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Jewish groups back gun restrictions for domestic abusers in high-profile Supreme Court case
(JTA) – Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement that it would consider a major case on Second Amendment rights, Jewish groups are joining an effort led by a Jewish organization for survivors of domestic abuse to back gun-rights restrictions for people convicted of domestic violence.
Jewish Women International is leading an amicus brief that also includes the organizations representing Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis, along with several interfaith organizations, in the case United States v. Rahimi.
The case, which the court announced in late June that it would consider in the coming year, concerns whether a law prohibiting people under domestic-violence restraining orders from owning firearms is a violation of the Second Amendment, which says the right to gun ownership “shall not be infringed.” Gun-control advocates worry that the court’s rightward tilt, combined with its willingness to hear the case at all, could point to a ruling that overturns the law.
The faith groups argue that preventing convicted domestic abusers from accessing firearms is not only consistent with the Second Amendment, but also a matter of religious urgency. The Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, for example, cites the Book of Leviticus in arguing that clergy should not “stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.”
“Rabbinical Assembly recognizes that acts of gun violence, whether perpetrated against the Jewish community or not, are shattering the peace and sanctity of our lives at an alarming rate,” the brief adds.
One story related in the brief, from Rabbi Bruce Kahn of Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, Maryland, relates how Kahn had counseled a non-Jewish woman who had fled her abusive former partner and is currently helping her and her children flee the area where her partner lives.
In its brief, Jewish Women International notes that one of its members was shot and killed by an estranged husband in 1988, permanently shifting the focus of the group’s mission “to break the silence about domestic abuse in the Jewish community.” It joins the brief’s other Jewish groups: the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis; the Rabbinical Council of America, which is Orthodox; the Jewish Gun Violence Prevention Roundtable; the National Collaborative of Jewish Domestic Violence Programs; and the Women’s Rabbinic Network, also from the Reform movement.
Also represented are more than a half-dozen Jewish members of an interfaith coalition against domestic and sexual violence: the Clergy Task Force to End Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community, Hadassah, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, National Council of Jewish Women, Network of Jewish Human Services Agencies, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Jewish groups and activists have long argued for stringent rules to keep guns out of the hands of people who might use them for dangerous purposes. Multiple Jewish groups, including Hadassah and the Orthodox Union, teamed up to press for federal gun-control legislation in 1968. The 2000 “Million Mom March” for gun control was launched by a woman who was distraught about the 1999 shooting by a white supremacist at a Los Angeles-area Jewish community center in which multiple children were wounded; some of the children’s parents became organizers. And Jewish students and parents from the Parkland, Florida, high school where 17 people were killed in 2018 have emerged as leading gun-control activists in the years since.
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The post Jewish groups back gun restrictions for domestic abusers in high-profile Supreme Court case appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.