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Click here. Rabbi Karp's Sermons ... YOM KIPPUR EVENING 2005 DARFUR AND THE JEWISH QUESTION On the evening of April 30th, this sanctuary will host a gathering far larger than this evening’s. There will be folding chairs to the stage and every seat will be taken. Indeed, there very well may be overflow seating in the Library. Our building will be filled, not just with Jews, but with people of many faiths; all here for a common purpose. The gathering I speak of is our annual interfaith Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Memorial - observance. This year will mark the 25th anniversary of these services, an achievement for which we can feel justly proud. We can be proud because we have done what so many other communities have failed to do. As testified to by so many of our speakers, in most communities Yom HaShoah tends to be an all-Jewish observance. In those communities, they are satisfied to get the Reform, the Conservative, the Reconstructionists, and the Orthodox to agree to come together to share one service. But in our community, for 25 years we have brought people of all faiths together in remembrance of the Holocaust. We have come together as people of differing faiths but shared values to offer memorial prayers. We have come together as people of differing faiths but shared values to listen to the first hand testimony of survivors, rescuers, and liberators. We have come together as people of differing faiths but shared values to commit ourselves never to idly stand by and permit such horrors to happen again on our planet. That point - committing to the future - has been an important part of our Yom HaShoah observances. For these services are not, nor should they be, merely a recollection of tragic history. These services are not, nor should they be, as so many antisemites claim they are, an opportunity for the Jewish community to beat the non-Jewish community over the head with the bludgeon of guilt. No. These services are not just about the past but also about the present and the future. "Never Again!" That is their main message. Not to Jews. Not to anyone. Sad to say, at this time in human history, our commitment to that principle is being sorely tested. All humanity’s commitment to that principle is being sorely tested, but the test is especially trying and especially telling for us as Jews. Do we really mean it when we proclaim "Never Again!" or are we actually just saying, "Never Again to the Jews - to us"? We have spent the last 60 years challenging the rest of world because of their apathy and inaction; their abysmal failure to rescue the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. We have prodded them about why their values, why their ethics, fell apart, and as a result 6 million of our brothers and sisters were condemned to brutal death and the rest of the European Jewish community - the ones who survived - to the nightmare existence of the concentration camps. We have raised our voices loud and strong, righteously indignant voices claiming to be the voice of international conscience; claiming to be the voice of those now dead who cannot speak for themselves. In flaming letters, we have inscribed upon the soul of humanity our burning question: "How could you have let this happen?" Now it seems that the shoe is on the other foot. We are living lives safe and secure, successful and comfortable, while across on the other side of the world - in the nation of Sudan, in the district of Darfur - there are horrors taking place; horrors far too reminiscent of the events of the Holocaust. And as for us, we seem to have joined the ranks of the apathetic, of the silent, of those who choose to stand idly by and do nothing. We do that in spite of the fact that our Torah commands us, "Thou shalt not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds!" 1 We do that in spite of the fact that we should know better; we, the heirs of the Holocaust, should know better. We do that in spite of the fact that the martyrs of the Holocaust call out to us from beyond the grave. They plead with us to act now, as all too few acted on their behalf. They plead with us, "Never Again!" It is Yom Kippur; Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgement.. We stand before the Throne of God, acknowledging our sins and pleading for mercy. As individual Jews and as a Jewish community, heavy on our souls weighs the sin of inaction as we have done so little to alleviate the suffering and save the lives of those who have been victimized in Sudan. Sad to say, many of us are not even aware of what is going on in Sudan. Along with the sin of inaction, we also bear the sin of ignorance. Right now, as we gather in this sanctuary, there is an active genocide taking place in the nation of Sudan. I do not use the term "genocide" lightly. In fact, the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has declared this the first incident of genocide in the 21st century.2 The Arab Moslems of that nation have decided to exterminate the African, or black, Moslems of their land, and particularly in the district of Darfur. They are carrying forward this policy of extermination - this "Final Solution" - by the most brutal of means. For the last two years the Sudanese government has employed the local Janjaweed militia to execute their policies. In Arabic, the term Janjaweed comes from the words "jan" which means "evil", and "jawed" which means "horsemen"3. The Janjaweed militia are brutes who, on horseback and camelback, enter villages with swords and whips and truncheons and guns, beating, raping, torturing, and murdering their inhabitants. Often these attacks are preceded by air strikes conducted by the Sudanese air force. Rape has become a particularly powerful weapon that the Janjaweed Militia has used against its victims. Even after being driven from their homes, families must continue to collect wood and fetch water. In doing so, women daily put themselves and their children at risk of rape, beatings, or death as soon as they are outside the camps, towns, or villages. It is assumed that the hundreds of rapes reported and treated grossly underestimate the actual number committed, as