title:  Rabbis Cancel Annual Call With President Over Trump’s Open Support Of White Supremacists
text: Rabbis representing four prominent Jewish organizations have decided that they will not hold their annual conference call with the President because the man currently holding that office openly supports white supremacists.Following Trump s atrocious response to the tragic events in Charlottesville, the rabbis issued a statement explaining that they simply  cannot organize such a call this year.  They said that this decision was made because Trump s reaction to Nazis marching in the streets and the death of Heather Heyer was  lacking in moral leadership and empathy for the victims of racial and religious hatred. We have concluded that President Trump s statements during and after the tragic events in Charlottesville are so lacking in moral leadership and empathy for the victims of racial and religious hatred that we cannot organize such a call this year,  the rabbis wrote. The President s words have given succor to those who advocate anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia,  they wrote.  Responsibility for the violence that occurred in Charlottesville, including the death of Heather Heyer, does not lie with many sides but with one side: the Nazis, alt-right and white supremacists who brought their hate to a peaceful community. They must be roundly condemned at all levels. In the days following the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that left three people dead, Trump insisted that  many sides  were to blame for the violence. The rabbis concluded by saying that they would  pray that President Trump will recognize and remedy the grave error he has made in abetting the voices of hatred.   They added that they will also  pray that those who traffic in anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia will see that there is no place for such pernicious philosophies in a civilized society. The statement was signed by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, The Rabbinical Assembly, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.Featured image via Bill Pugliano/Getty Images