Save Darfur
Now - A Call to Action
Over 400,000 have been killed in the Darfur region
of the Sudan and over 2 million people's lives are at
risk. Elected officials and religious, community and
human rights leaders joined together at a rally on May 1, 2006 to call for an end to
the genocide. The Chicago Coalition to Save Darfur is
an alliance of faith-based, ethnic civic and student
organizations dedicated to ending the atrocities there.
As a people intimately acquainted with the horrors of genocide,
we are obligated to speak out and take action when other peoples
are similarly threatened. As Jews, we cannot remain silent.
Today, in Darfur in the Western Sudan over a million people
have been forced from their homes. They live in squalid refugee
camps facing starvation. Without our help, they will not have
food. Without our help, they will not have water. Without
our help they may not live. Let us act to protect them.
How You Can Help
Below is a list of actions we can take now to address the
imminent crisis in Darfur:
- Send emails, letters, faxes and phones calls urging your
Senators and Representativse to address the needs of the
Sudanese people by increasing U.S. aid while also supporting
United Nations and other international efforts to address
the crisis in the Sudan.
- Encourage other community members to take action by giving
sermons, hosting expert speakers, or distributing flyers
and other resources at the synagogue.
- To stay up to date on action on behalf of Darfur, read
Save
Darfur.
To learn more on the Sudan and find out how you can aid
these beleagured people, visit the American
Jewish World Service web site.
An Urgent Message
Concerning the Genocide in Sudan
Friends,
As Jews we have an unfortunate legacy of suffering through
the horrors of genocide all too often. We ask again and
again, "Why did Roosevelt not bomb the railroad tracks?"
"Why did the air force bomb within five miles of Auschwitz,
but not bomb the gas chambers?" As early as 1942 this nation,
the world, knew what was occurring in the ravines, in the
camps, in the ghettos. No action was taken and in the subsequent
years nearly five million more of our Jewish ancestors and
another five million gypsies, political dissenters, disabled,
gay men and others were murdered.
The world knew and they did not act.
Since 1945 we have said, "Never Again."
Never again.
Never again will we be defenseless.
Never again will people suffer when the world can act.
Never again will people suffer rape, enslavement, death
at the hands of genocidal maniacs.
Never again.
In April we commemorate two important events: Yom HaShoah,
our Jewish day of mourning the losses of the Holocaust and
the anniversary of the deaths of nearly a million Hutus
and Tutsis in the genocide in Rwanda.
Now there is a humanitarian crisis brewing in Sudan.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are being displaced
from their homes in the Darfur region by government-backed
militias. The flames of ethnic and religious warfare burn
again. The world has thus far remained shamefully silent
in the face of these atrocities. It is now time for moral
voices to be heard.
Through letters to our government representatives,
letters to newspapers, donations to relief organizations
and continuing to discuss the ongoing Darfur situation within
our communities we can make a difference.
Elie Wiesel asked "Is silence the answer?" And he
answered his own question. "It never was."
Our tradition is clear
Where there is darkness - bring light
Where there is corruption - bring justice
Where there is suffering - bring comfort
Where there is pain - bring compassion
Where there is silence - raise up your voice.
- Rabbi Michelle Greenberg (former Rabbi at Temple Jeremiah)
2006
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