Newsweek posted a list of the 50 Top American Rabbis
While I was under no delusion that I would be listed, the Jewish blog world has lit up with questions and comments about who is included (and excluded from the list).
I (and others) have noted a generational bias and a disproportionate amount of Orthodox rabbis. There is also a bias towards activism over scholarship. Both of these are caused in part by the creators of this list (media powerbrokers) and their methodology.
The list also demonstrates the complex nature of the American Jewish community. While there are a number of Rabbis with YU/REITS Smicha (only Rabbi Norman Lamm is actively affiliated there). This is telling for a school that has produced more rabbis than any other and has a large, well known faculty. Similarly for my alma mater, JTS. The rise of alternative centers in Orthodoxy (Chabad, Chovevei Torah) and Conservative Judaism (UJ soon to be known as the American Jewish University) and non-movement based organizations (National Jewish Outreach Program, CLAL, Panim, Shalom Center, etc.) is changing the known faces of Judaism.
Good luck Kashering for Pesach,
Rabbi Bruce
Showing posts with label Rabbis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rabbis. Show all posts
3/29/2007
6/20/2006
Rabbis Respond Piece 1987 Soviet Jewry March
Question: Are We One People?
In 1987, 500,000 Jews marched on Washington to protest the treatment of Soviet Jews. Nearly 20 years later, it is hard to think of any issue that would galvanize so many of our people.
What unites the Jewish people today? Is our disunity irreversible? How do we get back what we lost in the ‘80s?
My Answer:
Whenever I hear of a political event (or even a large free concert), I always compare it to the 1987 Soviet Jewry March. It was both the first such event I ever attended and by far the largest.
When playing Jewish geography (I mean meeting a Jew), I use it to gauge their involvement. So many actively involved Jews attended (at least on the East Coast, but I know people came from the rest of the country as well) attended, that it is almost universal in active Jewish circles.
All other similar marches have paled in comparison, but I am not sure the cause is a demise of Jewish unity. Jews have never been united. We differ in culture/country of origin, observance level, and (although it is rarely discussed) socio-economic background.
The Soviet Jewry March occurred at the last stages of the Cold War. America came together to fight the Evil Empire and American Jews came together to free its Jews. While the cause was important, I believe the turnout was artificially high due to the Cold War undertones.
Another factor that prevents similar turnout is the large political divide in America. The divide between "Right" and "Left" has grown in our society--and in the American Jewish community as well. Jewish Theological Seminary Provost Jack Wertheimer teaches "American Jews are like the rest of Americans only moreso." We fought for Soviet Jewry with the enthusiasm of Cold War warriors and we now disagree with each other with the enthusiasm of a divided America.
B'shalom,
Rabbi Bruce
In 1987, 500,000 Jews marched on Washington to protest the treatment of Soviet Jews. Nearly 20 years later, it is hard to think of any issue that would galvanize so many of our people.
What unites the Jewish people today? Is our disunity irreversible? How do we get back what we lost in the ‘80s?
My Answer:
Whenever I hear of a political event (or even a large free concert), I always compare it to the 1987 Soviet Jewry March. It was both the first such event I ever attended and by far the largest.
When playing Jewish geography (I mean meeting a Jew), I use it to gauge their involvement. So many actively involved Jews attended (at least on the East Coast, but I know people came from the rest of the country as well) attended, that it is almost universal in active Jewish circles.
All other similar marches have paled in comparison, but I am not sure the cause is a demise of Jewish unity. Jews have never been united. We differ in culture/country of origin, observance level, and (although it is rarely discussed) socio-economic background.
The Soviet Jewry March occurred at the last stages of the Cold War. America came together to fight the Evil Empire and American Jews came together to free its Jews. While the cause was important, I believe the turnout was artificially high due to the Cold War undertones.
Another factor that prevents similar turnout is the large political divide in America. The divide between "Right" and "Left" has grown in our society--and in the American Jewish community as well. Jewish Theological Seminary Provost Jack Wertheimer teaches "American Jews are like the rest of Americans only moreso." We fought for Soviet Jewry with the enthusiasm of Cold War warriors and we now disagree with each other with the enthusiasm of a divided America.
B'shalom,
Rabbi Bruce
4/18/2006
Former Hillel Director, Jewish Leader, & Scholar Died 4/17
“We pray for the scholars and teachers associated with the study of Torah … who spread learning among the people, the leaders of the community, world leaders and those who exercise authority in the courts of sacred law.” (Prayer book).
