Help the people of Darfur

Letters

A longer version of this letter was read to congregations in the Lower Mainland on Yom Kippur.

Editor: This has continued to be a difficult time for our fellow Jews and our friends who have stood by us. Israelis continue to bear the brunt of murderous terror attacks. Only this week there was another savage attack – one of thousands on our Israeli sisters and brothers over these last several years. Even in Canada we have experienced an increase in hate-motivated assaults on our community members and institutions.

We are actively encouraging the World Jewish Congress (WJC) initiative for one million signatures on a petition to be presented to the United Nations in our call for a stand-alone United Nations resolution condemning anti-Semitism. You can support this initiative by going to the CJC (www.cjc.ca) or WJC (www.wjc.org.il) web sites and adding your voice to the hundreds of thousands of people around the globe who are attempting to focus attention on the depravity of a renewed anti-Semitism.

With great urgency we are also calling upon each of you to break through the malaise of political passivity, to help the people in the Darfur region of Sudan who are enduring horrific conditions. Many impartial voices are fearful that genocide is being unleashed against the people in Darfur, either directly or indirectly by the Sudanese regime. Estimates indicate that 50,000 innocent people have been killed to date, with another 1.2 million at risk of starvation, being killed, or dying from disease if the world does not intervene. As the UN debates, many are dying. Knowledgeable voices on this issue are calling not only for increased humanitarian assistance, but for a comprehensive peace-keeping force.

As an organization, we are writing to and meeting with your political leadership.... Our call is to mobilize the people into a unified chorus – a lion's roar of concern and outrage to demand from our members of Parliament and the prime minister that our leadership do everything within their power to protect over a million innocent men women and children. We urge you to make a difference and write, phone or e-mail your member of Parliament with a copy to the prime minister. The addresses are easily available on the web.

For this most awe-filled day, our sages structured a process to assist each one of us to move to a place of transformation; especially on this day, our conscience is challenged not only on a personal level, but also as a people. We take pride in carrying the Torah message that indeed we are our brother's and sister's keepers; we have secreted into the very marrow of our peoplehood the commandment to the Israelites to remember kindness to the stranger; we carry as our torch the prophetic call to pursue justice.... We have a small opening to meet the challenge. Let us not live in the shame of inaction.

The board of directors
Canadian Jewish Congress,
Pacific Region

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