Please Save April 30, 2006 on your calendar.

Join other members of Rodef Sholom Temple

on a mission of utmost urgency.

Join the Rally for Darfur

Washington D.C.

Sponsored by the American Jewish World Service

in conjunction with the

Save Darfur Coalition

 

 

 

Text Box: Statement of the Save Darfur Coalition: The emergency in Sudan’s western region of Darfur presents the starkest challenge to the world since the Rwanda genocide in 1994. A government-backed Arab militia known as Janjaweed has been engaging in campaigns to displace and wipe out communities of African tribal farmers. Villages have been razed, women and girls are systematically raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies targeted and destroyed. Tens of thousands have died. Well over a million people have been driven from their homes, and only in the past few weeks have humanitarian agencies gained limited access to some of the affected region. Mukesh Kapila, the former United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, has called violence in Darfur “more than a conflict, it's an organized attempt to do away with one set of people.” The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has issued its first ever genocide emergency. What makes this a uniquely proud and compelling Jewish moment is the origin of the Save Darfur Coalition.  The Coalition began on July 14 when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and American Jewish World Service organized a Darfur Emergency Summit featuring Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel. Mr. Wiesel called the group to action with his impassioned remarks about the suffering being inflicted on the Darfur people: "How can I hope to move people from indifference if I remain indifferent to the plight of others? I cannot stand idly by or all my endeavors will be unworthy."

 

Other faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations have since united in one voice to respond to this massive crisis. The Save Darfur Coalition's unity statement has now been signed by more than 100 organizations. Click here for message from AJWS on the need for and purpose of the Rally.

 

Despite the current breadth of the Coalition, we, as Jews, especially need to declare in a very public way that we care. Our numbers at this rally need to be disproportionate to our population. As a people who have already experienced genocide, we need to proclaim loudly that we won’t sit idly by when it repeats against any group.

 

     We last stood together at a major gathering back in 1991. Then we pleaded for the release of our people from the former Soviet Union. A great modern Exodus followed shortly afterward.  We stood proud.  Let’s stand together, with pride and with purpose, once more.

 

Text Box: "In a free society, where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, but all are responsible." --Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Please see Rodef Sholom Temple’s website for links

and more information.

http://www.rodefsholomtemple.org

 

Sign Million Voices Postcard:

http://action.ajws.org/campaign/millionvoices

 

For more information and background: http://www.pathagoras.com/Darfur/Rally for Darfur.htm