The Jewish community of the Five Colleges and Upper Valley joins the rest of the Jewish community in mourning the death 4/17 of our esteemed former Jewish Chaplain/Hillel Director Dr. Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, z”l, a scholar and American Jewish leader involved in many of the most important Jewish events of the last sixty years. He was 84.
Dr. Rabbi Hertzberg (then studying for his PhD from Harvard) was Hillel Director of UMASS, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith during a few years of World War II. He describes this experience in one chapter of his autobiography.
You can get a sense of his personality and interests here at the NY Review of Books.
“May his disciples … and all who apply themselves in the study of Torah be granted heavenly salvation.” May his life and memory act as inspiration for us to create a better world using our ancient tradition.
Hag Sameach,
Rabbi Bruce
_____________________________________________________________
Additional Biography Taken from Wikipedia:
"His love of Judaism and the Jewish texts was at the core of his controversial life as a rabbi, scholar, educator and Jewish communal leader. Over the course of his 50 plus year career, Rabbi Hertzberg served as a congregational rabbi, president of both the American Jewish Policy Foundation and the American Jewish Congress, vice president of the World Jewish CongressCatholic-Jewish dialogue that commenced during the papacy of Pope John XXIII. As a major public figure in the world of Jewish organizational life, Hertzberg was at the center of the crucial events shaping American Jewish life since the end of World War II. He walked with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1963March to Washington and Bloody Sunday at the height of the American civil rights movement, and Henry Kissinger. Hertzberg played a major role in some of the most significant issues the world Jewish community faced in the decades following World War II, including discussions with the Catholic Church over the still unresolved conflict over the Vatican's release of documents pertaining to Pius XII and the Holocaust, as well as his outspoken criticism of the policies of Israel toward the Palestinians.
Arthur Hertzberg received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1943 and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 1966. He has taught at Princeton, Rutgers, Columbia, and Dartmouth. He was the Bronfman Visiting Professor of the Humanities at New York University from 1991 until his death in 2006. and a leading representative of world Jewry in the historic
The Jewish community of the Five Colleges and Upper Valley joins the rest of the Jewish community in mourning the death 4/17 of our esteemed former Jewish Chaplain/Hillel Director Dr. Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, z”l, a scholar and American Jewish leader involved in many of the most important Jewish events of the last sixty years. He was 84.
Dr. Rabbi Hertzberg (then studying for his PhD from Harvard) was Hillel Director of UMASS, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith during a few years of World War II. He describes this experience in one chapter of his autobiography.
You can get a sense of his personality and interests here at the NY Review of Books.
“May his disciples … and all who apply themselves in the study of Torah be granted heavenly salvation.” May his life and memory act as inspiration for us to create a better world using our ancient tradition.
Hag Sameach,
Rabbi Bruce
_____________________________________________________________
Additional Biography Taken from Wikipedia:
"His love of Judaism and the Jewish texts was at the core of his controversial life as a rabbi, scholar, educator and Jewish communal leader. Over the course of his 50 plus year career, Rabbi Hertzberg served as a congregational rabbi, president of both the American Jewish Policy Foundation and the American Jewish Congress, vice president of the World Jewish CongressCatholic-Jewish dialogue that commenced during the papacy of Pope John XXIII. As a major public figure in the world of Jewish organizational life, Hertzberg was at the center of the crucial events shaping American Jewish life since the end of World War II. He walked with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1963March to Washington and Bloody Sunday at the height of the American civil rights movement, and Henry Kissinger. Hertzberg played a major role in some of the most significant issues the world Jewish community faced in the decades following World War II, including discussions with the Catholic Church over the still unresolved conflict over the Vatican's release of documents pertaining to Pius XII and the Holocaust, as well as his outspoken criticism of the policies of Israel toward the Palestinians.
Arthur Hertzberg received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1943 and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 1966. He has taught at Princeton, Rutgers, Columbia, and Dartmouth. He was the Bronfman Visiting Professor of the Humanities at New York University from 1991 until his death in 2006. and a leading representative of world Jewry in the historic
In addition to his academic posts, Rabbi Hertzberg served as a chaplain in the United States Air Force from 1951 to '53 and rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Englewood, New Jersey, from 1956 to 1985, where he remained as rabbi emeritus until his death. He also served as president of the American Jewish Policy Foundation since 1978, president of the American Jewish Congress from 1972 to '78, and vice president of the World Jewish Congress from 1975 to 1991.