victims of rape in Darfur are often too scared or too ashamed to seek help. In a culture where rape draws heavy social disgrace, victims are often ostracized by their own families and communities.4 A year ago, it was estimated that 50,000 people had died. Today, the death toll stands at somewhere around 400,000. More than 2.7 million people have been forcibly driven from their homes and are afraid to return. They lack adequate food and shelter and live in fear of attacks.5 Hundreds of thousands have fled across the border to Chad and are living in refugee camps there, under very trying conditions. Most of the refugees and displaced persons from Darfur have lost whatever livestock or belongings they may have had before the attacks. Many have not survived the journeys of hundreds of miles required to reach a refugee or displaced person camp.6 Peter Biro is a 38-year old Swede who works for the International Rescue Committee. In 2004 he was sent to Chad to help in the humanitarian efforts to aid the Sudanese refugees. He kept a diary of his experiences. I wish to share some of his entries with you. "Forty percent of the children coming to the International Rescue Committee’s clinics are malnourished and there has been an alarming increase in diarrhea and dysentery. It’s May 12 and Camilo (Dr. Camilo Valderrama) is attending to Hadiya Beshir Issa, 25, and her 15-month-old daughter Munira... They are recent arrivals in a seemingly endless stream of refugees fleeing brutal attacks in Darfur, Sudan. Munira hardly has the strength to open her eyes and her skin is shriveled from dehydration. Camilo says that the tiny girl is severely malnourished and he instructs Hadiya how to administer oral re-hydration solution and antibiotics. Hadiya is from a village near Kutum in northern Darfur... She told me that a militia attacked her village last August and that her family fled to the town of Orshi, on the way to Chad. But that town was ransacked by gunmen last month and in the chaos, Hadiya became separated from her husband and the rest of her family. She told me that she has no idea if they are still alive. After an eight-day trek, she crossed into Chad with her baby, arriving in Bahai with 17 other families. As Hadiya recounts her story, Camilo continues to treat Munira. But in the next couple of hours, the little girl’s condition rapidly deteriorated. We quickly took her to the hospital in Tine, two hours away, but doctors couldn’t even find the child’s veins in order to administer intravenous liquid. She was beyond help." Later in the diary he writes "Dots of light fill the plain as thousands of refugees start fires for the night. I strike up a conversation with a group of people nearby who are seated around a flickering fire. They are part of a community of 300 people that crossed into Chad the previous day. They had come from the Sudanese village of Amburu, some 150 kilometers inside Darfur. It was attacked two weeks earlier, they said, by the government-backed Janjaweed militia. One man, who said his name was Muhammed Haroun, said heavily armed men riding camels and horses rode into the village and began shooting in all directions at the well. He said the Janjaweed killed villagers execution-style and raped several women. They all said their livestock was stolen. Next to him sat Hadiya Adem. She is in her forties and has a gunshot wound on her right foot, wrapped in dirty gauze. Hadiya told me that she and a girl from the village went to the well at night to get some water a few days before the big attack and was startled and frightened when they were confronted there by men from the Sudanese Army. The men seized the girl and shot Hadiya in the foot when she tried to stop them... And in spite of the thousands of people surrounding us, huddled around fires to keep warm in the chilly night air, you could have heard a needle drop."7 These are just a few of the personal accounts that have come to light. The number is growing daily. And like the first hand accounts of the Holocaust, each story is painful to listen to; each story opens a window looking out onto the geography of hell. Considering the fact that before we can save the people of Darfur, we need to know about what is going on there, we need to ask the question - Why are so many people unaware of what is happening in Sudan? For the most part, we are unaware because we have not been informed. What we have been experiencing is a major failure on the part of the media. This profound human tragedy has been taking place, and for the most part, the media has chosen to ignore it. Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, is an exception for he has written extensively on Darfur - a voice in the wilderness. Kristof himself takes his media colleagues to task. Here is what he has to say: "Condi Rice finally showed up in Darfur a few days ago, and she went out of her way to talk to rape victims and spotlight the sexual violence used to terrorize civilians. Most American television networks and cable programs haven’t done that much. Even the coverage of Ms. Rice’s trip underscores our self-absorption. The manhandling of journalists accompanying Ms. Rice got more coverage than any massacre in Darfur has... To sustain the idealism in journalism - and to rebut the widespread perception that journalists are just irresponsible gossips - we need to show more interest in the first genocide of the 21st century than in the "runaway bride". I’m outraged that one of my Times colleagues, Judith Miller, is in jail for protecting her sources. But if we journalists are to demand a legal privilege to protect our sources, we need to show that we serve the public good - which means covering genocide as seriously as we cover, say, Tom Cruise... The real failure has been television’s. According to monitoring by the Tyndall Report, ABC News had a total of 18 minutes of the Darfur genocide in its nightly newscasts all last year... NBC had only 5 minutes of coverage all last year, and CBS only 3 minutes - about a minute of coverage for every 100,000 deaths. In contrast, Martha Stewart received 130 minutes of coverage by the three networks... When I’ve asked television correspondents about this lapse, they noted that visas