May 1, Holocaust Commemoration Day, one of Israel's three secular holidays.

The first ever kosher restaurant recently opened in Beijing in hopes of attracting Jewish visitors to China's capital. According to the authors, this does not satisfy Jewish leaders regarding the Chinese regime's efforts to improve its human rights record in other regimes, such as Sudan and Iran, and its own country.

"It is a question of whether to grant 'kosher certification' to a regime that is enabling genocide in Sudan," said Rabbis Irving "Yitz" Greenberg and Haskel Lookstein in a letter published in New York's The Jewish Week.

The statement, "A Yom Hashoah Declaration: The China Olympics are not Kosher," recalls the world's passive acceptance of the Nazi regime's Olympics in 1936. Signatory to the declaration, Rabbi Avi Weiss said, "our moral conscience rises when rights and dignity are so violated and we must speak the truth to power."

When asked how business interests will react to the statement, Rabbi Weiss said, "They do what they have to do and we do what we must." He said that speaking out is critical to push the Chinese regime along the way to realizing human rights and the Olympics are a key moment. This is a "moral message based on the pillar of human rights."

A preface to the declaration notes that a great-grandson of President Franklin Roosevelt is a rabbi and a signatory. It was said that President Roosevelt told Jewish leaders shortly after the Berlin Olympics that German synagogues were full and there was no problem in Germany.

Alluding to "China's support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas," the declaration recalls the 1936 Olympics and states: "We dare not permit today's totalitarian regimes to achieve such victories."

The statement minces no words: "Jews should not be party to the whitewashing of such a regime, kosher kitchen or no kosher kitchen. Regimes that practice or enable oppression, terrorism, or genocide are not kosher. Therefore on this occasion of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day on which we remember the Nazi genocide, we call upon world Jewry to refrain from attending the Beijing Olympics."

A Yom Hashoah Declaration: The China Olympics Are Not Kosher

We are deeply troubled by China's support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas. Having endured the bitter experience of abandonment by our presumed allies during the Holocaust, we feel a particular obligation to speak out against injustice and persecution today.

We remember all too well that the road to Nazi genocide began in the 1930s, with Hitler's efforts to improve the public image of his evil regime. Nazi Germany sought to attract visitors to the 1936 Olympics in order to distract attention from its persecution of the Jews. Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, called the 1936 games "a victory for the German cause." We dare not permit today's totalitarian regimes to achieve such victories.

Beijing's authorization of the creation of a kosher kitchen at the Olympics village is apparently intended to help attract Jewish tourists to the games, as part of its broader strategy of improving its image and deflecting attention from its complicity in severe human rights abuses at home and abroad.

Jews should not be party to the whitewashing of such a regime, kosher kitchen or no kosher kitchen. Regimes that practice or enable oppression, terrorism, or genocide are not kosher. Therefore on this occasion of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day on which we remember the Nazi genocide, we call upon world Jewry to refrain from attending the Beijing Olympics.