Rabbi Hertzberg was a co-editor of Essays on Jewish Life and Thought (1959) and the author of The Zionist Idea (1959), The Outbursts That Await Us (1963), The French Enlightenment and the Jews (1968), which won the first Amran Award as the best work of nonfiction in the Jewish field, Judaism (1961), Being Jewish in America (1978), The Jews in America (1989), Jewish Polemics (1992), At Home Only with God (1993), The Zionist Idea (1997), and, with Aron Hirt-Manheimer, Jews: The Essence and Character of a People (1998)."
4/08/2006
What I found When I followed some links
I was checking who sent people to my blog tonight. I followed a link to another Hillel rabbi who has a blog. I then noticed a blog for someone I studied with at Pardes. From there I got to Radical Torah. Check it out. It is very interesting.
I recently heard some of Truman Capote's letters read on NPR. He talked about a game that sounds like Six Degrees of Separation. According to Truman, someone called out the name of a celebrity and than you had to keep going by mentioning who they were married to our had an affair with until you couldn't do it anymore. Too bad he lived in a pre-web world. Who knows what would have happened.
Shavua tov,
Rabbi Bruce
I recently heard some of Truman Capote's letters read on NPR. He talked about a game that sounds like Six Degrees of Separation. According to Truman, someone called out the name of a celebrity and than you had to keep going by mentioning who they were married to our had an affair with until you couldn't do it anymore. Too bad he lived in a pre-web world. Who knows what would have happened.
Shavua tov,
Rabbi Bruce
10/22/2005
Assure Victory against Torture
From the Shalem Center:
The time is close when we can win a strong legislative barrier against the use of torture by the US government – AND WE NEED TO ACT TO ASSURE THIS MAJOR VICTORY for morality and for religious ethics.
Our action suggestions are below. Save time for them this coming Monday.
First, a review of where we are:
If you thought the torture of US prisoners was over, think again. Lawyers for the Guantanamo prisoners report disgusting & criminal acts toward helpless prisoners who have gone on hunger strike because their efforts to appeal for court hearings have been ignored or denied. See Item III below for the lawyers' report.
Yet – victory at least in legal terms is in sight.
In early May 2004, just days after revelation of the use of torture in Abu Ghraib, The Shalom Center began a campaign to win religious (and especially Jewish) support to condemn and abolish the clearly systemic and clearly sinful use of torture by the US government.
No other Jewish organizations and few in other religious communities were ready to act. At a time when the Forward newspaper reported silence in most of the official Jewish community, we condemned that silence vigorously.
Now things have begun to change. Rabbis for Human Rights/ North America took this issue as a major concern. The Union for Reform Judaism board only a few months ago adopted a condemnation of torture. It allowed Rabbi David Saperstein to join RHR/NA in meeting with
Senator John McCain – probably the only Senator in American history who has himself been the victim of torture --- to support his efforts to reaffirm existing law to forbid the use of torture.
By a vote of 90-9, the Senate has passed the McCain amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill to establish uniform guidelines for treatment of detainees and to reaffirm the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
But the President of the United States, defining the Pharaohs, Caesars, and Inquisitions of history as his spiritual and political lineage, has threatened to veto the bill if it comes with that provision.
To prevent his having to do that public act of infamy, the Administration has been working hard to block that provision in the House of Representatives, and keep it out of the bill.
The House and Senate have different versions of the Defense appropriations bill, requiring the legislation to go to a “conference committee” that will reconcile the two versions and agree on a final text.
It is crucial that the Senators and Representatives who are assigned to the conference committee retain the McCain amendment as is.
What you can do next:
Call the chair and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and the Subcommittees on Defense Appropriations. To do this, simply call the Capitol Hill switch board: (202) 224 - 3121 and ask to be connected to one of the following legislators. (Call as many as you can.)
• Senator Tad Cochran (Republican – Mississippi): Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee
•
• Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat – West Virginia): Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee
•
• Senator Ted Stevens (Republican - Alaska): Chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the Senate
•
• Senator Daniel Inouye (Democrat - Hawaii): Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the Senate
•
• Representative Jerry Lewis (Republican – California): Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee
•
• Representative David R. Obey (Democrat – Wisconsin): Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee
•
• Representative Bill Young (Republican – Florida): Chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the House
•
• Representative John Murtha (Democrat – Pennsylvania): Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the House
What to ask:
• Make clear that you are calling out of your religious, spiritual, and ethical connections and values. If you are a clergyperson, say so; if an active member of a religious community, say so.
