It amazes me that in today’s world, we are even debating whether waterboarding constitutes torture.

As Jews, we know about torture and waterboarding far too well. As far as can be traced, waterboarding, a technique of interrogation in which the prisoner’s face is immersed in water and s/he is made to choke, feeling that s/he is going to drown, was first used in the Spanish Inquisition to force confessions from Jews and other heretics thought to be converts to Catholicism who continued to practice their former faith.

Waterboarding has been considered torture and its practice was prosecuted by the United States Military in the early part of the twentieth century.

There is a new normal today in our government’s discourse about torture, in which torture is wrong unless the suspect has good information. In the post-9/11 world, everything—even what might have been unimaginable a few years ago—seems to be justified in the name of security.

Judaism teaches us that we are all created in the image of God, that respect for the inherent dignity of another person trumps many other mitzvot. Under Jewish law, one’s own words cannot be used against oneself for conviction of a crime; how much the more so information obtained via torture.

Moreover, there is no evidence that torture actually keeps us safer.

The Torah commands us to protect the stranger more times than it tells us what to do about Shabbat or kashrut. This includes the strangers in U.S.-custody being held without trial, being subject to harsh interrogation techniques, and being subject to a technique which even our Attorney General has said he would consider to be torture if he had to undergo it (though he refuses to rule it out).

A critical vote is happening in the Senate tomorrow on the Intelligence Authorization Act. This bill, which has already passed in the House of Representatives, would prohibit a person in U.S. custody from being subject to interrogation methods that are not sanctioned by the Army Field Manual. This would prohibit the technique known as “waterboarding” or any so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques from being used. The bill would pertain to any person in US custody, whether they were held by the US Military, a branch of the Intelligence services such as the CIA, or any: “contractor or subcontractor at any tier of the element of the intelligence community.” Senator Feinstein has introduced an amendment to the bill that closes the loophole allowing the CIA to use enhanced interrogation techniques.

Please call or fax your Senator’s local or Washington Office. Ask to speak to the staffer in-charge of Intelligence matters. Find the telephone and/or fax numbers by going to the Senate website and look up your senator’s homepage, or by calling the Senate switchboard (202) 224-3121. Please feel free to use this sample language or craft language of your own.

We cannot allow the United States government, acting in our names, to use torture in the interrogation of detainees. It is critical that our leaders here from us. They must be reminded that the Jewish community stands firmly against all forms of torture and so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. The CIA must be held to the standards of the Army Field Manual. Waterboarding must be acknowledged as a form of torture. Our government must honor the image of God in all people and stop torture now.

Rachel Kahn-Troster is the Associate Director of Education and Outreach Rabbis for Human Rights North America