U.S. Jewish leaders call for boycott of Beijing Olympics

A wide-ranging group of U.S. Jewish leaders plans to release a statement Wednesday urging Jews worldwide to boycott the Summer Olympics in Beijing, citing China's troubling record on human rights and Tibet.

The statement also notes China's close relationships with Iran, Syria and the militant group Hamas.
So far, 175 rabbis, seminary officials and other prominent Jews have signed the declaration, which comes shortly before Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, organizers said.

Friday, organizers said.

"We are deeply troubled by China's support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas," the statement reads.

"Having endured the bitter experience of abandonment by our presumed allies during the Holocaust, we feel a particular obligation to speak out against injustice and persecution today."

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, past chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, said signers are not alleging that the Chinese government is the equivalent of the Nazi regime, but that China, like Germany in 1936, is trying to use the Olympics as a public relations tool to deflect attention from its record.

The declaration was organized by Greenberg and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of New York - both Orthodox Jews - and the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

Haaretz

Remind me of 1933 when the World Jewry Boycotted and then Declared War On Germany

The English edition of Mein Kampf was still in the process of printing and publication when Jewry declared war on the national Socialist regime, and started an intensive blockade against Germany.

The International Jewish Boycott Conference was assembled in Holland in the summer of 1933 under the Presidency of Mr. Samuel Untermeyer, of the U.S.A., who was elected President of the World Jewish Economic Federation formed to combat the opposition to Jews in Germany.

On his return to the U.S.A., Mr. Untermeyer gave an address over Station W.A.B.C., the text of which, as printed in the New York Times of August 7th, 1933, I have before me. Mr. Untermeyer referred in the opening phrases to:

"The holy war in the cause of humanity in which we are embarked";

and proceeded to develop the subject at great length, describing the Jews as the aristocrats of the world.

"Each of you, Jew and Gentile alike, who has not already enlisted in this sacred war should do so now and here." More