•
Ask them to ensure the McCain amendment is retained as is by the conference committee and to encourage the President to sign it into law.
• Tell them the United States must stand without exception for the principle of human decency and against the use of torture and all forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
• Also, take the opportunity to urge Congress to establish a fully independent commission to investigate all allegations of torture and cruel treatment by agents of the U.S. Government around the world.
PLEASE SET ASIDE TIME THIS COMING MONDAY TO MAKE AT LEAST ONE AND IF POSSIBLE SEVERAL OF THESE PHONE CALLS.
The thanks you get from this action come only in a minor way from me. Far more, they come --
• from the millions of human beings who through history have been shattered in body and sometimes in spirit by torture;
• and from those who founded the United States of America with the absolute conviction that its government must never take part in that loathsome practice;
• and above all from the God Who placed the Divine Image in every human being so that It will be honored and nurtured -- neither twisted in those who use torture nor broken in those who suffer it.
****************************************************
III. GITMO LAWYERS REPORT TORTURE OF HUNGER-STRIKING PRISONERS
An attorney from one of New York's highest-prestige law firms, working also with the Center for Constitutional Rights, reports disgusting and criminal behavior by guards and physicians against hunger-striking prisoners in Guantanamo.
Julia Tarver is an attorney with the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and cooperating counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights. She obtained a court OK for public release of her declaration regarding the situation at Guant?namo.
Tarver's notes detail her interviews with her clients, Yousef Al Shehri, Abduhl-Rahman Shalabi, and Majid Al Joudi, who are currently engaged in a hunger strike. The declassified notes reveal the dire conditions of these men. According to Tarver's declaration:
. Force-feedings resulted in prisoners "vomiting up substantial amounts of blood. When they vomited blood, the soldiers mocked and cursed at them, and taunted them with statements like 'look what your religion has brought you.'"_
. "Large tubes - the thickness of a finger - were viewed by detainees as objects of torture. They were forcibly shoved up the detainees' noses and down into their stomachs. Again, no anesthesia or sedative was provided."_
. "[D]etainees were verbally abused and insulted and were restrained from head to toe. They had shackles or other restraints on their arms, legs, waist, chest, knees, and head... with these restraints in place, they were given intravenous medication (often quite painfully, as inexperienced medical professionals seemed incapable of locating appropriate veins). Their arms were swollen from multiple attempts to stick them with IV needles... If detainees moved, they were hit in the chest/heart._
. "In front of Guant?namo physicians - including the head of the detainee hospital - the guards took NG tubes from one detainee, and with no sanitization whatsoever, reinserted it into the nose of a different detainee. When these tubes were reinserted, the detainees could see the blood and stomach bile from other detainees remaining on the tubes. A person detainees only known as Dr. [redacted] stood by and watched these procedures, doing nothing to intervene."
_
. Detainee Abdul-Rahman communicated that, "one Navy doctor came and put the tube in his nose and down his throat and then just kept moving the tube up and down, until finally Abdul-Rahman started violently throwing up blood. Abdul-Rahman tried to resist the 'torture' from this physician, but he could not breathe."_
. Detainees complying with the nasal tube feeding were doing so only because they believed it had been ordered by a U.S. court, a belief that is simply untrue.
After years in U.S. custody without formal charges or a hearing on the legality of their detention - despite a Supreme Court ruling in their favor - the hunger-striking detainees at Guant?namo have come to the conclusion that, according to Abdul-Rahman,"now after four years in captivity, life and death are the same."
While the Center for Constitutional Rights and cooperating habeas counsel have continuously voiced concern for their clients' health given the length of their detention without trial and the conditions of their confinement, the situation has become acutely dangerous since detainees began their latest hunger strike on August 8, 2005.
It is unclear how many detainees are on hunger strike at this time, but as many as 200 men have participated at various times.
"What we learned on our last trip to Guant?namo was troubling to us as lawyers, as human beings, and as Americans. We never thought we would see the day when this sort of treatment took place at a facility run by the United States government.
"It is inconsistent with the rule of law this country was founded upon, and it is inconsistent with the spirit and values of the American people," said Julia Tarver.
CCR cooperating attorneys from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and many other firms have emphasized the life-threatening nature of the situation at Guant?namo. They have informed the court that the DOD has invited representatives of the American Medical Association to visit Guant?namo and investigate the medical treatment provided to prisoners on the hunger strike.
