American Jewish Leaders Call for Aid to Palestinians : Mideast: Rabbis appeal in Rosh Hashanah sermons as national groups echo support for Holy Land accord.

In stunning and unprecedented appeals, rabbis and other leaders in American Judaism called Wednesday for U.S. government aid and private financial support to Palestinians to build self-rule on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The calls, issued in hastily rewritten Rosh Hashanah sermons marking the Jewish New Year and in statements by leading Jewish groups, came just two days after Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a momentous accord on the White House lawn, ushering in what many see as breathtaking changes sweeping over the Holy Land.

The accord provides for the establishment of an interim Palestinian self-government authority in the disputed Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Jericho, leading to a permanent settlement within five years. The Israeli-occupied territories were seized by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Among those backing economic aid for the Palestinians were the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the central body of 850 Reform Judaism congregations in the United States and Canada, and Lester Pollack, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an alliance of 50 national Jewish groups. Among those in the alliance are the American Jewish Congress, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

While all urged continued support for Israel and reminded their congregants not to underestimate the difficulties ahead, some rabbis called for unprecedented backing by their members for financial aid to the Palestinians.

In Los Angeles, Reform Rabbi Harvey J. Fields of Wilshire Boulevard Temple and Conservative Rabbi Joel Rembaum of Temple Beth Am also backed financial aid.

In remarks prepared for Rosh Hashanah services Wednesday night, Fields told congregants, “Just as we raise our voices for support of Israel, we will now need to raise our voices in support of economic aid for the Palestinians from the United States, Japan, European nations and from the Arab states.”

Growing Jewish support for Palestinian aid followed personal appeals in Washington on Monday by President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. They called on 170 Arab-Americans and American Jews to support U.S. financial aid, a Jewish spokesman in New York said.

The Clinton Administration said Monday that it would solicit an estimated $1 billion in funds from wealthy Arab governments, the European Community and Japan to help defray the cost of setting up the Palestinian governing body.

There were voices of opposition. Rabbi Baruch Hecht, associate director of the Chabad movement on the West Coast, said in Los Angeles the accord was a “big mistake.”

Nonetheless, Fields said he believed support was widespread. “My sense is there is a huge amount of positive reaction in the American Jewish community and, for that matter, in Israel.”

Rembaum, the Conservative rabbi and president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, which includes Orthodox, Conservative and Reform clergy, concurred.

“I agree with the call for support for such (economic) assistance,” said Rembaum. “There is no question that assistance to the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza area where there is abject poverty, will be a stabilizing factor.”

In New York, Pollack of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said a just and lasting peace must be grounded in economic stability.

“If people in the region don’t see the benefits, they’re likely to be susceptible to the pleas of religious radical terrorism,” said Pollack. “I’ve been a supporter of economic development and I think it should be both public and private initiatives at this point because there are real opportunities for peace.”

Pollack, one of the Jewish leaders who met with Clinton and Gore on Monday, said he expected his organization to respond quickly.

“I would believe that we would try to provide some catalytic action for this. We have to achieve a consensus, but I would think (because) things are moving very rapidly, we would have to move very rapidly,” Pollack said.

Meanwhile, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations issued a similar appeal and urged coalitions with other Jewish organizations “to encourage broad, grass-roots support for the agreement and the peace process.”

The contrasts could not have been more dramatic between Wednesday’s declarations and those delivered 20 years ago when the end of the High Holy Days was marked by the opening of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

Despite the unprecedented blessing by many rabbis for aid to the Palestinians, all urged caution as well.

“I’m going to end (my Rosh Hashanah sermon) with a prayer that the optimists are right that this will be peace, but also with a warning that one has to be vigilant,” said Rabbi Abner Weiss of Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills.

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