Capital Punishment (1978)

Capital Punishment – Abolition – Life Imprisonment (1978)

Judaism has always regarded capital punishment as repugnant to its tradition and to the most noble instincts of man. To the Jewish people, life is sacred.

We therefore recommend that Women’s League for Conservative Judaism and its affiliated Sisterhoods continue to take a stand for the abolition of capital punishment.

Simultaneously, Women’s League for Conservative Judaism recommends that its Sisterhoods and their members urge their State legislatures to enact the laws necessary to mandate that a capital crime be punishable by life imprisonment with no parole.

Capital Punishment – Abolition – States & Provinces (1960)

“And God created man in His own image, In the image of God created He him.” – Genesis 1:27

Judaism has always regarded capital punishment repugnant to its tradition and to the most noble instincts of man. Even where the Bible prescribes such a punishment, Jewish rabbinic and ethical tradition have so interpreted this sanction as to make its application virtually impossible.

Man has been created in God’s image, and as such is endowed with sanctity. His life is God given and his life ends by the grace of God. No man individually or group of men collectively may take the life of another even in what may seem to be just retribution to society for a heinous crime.

National Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America believes that the time has come for the abolition of capital punishment from the statute books of all the states and provinces and we urge this course upon the various legislatures and the governors of states and provinces where capital punishment is still in force.