Jackson Calls On Atty. Gen. Reno to Help : Law: He says she should walk L.A.’s streets with religious leaders to foster confidence in the justice system before verdicts are reached in the King case.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson called Wednesday for Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to help restore confidence in the justice system by walking the streets of Los Angeles with religious leaders before the jury gives its verdict in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial.

“We need . . . to create confidence in the justice system now,” he told a rabbinical convention in Century City. “Not react (after the fact), but (act) now.”

Citing statistics that show only 263 prosecutions out of 47,000 complaints of police brutality filed with the Justice Department since 1986, he said that religious leaders should pressure the government to follow up on the attention drawn by the videotaping of the King beating.

“We must first, rabbi, go together to the Justice Department,” he said to delegates at the annual meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly, which represents 1,400 Conservative rabbis from around the world. “We must ask the attorney general to walk the streets of Los Angeles with us.”

Jackson has had his critics in the Jewish community, where his use of an epithet for Jews during the 1984 presidential campaign and his statements of support for the Palestinian cause have not been forgotten.

But he has been trying for years to repair the breach, visiting synagogues, speaking with Hafez Assad and Mikhail S. Gorbachev on behalf of the Jews of Syria and the former Soviet Union, marching against neo-Nazis and praising Zionism as a “liberation movement.”

He was given three standing ovations Wednesday by the rabbinical assembly delegates, whose three-day annual meeting ends today.

Some of the 380 delegates even hissed when Rabbi Martin Levin of La Jolla challenged Jackson to work on moderating anti-Jewish feelings in the African-American community. If he did, Levin said, he would win more support.

“I’m not here seeking votes,” the two-time presidential candidate responded. “I’m asking you for understanding and to be part of a coalition for your own interest. Don’t do me no favor. These cities are going to explode unless we have racial justice for everybody.”

During the meeting, Jackson and leaders of the Rabbinical Assembly recalled the partnership of black and Jewish groups during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. They also announced plans to invite President Clinton to a conference of social justice to be held later this year or early in 1994.

Jackson criticized the Clinton Administration for continuing the blockade of Haitian refugees, comparing the plight of the escaping Haitians to that of Japanese-Americans held in internment camps and Jews who tried to flee Nazi Europe only to be turned away by U.S. authorities during World War II.

“Last year when Bush turned Haitians back to sea without a hearing, Clinton said it was immoral and illegal,” Jackson said. “Now he’s doing the same thing. It’s still immoral and it’s still illegal.”