NATO Action in Kosovo (1999)

For the Jewish community, the moral imperative to end Serbian atrocities against Ethnic Albanians is clear. Elie Wiesel warned, “We must come to the defense of defenseless victims…we cannot allow people like Milosevic to go on killing men and women and children….We should have done it earlier but it’s not too late.” Although there can be no comparison between the atrocities committed by Serbia against ethnic Albanians and the Nazis’ systematic extermination of six million Jews, the Jewish experience and the lessons of the Holocaust help to shed light on what it is at issue in Kosovo. Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said that if Jews remain silent in the face of atrocities committed against other ethnic or religious populations, we will lose all our credibility.

Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, in concert with all responsible American Jewish organizations, supports the government of the United States in its joint military efforts with NATO to force the Yugoslavian government to come to the diplomatic table to resolve the conflict in a fair and humane manner.

We express our support for the efforts of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to provide relief for the refugees of Kosovo.