WASHINGTON (JTA) – Jews are being urged to pray during Yom Kippur services for an end to the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
The Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America are asking their congregations to dedicate time during their High Holidays services despite the fact that “Yom Kippur is not a day for politics.”
“The threat is dire and demands our attention on our holiest day,” the two groups affiliated with the Orthodox movement noted in a statement sent to member congregations.
“Yom Kippur 5773 is different. On this Yom Kippur — the world faces an evil regime whose leaders have publicly committed themselves to destroying the State of Israel and to harming Jews worldwide; in addition, the Iranians are a threat to the global community.”
On this High Holy Day, “God determines which nations shall face war and which shall enjoy peace,” the statement reads, and therefore Jews should “contemplate with anxiety the fate of the State of Israel and her people, of Jews throughout the world and, indeed, of civilization as a whole.”
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