QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “As representatives of a community that has been a victim of both
persecution and terrorism, we are deeply concerned that the United States
implements policies that enhance our national security while maintaining our
country’s fundamental commitment to refugee protection.”
-- Jewish community leaders, in a letter to the U.S.
Senate protesting the REAL ID Act.
Friday Footnote #17 … February 25, 2005
A
publication of The Baltimore Jewish Council.
5750 Park Heights Avenue. Baltimore MD 21215.
Phone:
(410) 542-4850.
Visit
our website: www.baltjc.org.
Contents
1. Legislative update
3. Worth a read
…And click here for our archive of
previous Friday Footnotes.
|
W |
elcome, friends, to another edition of the Friday Footnote, a
weekly letter about Maryland politics and the Jewish community.
Today marks the 45th day, the halfway point, of
the 2005 Maryland General Assembly session …. it only feels like the 45th week. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “If I had more time I would have
written less.” So please forgive my
verbosity – it’s a very busy time of year.
We are receiving more and more RSVPs from legislators and
community members for our Maryland Jewish Alliance Advocacy Day reception on
Monday March 7 at 6:30 p.m. in Annapolis.
I hope you’ll join us, too. Click here
for more information, within our new Baltimore Jewish Council website, www.baltjc.org. .
Finally, our thanks to the Baltimore Jewish Times for
posting these Friday Footnotes. Go to www.jewishtimes.com to find them.
And as always, I hope you and your family have a pleasant
and peaceful Shabbat.
- David
Please mark your calendars for this important program offered by the BJC’s
Hasbarah Committee (and to receive regular updates on Israel-related programs,
press and other information, click
here to sign up for the Israel
Connection e-newsletter.)
“Challenges of a Democracy Fighting Terror: Four Years of Representing
the Israeli Army to the Foreign Press,”
a discussion with Jacob Dallal,
Deputy Director, International Press Office of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit
Tuesday, March 15, 2005 at 12:00 noon;
THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of
Baltimore
101 West Mount Royal Avenue; Board Room
Legislative update
By now you may have heard that the House of Delegates, after
long and impassioned debate, today approved the slot machines bill by a vote of
71 to 66 – a 1-vote margin. First
immediate impact: a surge in cell phone usage as scores of lobbyists rushed to
the State House hallways to report the vote to their clients.
Debate in the House of Delegates over legalizing slot
machines (House Bill 1361) dominated the energy and attention of Annapolis this week,
needless to say.
Speaker Michael Busch seems disinclined to make substantive
changes in a predicted conference committee between the House and Senate. For those watching this issue, keep an eye
out for who is named to that committee – it may reveal some about the Senate
President’s and House Speaker’s strategies (although it’s likely only those
most loyal to their presiding officers will be named).
Several important details have emerged about the House version of the bill. One is that it does not allow for slots at Pimlico Race Track. However, thanks in part to work by LifeBridge Health lobbyist Martha Nathanson, delegates from the 40th, 41st and 11th districts worked to ensure the bill mandates that substantial slots revenues be used for “capital projects benefiting economic and community development” in the neighborhoods near the track.
As approved
tentatively by the House, that amount could total $13.5 million per year for
Pimlico area neighborhoods, or 45 percent of all revenues going to the City
from slot machines.
Other business was being
conducted down here. We testified on a bill from Sen. Leonard Teitelbaum of
Montgomery County to create a task force that would make recommendations about
establishing an academic Center of Excellence in the University of Maryland
System to study Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights Abuses and Tolerance
education (Senate
Bill 440). The idea is to help
develop curricula, resources and best practices for teachers throughout the
state to better educate students about the lessons we must learn from man’s
greatest atrocities.
In our testimony we wrote,
in part,
“There is a known link between violence, vandalism and
ethnic and racial intolerance. However,
national studies indicate that fewer than 25% of students have an understanding
of the organized attempts throughout history at the elimination of various
ethnic groups through systematic programs of mass killings or genocide. … At
the same time as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of the Nazi death camps we continue to witness acts of genocide in
places like the Sudan. The importance
of Holocaust, genocide, human rights and tolerance education cannot be
understated.”
We also offered amendments to
the bill that would avoid conflicts between different ethnic groups about the
composition of the proposed task force.
On the federal budget front, more information and analysis continues to be generated on the President’s proposed budget. Here, a group called National Priorities, breaks down some of the budget’s impact on Maryland: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/impact05/md.pdf (you’ll need an Adobe Acrobat reader).
ATTENTION
YOUNG ADULTS!
Get Out and Join In at the 14th annual Straight From the Heart
Day!
When: Sunday, March 20, 2005, 9:30AM -12:00PM
Where: Meet at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center (2434 W. Belvedere Dr.)
What: Join other young adult volunteers for breakfast, then go out into the
community and make a difference at one of several exciting volunteer
projects! Opportunities range from building a nature trail to visiting
patients with AIDS
to
creating Purim crafts at an assisted living facility.
For a complete list of projects
and to register today, visit www.associated.org/jvc
or contact JVC at 410-369-9242, [email protected].
Protestant divestment discussion
Here is an update on efforts to work with Protestant denominations on the issue of Israel and divestment. It comes from our colleagues at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
From:
Rachel Lerner, Coordinator of
Community Relations, JCPA/UJC
Re: Update on Church
Divestment
Many of you have been hearing about divestment plans coming
out of various churches. We would like to offer some clarification and
steps for action.
