A friend recently went through a scary time and, as a result, I did, too. His niece in Minnesota, a young mother, simply disappeared. She went out on a date and didn\u2019t come home. Her mother was with the woman\u2019s children. When she didn\u2019t know what to do, she contacted police, the story was in the media and the important, informal networks of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) swung into action.<\/p>\n
Like many friends, I tried to pass the word along about a woman who was missing. Her family needed her. My friend couldn\u2019t sleep. He worried. I worried. The worst part seemed to be not knowing how to help, what to do and what happened. Things seemed very dangerous.<\/p>\n
Some in the Jewish community may say, this isn\u2019t about me. They would be wrong on several levels. First, and most apparent, your prejudice is showing. There are many Jewish community members who have ties to multiple other communities in Canada. Yes, there are indigenous Jews; as well, there are many other cross-cultural, interreligious and inter-ethnic family connections of which you may not be aware.<\/p>\n
Second, anyone can be at risk. Missing people and human trafficking are as old as time. When Joseph\u2019s brothers throw him into a pit and then sell him to the Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:28), they\u2019re participating in human trafficking and slavery. They turn Joseph into a missing person. His parents go through the anguish of not knowing what happened to their child. If you\u2019re a parent or, heck, if you\u2019ve ever lost a pet, it\u2019s not hard to imagine this anguish.<\/p>\n
Rashi\u2019s commentary says that Joseph was sold several times. According to Midrash Tanhuma, he\u2019s sold from the Ishmaelites to the Midianites and, from there, into Egypt. This description is not unlike what happens now to women captured in wartime. News reports offer similar stories of women enslaved today \u2013 by Boko Haram or, to mention refugees closer to home, Yazidi women who were enslaved by ISIS, some of whom have found homes in Canada.<\/p>\n
Some believe slavery is a thing of the past, tied to faraway, evil people \u2013 like the narratives I\u2019ve heard from Canadians about the American South. People might be evil, but they aren\u2019t far away. This is a modern issue. Once a person is being trafficked, it\u2019s very hard to break free. She\u2019s possibly been forcibly confined, addicted to drugs, beaten and sexually assaulted. She may be hidden, unable to get help, and brainwashed by those who kidnapped her.<\/p>\n
There are charities that work against human trafficking, and many nongovernmental organizations do, as well. However, I was recently invited to participate in a raffle. The business offered a prize in exchange for donating to an anti-trafficking organization. I got as far as clicking through to the organization\u2019s donation page before I saw that it did its work through a lens of Christian evangelizing. Here\u2019s what I found: \u201cAgape International Missions has an incredible team of staff members and volunteers who faithfully carry out our mission, day in and day out. At AIM, we believe that Christ through His Church will defeat the evil of sex trafficking, so we invite you, the Church, to join us in this fight!\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, if you wanted to work for them, and you\u2019re not Christian? Too bad. Here\u2019s what their job search info looked like: \u201cYou should consider pursuing a career with AIM if: You\u2019re a Christian; You agree wholeheartedly with our Statement of Faith. As the foundation for all we do, our Christian faith is a uniting factor among volunteers and staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Essentially, this Christian organization uses an \u201cus\u201d versus them narrative, in which this religiously motivated group is all good. They are out to conquer this evil that happens to faraway (non-Christian) others. Sadly, if you change the religious ideology, I\u2019m not sure Jewish communities are much different in how we portray social action issues.<\/p>\n
Kidnapping, human trafficking, using sex as a weapon \u2013 many people like to think these terrible things don\u2019t happen to \u201cus.\u201d However, this na\u00efve view harms victims, perpetuating the idea that these things only happen to people far away or long ago, or who somehow did something wrong to deserve it.<\/p>\n
Joseph, according to Jewish tradition, was our relative, a part of our family. His brothers kidnapped and sold him. My friend\u2019s niece went missing this winter. This isn\u2019t some ancient or distant problem. Some argue that, if Joseph hadn\u2019t been his father\u2019s favourite, or if he\u2019d behaved better, this wouldn\u2019t have happened to him \u2013 this is blaming a victim.<\/p>\n
In Joseph\u2019s case, he lived. He was found, and he flourished over time, in Egypt. My friend\u2019s niece came home to her mother and children after a week. It\u2019s still unclear what happened to her. It sounds like something like human trafficking may have taken place. We (helpers outside the family) may never know.<\/p>\n
Every time a missing person is found safe, it\u2019s lucky \u2013 but it\u2019s not a sure thing. Often, many hundreds of people\u2019s efforts go into finding someone, and keeping others safe.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re sent a missing person\u2019s information, don\u2019t judge whether or not the person is \u201cworthy.\u201d Send it onwards. Just imagine if your relative or friend went missing \u2013 wouldn\u2019t you want everyone\u2019s help, without judgment or religious prejudice?<\/p>\n
Joanne Seiff<\/strong> has written regularly for CBC Manitoba and various Jewish publications. She is the author of three books, including <\/em>From the Outside In: Jewish Post Columns 2015-2016, a collection of essays available for digital download or as a paperback from Amazon. Check her out on Instagram @yrnspinner<\/a> or at joanneseiff.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A friend recently went through a scary time and, as a result, I did, too. His niece in Minnesota, a young mother, simply disappeared. She went out on a date and didn\u2019t come home. Her mother was with the woman\u2019s children. When she didn\u2019t know what to do, she contacted police, the story was in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9665,218,8302,9666,1959,2172,3021],"class_list":["post-34206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-human-trafficking","tag-judaism","tag-lifestyle","tag-slavery","tag-tikkun-olam","tag-torah","tag-women"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}