The attorneys urged the court to appoint physicians to investigate the medical treatment or to consider allowing counsel to bring their own medical experts to Guant?namo. Attorneys also asked that they be able to accompany the AMA representatives if they go.
"It is both depressing and yet profoundly moving that this hunger strike continues in the face of such horrible adversity.
"Despite the very real possibility that some of these men may die, it is deeply life-affirming that so many of these detainees living in such dire circumstances are willing to risk their lives and bodies for the sake of basic democratic values that should be, and sadly are not, part of American policy today," said Barbara Olshansky, Deputy Legal Director of the Center of Constitutional Rights.
There are plans afoot at CCR for a Fast for Justice on Noveember 1 in affirmation of the detainees' human rights. We will send more information as these plans develop.
The time is close when we can win a strong legislative barrier against the use of torture by the US government – AND WE NEED TO ACT TO ASSURE THIS MAJOR VICTORY for morality and for religious ethics.
Our action suggestions are below. Save time for them this coming Monday.
First, a review of where we are:
If you thought the torture of US prisoners was over, think again. Lawyers for the Guantanamo prisoners report disgusting & criminal acts toward helpless prisoners who have gone on hunger strike because their efforts to appeal for court hearings have been ignored or denied. See Item III below for the lawyers' report.
Yet – victory at least in legal terms is in sight.
In early May 2004, just days after revelation of the use of torture in Abu Ghraib, The Shalom Center began a campaign to win religious (and especially Jewish) support to condemn and abolish the clearly systemic and clearly sinful use of torture by the US government.
No other Jewish organizations and few in other religious communities were ready to act. At a time when the Forward newspaper reported silence in most of the official Jewish community, we condemned that silence vigorously.
Now things have begun to change. Rabbis for Human Rights/ North America took this issue as a major concern. The Union for Reform Judaism board only a few months ago adopted a condemnation of torture. It allowed Rabbi David Saperstein to join RHR/NA in meeting with
Senator John McCain – probably the only Senator in American history who has himself been the victim of torture --- to support his efforts to reaffirm existing law to forbid the use of torture.
By a vote of 90-9, the Senate has passed the McCain amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill to establish uniform guidelines for treatment of detainees and to reaffirm the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
But the President of the United States, defining the Pharaohs, Caesars, and Inquisitions of history as his spiritual and political lineage, has threatened to veto the bill if it comes with that provision.
To prevent his having to do that public act of infamy, the Administration has been working hard to block that provision in the House of Representatives, and keep it out of the bill.
The House and Senate have different versions of the Defense appropriations bill, requiring the legislation to go to a “conference committee” that will reconcile the two versions and agree on a final text.
It is crucial that the Senators and Representatives who are assigned to the conference committee retain the McCain amendment as is.
What you can do next:
Call the chair and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and the Subcommittees on Defense Appropriations. To do this, simply call the Capitol Hill switch board: (202) 224 - 3121 and ask to be connected to one of the following legislators. (Call as many as you can.)
• Senator Tad Cochran (Republican – Mississippi): Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee
•
• Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat – West Virginia): Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee
•
• Senator Ted Stevens (Republican - Alaska): Chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the Senate
•
• Senator Daniel Inouye (Democrat - Hawaii): Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the Senate
•
• Representative Jerry Lewis (Republican – California): Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee
•
• Representative David R. Obey (Democrat – Wisconsin): Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee
•
• Representative Bill Young (Republican – Florida): Chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the House
•
• Representative John Murtha (Democrat – Pennsylvania): Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the House
What to ask:
• Make clear that you are calling out of your religious, spiritual, and ethical connections and values. If you are a clergyperson, say so; if an active member of a religious community, say so.
•
Ask them to ensure the McCain amendment is retained as is by the conference committee and to encourage the President to sign it into law.
• Tell them the United States must stand without exception for the principle of human decency and against the use of torture and all forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
• Also, take the opportunity to urge Congress to establish a fully independent commission to investigate all allegations of torture and cruel treatment by agents of the U.S. Government around the world.
PLEASE SET ASIDE TIME THIS COMING MONDAY TO MAKE AT LEAST ONE AND IF POSSIBLE SEVERAL OF THESE PHONE CALLS.
