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Wartime Hysteria |
 As Congress investigates warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, considers legislation that would classify as felons those who provide services to 11 million undocumented immigrants as aggravated felons, and considers another extension of the overreaching provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, it would be wise to recall a shameful event from this week in history.
[read more]
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Better Late than Never? |
 On February 19, 1986, the United States Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide, 37 years after the pact had first been submitted for ratification. Yet, even after recognizing the existence of an ongoing genocide in Darfur, our government is prepared to talk about rather than act upon an urgent situation.
On Saturday, April 8, 2006, the American Jewish World Service will present “Ruth Messinger Bears Witness,” featuring Ruth Messinger’s firsthand account of the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, Sudan. Ms. Messinger will speak about her experiences in Darfur in August 2004 and actions that can be done to stop the atrocities.
The program will be held at the Germantown Jewish Center, 400 West Ellet Street, in Philadelphia.
Find out what you can do to help
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Basic Equality |
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On February 19, 2004, after sanctioning more than 2,800 gay marriages, the city of San Francisco sued the state of California, challenging its ban on same-sex marriages. The resulting court decision and populist backlash led 11 states to adopt constitutional amendments banning gay marriage and emboldened homophobic politicians to introduce hundreds of anti-gay bills at all levels of government. Now it’s time to ensure workplace equality by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
[read more]
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JSPAN Opposes Constitutional Ban on Gay Marriage and Same Sex Civil Unions |
To discriminate or not to discriminate, that is the question being put to the Pennsylvania legislature in a proposed amendment to the Commonwealth Constitution that reads:
Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this Commonwealth, and neither the Commonwealth nor any of its political subdivisions shall create or recognize a legal status identical or substantially equivalent to that of marriage for unmarried individuals.
This proposed amendment to ban gay marriage and same sex civil unions does nothing to defend the institution of marriage, but attempts to enshrine in the Commonwealth Constitution the dictates of moral intolerance shared by fundamentalists here at home and religious extremists who have attacked us from abroad.
[read more]
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Untangling the Muhammad Cartoon Controversy |
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The controversy over the political cartoons lampooning Muhammad raises a whole
host of issues that are important to untangle and engage on their respective
merits.
The cardinal principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press must be
respected and upheld. From an American constitutional perspective governments
correctly did not prohibit the publications of these cartoons. However to the
extent that these cartoons were published in nations that have hate crime/group
libel legislation that permits prior restraints then these cartoons should have
been treated in the same manner as other similarly offensive material.
[read more]
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Want to Join?
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Make all checks payable to:
JSPAN
2033 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
JSPAN Officers
Jeffrey Pasek
President
Kenneth Fox
Vice President
Kenneth Myers
Vice President
Joel Beaver
Treasurer
Stewart Weintraub
Secretary & General Counsel
Directors:
Susan Myers, Chair
Connie Beresin
Deanne Comer
Hon. Ruth Damsker
Helen Fox
Nancy Gordon
Jerome Kaplan
Eve Klothen
Judah Labovitz
Ruth Laibson
Theodore Mann
Sidney Margulies
Joshua Pasek
Jared Solomon
Rabbi David Straus
Barry Ungar
Rabbi Avi Winokur
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In This Issue