OU Statement on a Proposed Rally in Washington Regarding the Visit of Prime Minister Olmert

May 18, 2006

Today, Stephen Savitsky, president, and Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president, issued the following statement on behalf of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America in reaction to reports of a rally being organized next week in Washington, DC to protest Israeli Prime Minister Olmert’s nascent “convergence” policy:

We at the “Orthodox Union” believe that it is inappropriate at this time, to hold a rally in Washington, DC to express differences with the democratically elected Prime Minister of Israel.

Prime Minister Olmert is making his first official visit to the United States where he will meet with the President of the Jewish state’s strongest ally and has been accorded the rare honor of addressing a joint meeting of Congress; details of Mr. Olmert’s “convergence” proposal remain unclear; and this visit is a critical opportunity to obtain for Israel the support she needs from the United States in an otherwise unsympathetic world.

In this context, the Orthodox Union believes the appropriate “address” to express concerns or differences with the elected Prime Minister is in Jerusalem, not Washington, DC.