Judge Phillip Rapoza, chief justice of theMassachusetts Appeals Court and former associate judge in Fall River District Court, was recently honored with the Judge Alexander George Teitz Award during the Touro Synagogue Foundation’s annual reading of President George Washington’s letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport on Aug. 16.
This year’s Teitz Award recognized Rapoza as a shining example of Washington’s words continuing to offer meaning for religious freedom and ethnic tolerance worldwide in the 21st century, as demonstrated by his actions and accomplishments, including:
— His career as a leader in international criminal justice, helping to evaluate and improve legal systems in East Timor, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Mozambique;
— His work for the United Nations as chief international judge of the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor, prosecuting crimes against humanity and other serious violations of human rights of minorities;
— His commitment, both personal and professional, to his Portuguese ethnic roots and his contributions to the Portuguese-speaking community, locally and around the world; and
— His lifelong insistence that the abuse of a “member of the community based solely on who the victim is or what he believes” is unacceptable “in a society where the law must not only protect the vulnerable, but also give voice to our higher nature as human beings.”
The award was accepted on behalf of Rapoza by his son, Samuel Rapoza, as the chief justice is currently in East Timor, where, as appointed by the United Nations, he is leading an international team of experts that will conduct an extensive evaluation of East Timor’s justice system.
The Teitz Award is a non-monetary award from the non-sectarian Touro Synagogue Foundation, that is given annually to honor an individual, institution or program that best exemplifies the contemporary commitment to the ideals of religious and ethnic tolerance and freedom, exemplified by the legacy of President Washington’s letter. In the letter, Washington pledged that the government of the new nation would “give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” Washington set the standard for religious freedom and civil liberties in America. Two years prior to the passage of the U.S. Bill of Rights, he declared that “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.”
Herald News Staff
Newport, R.I. —
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