Crisis in the Former Yugoslavia (2)

Adopted by the Executive Committee of the UAHC Board of Trustees
February, 1994

In 1992 the Executive Committee of the UAHC Board of Trustees adopted a resolution about the Crisis in the Former Yugoslavia stating, “The Western world must not turn its back on this unfolding catastrophe, which is the bloodiest factional fighting in Europe in half a century. The Jewish people in particular, bound by the memory of its own martyrs, views the violence, the ongoing violations of human rights, and the displacement of the people of that troubled region in the name of ethnic purity as intolerable. The cries of anguish of the innocent cannot be ignored.”

The Executive Committee of the Commission on Social Action met immediately following the UAHC Executive Committee meeting [in February 1994]. Two resolutions on the crisis in Bosnia were passed, both of which require[d] approval of the UAHC leadership before they [could] be implemented.

Because of the urgent nature of the situation in Bosnia, a mail ballot was conducted, presenting two resolutions, both of which were approved by a large majority of the members of the UAHC Executive Committee:

Resolution #1: The Executive Committee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations calls upon the United States and its allies, in consultation with allied military leaders and the United Nations, to undertake selective air strikes against military targets in Bosnia-Herzegovina when necessary for the protection of Bosnia’s civilian population.

Resolution #2: The Executive Committee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations urges the United States and the United Nations to lift the arms embargo against Bosnia-Herzegovina.