New Jersey took a step closer to abolishing the death penalty with the strong support of the state's clergy — including 50 rabbis.

In two separate documents, the rabbis petitioned the state legislature to replace the punishment of execution to life in prison without possibility of parole.

The bill leaped through one legislative hurdle on Dec. 6 with approval by an eight-to-four vote of the State Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. It earned strong support from Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish clergy members.

The bill is now being considered by the Assembly, and floor votes are scheduled in both houses for mid-December.

The repeal is strongly supported by Gov. Jon Corzine. Its passage would make New Jersey the first state in the nation to abolish the death penalty since the United States Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality in 1976.

There are currently eight people — all men — on death row in a state where no one has been executed since 1963.

A letter signed by 50 Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal, and Orthodox rabbis, while stating that "the Torah is filled with examples of execution and is often a source for quotes in support of the death penalty," emphasized that "strict standards" made executions extremely rare under Jewish law.

Spearheading the petition drives was Rabbi Robert Scheinberg of the United Synagogue of Hoboken, who served as a member of the state's Death Penalty Study Commission.

"There are many good reasons to be wary of the death penalty, and there aren't many good reasons to support it," he said.

In a second petition, 34 rabbis were among 550 religious leaders who wrote that their common concerns "are secular and pragmatic just as much as they are rooted in our religious traditions."

Noting that it costs $72,000 a year to maintain a person on death row, compared with $40,000 a year for an inmate in a maximum-security prison, the petitioners suggested that "the financial savings realized by repealing the death penalty be used to assist homicide survivors in New Jersey."

Charles Kroloff, rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu-El in Westfield, was among the signatories.

"There is serious doubt as to the efficacy of the death penalty as a deterrent," he said. "The fact that there is such doubt would mandate us to withhold the death penalty. God forbid we should be executing individuals who are innocent."

He added, "It is very clear that it is applied more to individuals who are minorities, especially African Americans and people who are poor and cannot obtain excellent legal representation. With enough money you can delay a lot of sentencing."

Douglas Sagal, Temple Emanu-El's current rabbi, also signed the petition. "As a religious Jew who takes the Torah very seriously, I judge issues like this according to Jewish tradition," he said. "The death penalty is not consistent with standards of Jewish ethics and morality. Unfortunately, in the United States we know there have been too many examples of people convicted of crimes by circumstantial evidence, the kind of evidence that would not be acceptable under Jewish law in capital crimes."