The thanks you get from this action come only in a minor way from me. Far more, they come --
• from the millions of human beings who through history have been shattered in body and sometimes in spirit by torture;
• and from those who founded the United States of America with the absolute conviction that its government must never take part in that loathsome practice;
• and above all from the God Who placed the Divine Image in every human being so that It will be honored and nurtured -- neither twisted in those who use torture nor broken in those who suffer it.
****************************************************
III. GITMO LAWYERS REPORT TORTURE OF HUNGER-STRIKING PRISONERS
An attorney from one of New York's highest-prestige law firms, working also with the Center for Constitutional Rights, reports disgusting and criminal behavior by guards and physicians against hunger-striking prisoners in Guantanamo.
Julia Tarver is an attorney with the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and cooperating counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights. She obtained a court OK for public release of her declaration regarding the situation at Guant?namo.
Tarver's notes detail her interviews with her clients, Yousef Al Shehri, Abduhl-Rahman Shalabi, and Majid Al Joudi, who are currently engaged in a hunger strike. The declassified notes reveal the dire conditions of these men. According to Tarver's declaration:
. Force-feedings resulted in prisoners "vomiting up substantial amounts of blood. When they vomited blood, the soldiers mocked and cursed at them, and taunted them with statements like 'look what your religion has brought you.'"_
. "Large tubes - the thickness of a finger - were viewed by detainees as objects of torture. They were forcibly shoved up the detainees' noses and down into their stomachs. Again, no anesthesia or sedative was provided."_
. "[D]etainees were verbally abused and insulted and were restrained from head to toe. They had shackles or other restraints on their arms, legs, waist, chest, knees, and head... with these restraints in place, they were given intravenous medication (often quite painfully, as inexperienced medical professionals seemed incapable of locating appropriate veins). Their arms were swollen from multiple attempts to stick them with IV needles... If detainees moved, they were hit in the chest/heart._
. "In front of Guant?namo physicians - including the head of the detainee hospital - the guards took NG tubes from one detainee, and with no sanitization whatsoever, reinserted it into the nose of a different detainee. When these tubes were reinserted, the detainees could see the blood and stomach bile from other detainees remaining on the tubes. A person detainees only known as Dr. [redacted] stood by and watched these procedures, doing nothing to intervene."
_
. Detainee Abdul-Rahman communicated that, "one Navy doctor came and put the tube in his nose and down his throat and then just kept moving the tube up and down, until finally Abdul-Rahman started violently throwing up blood. Abdul-Rahman tried to resist the 'torture' from this physician, but he could not breathe."_
. Detainees complying with the nasal tube feeding were doing so only because they believed it had been ordered by a U.S. court, a belief that is simply untrue.
After years in U.S. custody without formal charges or a hearing on the legality of their detention - despite a Supreme Court ruling in their favor - the hunger-striking detainees at Guant?namo have come to the conclusion that, according to Abdul-Rahman,"now after four years in captivity, life and death are the same."
While the Center for Constitutional Rights and cooperating habeas counsel have continuously voiced concern for their clients' health given the length of their detention without trial and the conditions of their confinement, the situation has become acutely dangerous since detainees began their latest hunger strike on August 8, 2005.
It is unclear how many detainees are on hunger strike at this time, but as many as 200 men have participated at various times.
"What we learned on our last trip to Guant?namo was troubling to us as lawyers, as human beings, and as Americans. We never thought we would see the day when this sort of treatment took place at a facility run by the United States government.
"It is inconsistent with the rule of law this country was founded upon, and it is inconsistent with the spirit and values of the American people," said Julia Tarver.
CCR cooperating attorneys from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and many other firms have emphasized the life-threatening nature of the situation at Guant?namo. They have informed the court that the DOD has invited representatives of the American Medical Association to visit Guant?namo and investigate the medical treatment provided to prisoners on the hunger strike.
The attorneys urged the court to appoint physicians to investigate the medical treatment or to consider allowing counsel to bring their own medical experts to Guant?namo. Attorneys also asked that they be able to accompany the AMA representatives if they go.
"It is both depressing and yet profoundly moving that this hunger strike continues in the face of such horrible adversity.
"Despite the very real possibility that some of these men may die, it is deeply life-affirming that so many of these detainees living in such dire circumstances are willing to risk their lives and bodies for the sake of basic democratic values that should be, and sadly are not, part of American policy today," said Barbara Olshansky, Deputy Legal Director of the Center of Constitutional Rights.
There are plans afoot at CCR for a Fast for Justice on Noveember 1 in affirmation of the detainees' human rights. We will send more information as these plans develop.
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