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Michael Zoosman

Sep 2, 2026, 9:48 PM

A History of ‘L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty’: 6 Years – 5,000+ Members

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Our group, “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,” recently surged well past 5,000 members across the USA, Israel, and the world. The Israeli Knesset’s highly publicized passage of two death penalty laws earlier this year marks a significant reason...

Stephen A. Cooper

Sep 1, 2026, 10:22 AM

“A pound of flesh” for a piece of skull

When she was 18, Christa Pike taunted and beat 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, eventually slashing her throat and body with a box cutter. Pike and an accomplice carved pentagrams into Slemmer’s body and when she still didn’t die, Pike picked...

Aug 24, 2026, 10:50 PM

Death penalty for terrorists – the rope is always too slack

The arguments in opposition to capital punishment are well hashed out and I'm sure you'll read about them in similar articles addressing this topic. For the purposes of this post I presume that capital punishment is just in principle....

Michael Zoosman

Aug 19, 2026, 8:32 PM

Sadistic Death Viewing Chamber Puts Israel Squarely on the Wrong Side of History

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The thousands of members of the group “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,” of which I am the co-founder, wholeheartedly condemn the sadistic death chamber that Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has recently unveiled. On August 18, 2026,...

Michael Zoosman

Aug 18, 2026, 6:06 PM

Lebanon Abolishes the Death Penalty, as Israel and Hezbollah Align Supporting It

On Tuesday, August 11, after 22 years without an execution in Lebanon, its parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, making it the first Arab country in the Middle East to scrap capital punishment formally. The new law replaces...

Michael Zoosman

Aug 16, 2026, 7:09 AM

“Eye for an eye?” A 2026 Shabbat Shof’tim Sermon Against the Death Penalty

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The below text is a copy of the sermon that this writer delivered for Shabbat Shof’tim at Or Shalom Synagogue in Vancouver, BC on August 15, 2026. The writer is a former Jewish prison chaplain and co-founder of the...

Stephen A. Cooper

Aug 16, 2026, 6:57 AM

How the death penalty creates more victims

When Anthony Darrell Hines was executed by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution August 13, Hines’s son was there, bearing witness to his father’s murder by Tennessee. As reported on the website of ABC-affiliated television station WKRN in...

Stephen A. Cooper

Aug 11, 2026, 11:37 PM

Life without parole is the cure for America’s death penalty disease

Three executions are scheduled in America on August 13. The states set to kill men that day are Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Alabama. The terrible crimes the men committed were reprehensible, and this writing is not meant to diminish, minimize,...

Michael Zoosman

Aug 11, 2026, 6:38 AM

Jewish Reflections Ahead of a Triple Execution Day in the United States

This Thursday, three lethal injections will take place across the United States in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Alabama. In a horrific synchronicity, this American triple execution day will occur during the very same week that Jews across the world study the parsha (portion)...

Kiffer Johannes

Jul 12, 2026, 11:26 AM

The Scaffold of State-Sponsored Vengeance: A Moral and Security Failure

The current push to implement the death penalty for terrorists in Israel is often framed by its proponents—such as Moshe Fuzaylov of the Misgav Institute—as a "vital pincer movement" to extinguish operational motivation. However, as we witness the legislative...

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