Dear YWN, 

While I normally do not distribute our internal communications, because of the possible nearing of the New York State Senate vote on the same gender marriage bill, I am sharing with you the below for distribution.

One is a letter urging our Mosdos to individually contact the Senate, the other a letter the UJO sent to all members of the NYS State Senate.

Thanks.

Rabbi David Niederman
President
United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg
32 Penn St.

Dear Mosdos:

Please find below the text of a letter we have sent to all members of the New York State Senate as per the direction of our Rabbinic leadership regarding our opposition to the legalization of same gender marriage in New York. I hope all our Mosdos will individually take the opportunity to contact the New York State Senate to voice your Mosod’s opposition to the legalization of same gender marriage.

As it appears that this bill will be voted on soon, now is the time for us to be heard on this issue.

Sincerely,

Rabbi David Niederman

Dear Senator:

The United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg represents a consortium of nearly 200 local community organizations in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with a constituency of 70,000 people. It is on their behalf and at the direction of our Rabbinic leadership that we are contacting you to sympathize with the strong and united opposition to the legalization of same gender marriage in the State New York.

While in Albany on Monday, I met with many of our honorable Senators to discuss two issues, one was ensure no reduction to mandated services funding which would have greatly impacted the ability of our private schools to function over the course of the academic year. This cut would have forced schools to raise our community’s low school tuition which many parents already cannot afford. The other issue was our opposition to the legalization of same gender marriage in New York At the time it did not look like the same gender marriage bill would come to a vote, however now it appears that a vote might be near and so I am contacting you again with a sense of real urgency and a repeat of my request.

This issue has been hotly debated and you have heard many arguments on both sides. I am sure you are aware of the seemingly countless and correct, religious, social and legal reasons to oppose same gender marriage in the State of New York. We want to advise you that as a community, this bill is an affront to what we stand for, and as a community the impact of this bill will be locally felt despite our religiously mandated opposition to same gender marriage. This bill will force us to accept the State’s definition of marriage in ways that we are religiously unable to comply with.

For thousands of years, marriage across the globe was defined as a union between a man and a woman. This is not and never was a discriminatory practice.  Universally, marriage is an affirmation of human biology and the sanctity of the family. Same gender marriage fails to meet both of these universalistic values.  There is no need to change the institution of marriage, rather we should proudly speak for the valued and cherished marriage structure that most of humanity for all of history was born into.

I respectfully urge you and your colleagues in the Senate to please vote no on the same gender marriage bill. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Rabbi David Niederman
President

(YWN Desk – NYC)