CJC dedicates a Shabbat to Darfur

Darfur Shabbat asks rabbis and congregants from one end of the country to the other to dedicate a portion of their regular Shabbat service to stopping the genocide for good by focusing on what the Canadian Jewish community can do to help.

“We think that now is a great time to heighten and redouble our efforts to end the genocide so that it is once and for all done,” said Benjamin Shinewald, CJC’s National Executive Director and General Counsel.

While there have been encouraging developments in the Darfur region in the past six months, pressure must be kept up. To remain silent while there is still violence going on would go against a major tenet of Judaism not to ignore the suffering of others. It would also ignore our responsibility to perform tikkun olam (“to repair the world”).

"The idea was to get rabbis from across Canada, and to get rabbis from the three streams of Judaism,” Shinewald said.

Darfur Shabbat is taking place only a few days before the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which symbolizes the end of the Holocaust. CJC’s intent is to use the date to say that the world’s apathy to the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust means that as Jews we must speak out against what is going on in Darfur.

"Given our historical experience throughout centuries of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, it's incumbent upon us to act so that ‘Never Again’ really does mean never again and not again and again,” he said.

The CJC Darfur Action Committee, which came up with the idea of the program, is also hoping that rabbis will use their sermons to speak out about Darfur.

“We have a positive obligation in Jewish law not to sit back and do nothing when others are suffering, but to act,” he said.

Urgent humanitarian challenge

A flyer is available on CJC’s website that participating synagogues can hand out to congregants.

The first page lists three easy things that Canadian Jews can do to help bring an end to the genocide. One: Call 1-800-GENOCIDE to lobby Canadian politicians with talking points. Two: Watch the video at www.standforthedead.com and purchase a kit. Three: Give tzedakah at www.warchild.ca.

The second sheet lists the talking points.

Darfur is one of the most urgent humanitarian challenges on the planet right now, Shinewald explained. “There's an obligation on us, the way there's an obligation on every person on the face of the earth, when faced with such horrific humanitarian tragedy.”

For years, CJC has been at the forefront of Darfur activism, campaigning and lobbying to put an end to genocide. They have partnered with celebrity activist Mia Farrow, lobbied Members of Parliament to wear green ribbons against genocide in Darfur on Yom HaShoah, used the 2008 election to ask federal politicians to commit to increasing Canada’s efforts to end the genocide, and authored a book titled “Darfur: A Jewish Response” available for free on their website.

Shinewald stressed that the Darfur Action Committee is always seeking out new members from all areas of the community.

“We have volunteers ranging from undergrad students to retirees, from Vancouver to Montreal to the Maritimes,” he said. “Our ultimate objective is to put ourselves out of business. We want to stop advocating for an end to genocide in Darfur because we want the genocide to end."

Reprinted with permission from Shalom Life