Long Island's Oldest Reform Congregation
140 Central Avenue - Lawrence, NY 11559
(516) 239-1140

Rabbi Allen S. Kaplan

By the time you read this column, Timothy McVeigh may have already been executed for the horrendous crime that he committed when he set the bomb that murdered scores of people in the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His original execution date has been delayed in order that recent evidence that was in the position of the FBI has been examined by his defense attorneys. More than likely, however, he eventually will be put to death by lethal injection that will be witnessed by people in attendance at the Federal Prison or via closed-circuit television and on the internet.

Timothy McVeigh is an evil, despicable human being. He is an unrepentant murderer. Having said that, however, I am opposed to his execution for the monstrous crimes he has committed. He has stated that he has no feelings of remorse for his thoroughly evil act and that he welcomes the death penalty. And,perhaps, if I were in his place, without any hope of ever being freed from prison, I, too, would welcome the finality of death. His execution by the State will not bring one person whom he murdered back to life. It will do nothing to really comfort the mourners who have suffered so greatly. It will, however, be a stain on our national psyche that will diminish our moral rectitude.

In 1959, the Central Conference of American Rabbis passed a sensitive, well thought out resolution opposing capital punishment. Capital punishment gives license to the State to murder an individual for his or her criminal acts. However, capital punishment serves no practical purpose. It has been proven to not be a deterrent to crime. It is plain and simple revenge which debases our entire penal system and brutalizes the human spirit.

I feel for those who lost loved ones in the bombing of the Murrah Building. I know that their pain is intense and will not be easily assuaged, always a wound that they will bear in their hearts. But the execution of Timothy McVeigh will not change one thing.

This will be my last column. I want to tell all of you how much I enjoyed serving as your interim rabbi. I have shared a lot with you and I will leave with good memories of the men, women and children of this congregation.

Shalom. L’hitraot.