December 21, 2012

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Top rabbis from the Reform and Conservative movements will join an interfaith call for greater gun controls in the wake of last week’s school massacre in Connecticut.

Rabbi David Saperstein, who directs the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, and Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, who directs the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, will appear at a press conference Friday at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. along with mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Roman Catholic and Muslim leaders.

“We must come together as people of faith, representing the range of religious traditions throughout our country, in a collective call to action to end this crisis,” Saperstein said in a release ahead of the press conference. “The time to end senseless gun violence is now, and as religious leaders, the responsibility to provide moral leadership is ours.”

President Obama this week appointed a commission to be helmed by his vice president, Joe Biden, to address controls on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, as well as broader questions of culture and mental health treatment.

Adam Lanza last week killed his mother and then, armed with weapons registered in her name, continued to Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and murdered 20 first-graders and six adults before killing himself.

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