August 25, 2005
Jewish officials and other religious leaders discussed religious tolerance issues with Donald Rumsfeld. The U.S. defense secretary expressed support for forthcoming guidelines on religious tolerance in the Air Force on Wednesday, in the wake of discriminatory practices at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and said that if the guidelines were effective they could be replicated at other branches of the military, sources told JTA. The religious leaders also were briefed about accommodations at a prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Jewish community was represented by Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Washington director of American Friends of Lubavitch; Jason Isaacson, director of government and international affairs for the American Jewish Committee; Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America; and Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
