December 18, 2012

(JTA) — United Synagogue Youth has planned a rally against gun violence to be held in Boston’s Copley Square.

The rally, Praying with Our Feet: Rally Against Gun Violence, is scheduled for Dec. 26 in Boston’s Copley Square, as part of the Conservative movement youth organization’s annual international convention. It is being planned in the wake of the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Rabbi Steven Wernick, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and Chicago Pastor Corey Brooks of Project Hood are scheduled to lead the rally of teen USY members and staff. Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech shootings of 2007 who works with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and singer Josh Nelson also have agreed to participate. 

“It is unconscionable that — with the escalation of gun violence in our nation — there has been no real progress on the federal level,” Wernick said in a statement. “It is time to force the hand of Congress to confront the National Rifle Association and their supporters. The massacre in Newtown, Conn. wounded the very soul of America. I am touched as a parent as well as a rabbi. The time has come to act.”
 

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