50th General Assembly
October 1969
Miami Beach, FL
Whereas Judaism first evoked the vision of world peace, our prophets dreamed of a day when nations would convert the swords of war into the plowshares of peace. Our Jewish history and tradition constitute an indomitable affirmation of life. ""I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse...Therefore, choose you life, that you mayest live, you and your seed.' (Deut. 30:19)
The debate over deployment of an ABM system illuminated the fundamental question now facing the American people: How may our national priorities be reordered so as to utilize our resources toward the solution of the grave problems which beset us?
Now, therefore, be it resolved:
- We reaffirm the prior positions of the UAHC, advocating international cooperation, arms limitation and control and primary utilization of our economic and technical resources for the amelioration of poverty and the fulfillment of human needs.
- We urge our government, and particularly the United States Congress, to reduce military expenditures so that more of our funds can be made available for the fulfillment of human needs at home and abroad.
- We urge upon this country and all nations engaged in the armaments race a cessation in the deployment of ever deadlier weapons systems, such as the ABM and MIRV and their Soviet counterparts, which tend to escalate the international arms race and to cancel each other out at higher and higher levels of coast and danger as they proliferate. We would urge our government to take all necessary steps to achieve agreement with the Soviet Union in the conference between those nations beginning in Helsinki on November 17, to the end that there be a cessation of the arms race, that there be reached an accord whereby the two greatest nations in the world will forswear the use of strategic weapons as a matter of national defense.
- We are encouraged by the successful negotiation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 and its ratification this year by the United States Senate. We look forward to its early ratification by all signatory nations and ultimately to its acceptance by all the nations of the world.