For Immediate Release
September 1, 2010
To speak directly to RCC about this statement, contact: Cantor Michael Davis, 847-529-3572

Chicago Jewish Clergy Group Supports Hotel Workers in Boycott

CHICAGO, IL – Chicago’s newest Jewish clergy group, Reform Cantors of Chicago (RCC), issued a statement today urging Jewish institutions and individuals to support Hyatt workers in their call to boycott the Hyatt Regency, Hyatt O’Hare and Park Hyatt.  The Cantors call on Hyatt Hotels Corp. to sign a contract with workers that honors fair labor practices and allows workers to earn a fair, living wage

According to the statement, “the hard-working laborers who make our city’s hotel run are entitled to provide for their families.”

Historically, the Jewish community has supported fair labor practices.
The statement continues, “our Jewish tradition teaches us to care for those who are not members of our community but are in need of our protection.”

Reform Cantors of Chicago
Cantor Ross Wolman – President
Cantors Miriam Eskenazy and Kim Harris – Program Directors
Cantor Amy Zussman – Secretary
Cantor Michael Davis – Treasurer and Immediate Past-President

Reform Cantors of Chicago Support Hyatt Workers' Boycott Monday August 30, 2010

One of Judaism's great legacies to mankind is the myriad prophetic and biblical exhortations in the name of social justice, teaching the moral and ethical responsibility of caring for the stranger with the same dignity and respect that we would give ourselves, our families and our neighbors. In every generation our prayer-book has given a contemporary voice to our yearning to "repair the world." This moral imperative calls to us with heightened urgency during the High Holy Day season when we confess our sins, including the offense of denying others what is their due.

Hyatt hotel workers in Chicago are being told they will lose their health benefits and their ability to provide for their families.

The members of Reform Cantors of Chicago, as invested clergy and prayer-leaders of many congregations throughout the Chicagoland area, join in speaking out in support of the Hyatt Hotel workers. As Cantors we cannot pray in the synagogue without speaking publicly in support of justice for the Hyatt workers. 

The hard-working laborers who make our city's hotels run are entitled to provide for their families. Maimonides rules (Ownership, Laws of Hiring and Safekeeping,  13:10) that the employer may not deny the worker her fair earnings. The Hyatt management's intention to impose the crippling cost of healthcare benefits on the workers is unfair and cruel.

Furthermore, the management of the Hyatt Regency is threatening to take away the security of full-time employment from some of its workers by cutting staff and reducing hours.

Our Jewish tradition teaches us to care for those who are not members of the community but are in need of our protection. Leviticus 19:34 teaches "The stranger in your midst shall be to you as a full member of the community.
You shall love him as yourself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Hospitality workers feel the necessity of calling for a boycott of the hotels where they work in order to preserve decent pay and benefits. We are with them.  We declare our support for, and join their boycott of, the Park Hyatt, the Hyatt Regency Chicago and the Hyatt Regency O'Hare. 

We raise our voices in prayer and protest calling for a fair resolution.

Cantor Michael Davis
Lakeside Congregation for Reform Judaism
1221 Lake Cook Rd.,
Highland Park
IL 60035
www.lakesidecongregation.org
Tel. 847-432-7950