to Sudan are difficult to get and that reporting in Darfur is expensive and dangerous. True, but TV crews could at least interview refugees in nearby Chad. After all, Diane Sawyer traveled to Africa this year - to interview Brad Pitt, underscoring the point that the networks are willing to devote resources to cover the African stories that they consider more important than genocide. If only Michael Jackson’s trial had been held in Darfur. Last month, CNN, Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, and CBS collectively ran 55 times as many stories about Michael Jackson as they ran about genocide in Darfur."8 As if to underscore Mr. Kristof’s point, this past August there was an interfaith rally for Darfur that was held here in the Quad Cities, in the District of Rock Island. Though press releases were sent out, no media outlet thought the rally worthy of any advance coverage. And as for the rally itself, the only reporter in attendance was from the Quad City Times. In fact, Channel 8 had a news team covering another story around the corner. When organizers of the rally approached them, asking them to come around the corner and see if this rally was worthy of a story, they checked with their superiors and were told "No." This brings us to our first action item. People need to know about what is happening in Darfur. So we need to put pressure on the news media to cover that story. We need to write letters and emails to the newspapers and the television stations - both local and national - informing them that we believe that this is an important story, and we want to see more coverage of it in the future. However, we should not wait for the media to inform us about this human tragedy. We need to take it upon ourselves to become better informed. Toward this end, there are many web sites which can help. This evening, I have made available to you a resource booklet on the crisis in Sudan. In that booklet is a page of web site addresses. Visit those sites. Learn more for yourself. Forward those addresses to your friends so that they can become better informed as well. But obviously, this is not where our action should end. We need to pressure our government and the United Nations to get more involved. To the credit of the Bush administration, in September, 2004, the United States went on record to declare that the atrocities in Darfur amounted to genocide. However, relatively little action has taken place to help these people and even less has been done to pressure the Sudanese government to put an end to this violence. Sanctions have not been imposed against the Sudanese. We need to call upon our government to do so without further delay. Such sanctions could include a travel ban for senior government leaders, the freezing of assets of overseas companies controlled by the government, and the prosecution of those who have committed atrocities toward civilians. And of course, on top of all this, we should be calling upon our government to increase its humanitarian aid to the victims. So let us write to the President and to our legislators, sharing our concerns with them and calling upon them to take further action. Enclosed in the resource booklet is a list of their addresses and a sample letter. The late Senator Paul Simon, said after the Rwandan genocide, "If every member of the House and Senate received 100 letters from people back home saying that we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different."9 Our letters can make a difference. Our letters can save lives. And last but not least, we need to be generous in our tzedakah efforts on behalf of the victims from Darfur. We need to reach into our pockets and make personal donations. And as a Jewish community, we need to organize fund raising efforts on their behalf. We can do this as a congregation or we can do this as a greater Jewish community, or we can even look to joining forces with other faith groups in our community to do something on a larger scale, community-wide. Where should our funds go? In the resource book you will find a list of various organizations that are involved in rescue and relief work for the victims of this crisis. All are worthy of our support. However, I do wish to draw your attention to one Jewish organization - American Jewish World Service. Many of our national Jewish organizations have chosen to channel their relief efforts through them. What do they do? American Jewish World Service is working in partnership with international organizations and relief groups to provide clean drinking water, basic health care and educational services to the hundreds of thousands of refugees living in camps in Darfur and Chad. They are also supporting programs that address the consequences of sexual violence, reduce HIV transmission, and offer counseling to women and children.10 So here we are on Yom Kippur eve, standing before the Throne of God, confronting our failings and praying for forgiveness. A Holocaust is happening in our world, and we who are heirs to the Holocaust have done little to counteract it. We find ourselves traveling down the same sinful path as those who abandoned our brothers and sisters 70 years ago. But Yom Kippur is a time when we commit ourselves to changing our lives for the better. It is a time when we proclaim, "I do not have to repeat the sins of the past. I can do better." It is in the spirit of Yom Kippur that I charge you: We need to do better. We need to be there, and be there in very real ways, for the people of Darfur. We must not, by our apathy and inaction do to them what was done to our people. God commands us to save them. The martyrs of the Holocaust command us to save them. When we gather in this sanctuary on April 30th, and join with people from across the Quad Cities for our 25th annual interfaith observance of Yom HaShoah, let us enter that service with clear consciences, knowing that this time we have learned from our tragic history, and we have dedicated ourselves to making a difference. We have dedicated ourselves to fighting evil and saving lives. For it we don’t.... Well, Elie Wiesel said it best when he said about Darfur, "What is at stake is our own humanity." Amen ------------------------------------------ |