Two weeks ago, the United Church of Christ issued a study
document titled “The Palestinians,
We urge CRC and federation professionals to talk to those
UCC (Congregationalist) leaders with whom you have existing relationships, and
to explore relationships where you have none. Additionally, we recommend
that the same be done with leaders in the Lutheran (ELCA) Church, which will
also be holding its bi-annual conference this summer (August 8-14).
Friends of
Finally, the World Council of Churches (WCC) has urged its
members to consider economic actions against
Worth a read
As the vote on slots approached, the Montgomery Gazette had
these offerings on the issue:
· No matter what, Ehrlich wins
· His odyssey nearly over, Busch watches, waits
· Slots vote is expected to be close
And The Post weighed in this week with:
·
Late
Attempts Fail to Hinder Slots Proposal
And from The Sun:
·
House
expected to vote today on slot-machine legislation
The Gazette
also had this story about possible movement on a bill we wrote about last week:
· Abortion debate ensnares fetus protection bill
And here’s an interesting profile of Jewish Delegate Luiz
Simmons of Montgomery County:
·
The
roadblock on a side street – “Del.
Luiz R.S. Simmons' hard-line position against slots sometimes invites
arm-twisting … Simmons … a Republican turned Democrat, is comfortable outside
legislative leadership.”
Outside of the Legislature …
With the Pope’s health in continued decline, the Baltimore
Jewish Times takes a close look at where Jewish-Catholic relations may be
headed in the future in this cover story: “From
Rome To Jerusalem,” by veteran Timesman Neil Rubin.
“In this age of terrorism, finding
the correct balance between security and the traditional values of pluralistic
America is getting harder by the day. But the Real ID Act, recently passed by
the House, isn’t even a close call. It is dangerous, mean-spirited legislation
that could undercut a fundamental value of American society.”
So begins an editorial in the New York Jewish Week entitled “Keep the Doors Open,” regarding the so-called REAL ID Act in Congress, that passed the House and has moved on to the Senate. The Baltimore Jewish Council joined with many other Jewish organizations in sending a letter to Senators opposing this misguided legislation.
Jewish
Community Letter on REAL ID Act (Sent to All Members of the United States
Senate)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
February 24, 2005
Dear Senator:
As representatives of a
community that has been a victim of both persecution and terrorism, we are
deeply concerned that the United States implements policies that enhance our
national security while maintaining our country’s fundamental commitment to
refugee protection. We note with great
dismay that the House of Representatives’ approach to the important issues
contained in the REAL ID Act (H.R.418) failed to forthrightly address the most
pressing security issues related to undocumented migration and creates new
burdens on refugees seeking safe haven in the United States.
As the Senate considers how
to respond to H.R. 418, we urge you to reject the fast-track approach taken by
the House of Representatives and to ensure that a bill of this magnitude is
given full consideration before it is rushed to a final vote. We also hope that essential legislation
funding U.S. troops and crucial humanitarian commitments such as tsunami relief
will not be used to force passage of this legislation without providing
opportunities for significant alteration of the bill.
A particularly egregious aspect of H.R. 418 is Section 101, which would
allow a refugee to be denied asylum if he or she is unable to produce documents
that confirm his or her testimony, even when the testimony provided has been deemed
credible; require a refugee to prove his or her persecutor’s “central reason”
for the persecution, often difficult in the common mixed motive cases; give
immigration officers or immigration judge broad latitude to deny asylum based
on his or her perceived “demeanor”; and restrict stays of removal that are
essential to prevent asylum seekers from being returned to their counties of
persecution during the appeal of their denied applications.
These provisions in Section 101 will greatly undermine the ability of
refugees fleeing religious persecution and other forms of violence and abuse to
make claims for political asylum. The
bill’s proponents in the House sought to create the impression that changes are
necessary to keep terrorists from obtaining asylum. In fact, terrorists and others believed to be a danger to the
United States are already statutorily barred from asylum. These allegations also fail to recognize the
extensive security reviews performed by the CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland
Security, and State Department that all asylum applicants undergo, as well as
the reforms of the U.S. asylum system in the mid 1990s. Many of these reforms responded to the
legitimate concerns at that time that asylum applicants could disappear during
the many years it took to process their applications.
While H.R. 418 would harm asylum seekers, including
many victims of religious persecution, it would do nothing to address the
fundamental problem of undocumented migration.
The millions of undocumented migrants who cross our borders each year,
and the eight to twelve million undocumented migrants currently residing in
this country, create a humanitarian and a security crisis for our country. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is
essential for immigration authorities to gain control over our borders and to
target enforcement resources on terrorists and criminals, rather than ordinary
migrants simply seeking a better life for their families.
In the most recent State of the Union address, President Bush recognized
the vital need to address problems associated with undocumented migration. While we realize that this is a difficult
effort, we strongly urge you to support the development of bi-partisan
Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation. In the interim, we ask that you
begin the process of directly responding to the security implications inherent
to the current problems of undocumented migration by moving forward on the
consideration of the AgJOBS and DREAM Acts, legislation that would assist
undocumented agricultural workers and high school students.
We sincerely believe that an honest assessment of the United States’
immigration priorities, as well as our fundamental national security needs,
warrants focusing on the challenge of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The hasty approach – resulting in onerous
and unnecessary measures directed at legitimate seekers of asylum and refugees
status – taken by the House in passing the REAL ID Act is, in contrast, the
wrong way to approach this difficult, but essential, task.
Thank you for considering our views.