World Peace
46th General Assembly
November 1961
Washington, D.C.
WORLD PEACE
The prophets of Israel first gave the world the vision of universal peace. This vision has become a stark necessity if mankind is to survive in this age of
unimaginable weapons. Despite the darkening shadows and the mounting dangers of our time, we reaffirm our undimmed faith in man's capacity to establish
God's Kingdom on earth. True to the optimistic spirit of Judaism, we refuse to accept defeatism, to subside into numb resignation. Rather, we pledge
ourselves anew to the most urgent religious challenge on the agenda of mankind: to achieve a just and enduring peace.
Accordingly, we:
- Deeply deplore the resumption by the USSR of nuclear testing in the atmosphere. The leaders of the Soviet Union have demonstrated a contempt for the opinions of mankind, a callous disregard for the health of generations not yet born, and a brutal effort to intimidate governments and peoples through sheer terror.
- Commend our government for its policy of restraint in regard to nuclear testing in the atmosphere. We warmly endorse the statement of President Kennedy that the United States will never resort to nuclear testing in the atmosphere for psychological reasons or political expediency.
- Rededicate ourselves to join hands with other religious groups in preserving and strengthening the United Nations. The world body has been gravely weakened by the death of Dag Hammarskjold and by the damage inflicted by the Communist bloc abroad and the extreme right in the United States. Men of good will, of all faiths, must rally to keep alive the vision of a world of law and justice.
- Commend the United States and Canada for intensified efforts to achieve universal, enforceable disarmament and urged that all such efforts be carried forward with the greatest of urgency and imagination. In this regard, we express gratification that the United States Congress has established an Arms Control and Disarmament Agency to augment and accelerate studies and planning in this field.
- Pledge our support to the United Nations program of "Freedom From Hunger", which is designed to enlist the moral resources of the world behind a program to alleviate hunger which now shadows and haunts the lives of two-thirds of the people of the world.
- Commend the President of the United States on the establishment of the Peace Corps, which is an act of vision and faith worthy of the ideals of the United States of America.
- Pledge ourselves to study the problems threatening world peace and to seek, in all ways possible, to translate religious principles into concrete action.