American Jewish Leaders Statement of Solidarity with American Muslims
In recent months and years, we have watched with increasing distress as American Muslims have been maligned and attacked as a community. American Muslims have been made to feel at best unwelcome and at worst un-American. They have had their patriotism questioned and their citizenship suspected.
As Jews, these attacks sound all too familiar to us. Our history, both in this country and in others, has been marked by too many episodes of similar rhetoric, including vilification, demonization, and delegitimization as citizens. The values of Torah and the virtues of the American tradition demand that we raise our voices against the fear-mongering and hate that have been directed at our fellow citizens.
Invoking our shared Abrahamic heritage and our commitment to American values, we write today as leaders of the American Jewish community to affirm, in unequivocal terms, that we stand in solidarity with American Muslims.
We condemn attacks on the Muslim community, both in word and in deed, for they are attacks on us and on all Americans.
We pledge to speak of and work with American Muslims just as we do with our fellow citizens: respectfully, both when we agree and when we disagree.
We hope that our example will inspire our fellow Jews and our fellow Americans to speak and act in the same spirit.
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