Our group, “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,” recently surged well past 5,000 members across the USA, Israel, and the world. The Israeli Knesset’s highly publicized passage of two death penalty laws earlier this year marks a significant reason for this abrupt increase in membership. Many observers have understandably assumed that L’chaim was born of these recent pieces of legislation that have become quite contentious across the Jewish world. The truth runs much deeper, however. L’chaim began fighting the proverbial man-made Angel of Death that is capital punishment many years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the face of an “epidemic” of state killings across the USA. The foundation of its mission lay in generations of dedicated Jewish death penalty abolitionists on whose shoulders the members of L’chaim proudly stand. L’chaim’s recent membership milestone merits a closer look at its history. Before delving into the provenance of L’chaim, a word about exactly what this group is and does.

L’chaim is a Hebrew word, which means “To Life”, invoking the Biblical mandate וּבָֽחַרְתָּ֙ בַּֽחַיִּ֔ים “And choose life” (Deut. 30: 19). Like most abolitionist groups, L’chaim advocates tirelessly against the death penalty in every single case, for both the innocent and the guilty – without exception. L’chaim’s stance is grounded in the fact that many of its members are direct descendants of Holocaust survivors, such as famous death penalty abolitionist and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), who famously said of capital punishment: “Death should never be the answer in a civilized society.”  Wiesel also said the following, which is akin to an anthem at L’chaim:​

“With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the angel of death.”

L’chaim follows in the footsteps of Jewish theologian Martin Buber, and other Jewish human rights luminaries, as well as Holocaust survivors like Nelly Sachs, who opposed the execution of the Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann, whose murder Buber famously called a “great mistake.” L’chaim is keenly aware that the USA continues to carry on the Nazi legacy that is lethal injection, which was first implemented in this world by the Third Reich as part of its infamous Aktion T4 protocol, as developed by Dr. Karl Brandt, personal physician of Adolf Hitler. More and more states also continue to build and use gas chambers, including one that utilizes Zyklon B, the lethal gas of Auschwitz infamy, and lethal gas masks. All of this continues, even though the death penalty is proven to be racist in its application and that it has been disproven time and again as a deterrence to crime. Against all these developments, L’chaim members vociferously chant “NEVER AGAIN to state-sponsored murder!”

L’chaim’s list of international press is extensive. Its members make regular calls to all actively executing heads of state, sign daily petitions, draft op-eds, deliver synagogue sermons and programs, and engage in regular TV, online radio and podcast interviews In recent years, L’chaim’s activism has focused on the case of the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter. This included a live presentation to Congregation Dor Hadash, a Reconstructionist Jewish community in Pittsburgh that rented space inside the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation, and was one of the three congregations affected by the October 27, 2018, mass shooting. It also featured our prayers for the victims of the Tree of Life shooting on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court as part of the annual Fast and Vigil to Abolish the Death Penalty, as well as a full-length episode interview that we held on “Democracy Now!” with host Amy Goodman. (L’chaim’s very logo incorporates Eitz Chaim – the Tree of Life – in homage to that eponymous........

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