Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

Photo of a child from Darfur.Do not stand idly by while your neighbor's blood is being shed. Leviticus 19:16

What is at stake is our own humanity. Elie Wiesel

Whoever can prevent any person throughout the world from committing a sin but does not, is responsible for that person's sin. Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 54b

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation is participating in the Save Darfur Coalition effort to stop the atrocities and impoverishment in the Darfur region of Sudan.

View our Darfur resources.

American Jewish World Service Logo The American World Jewish Service, The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief and The Save Darfur Coalition recommended agencies for making donations to support the people of Darfur.

There is exciting activity happening on the reauthorization of the PEPFAR AIDS legislation. (PEPFAR = President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief).

JRF is a partner with the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) in the Jewish Coalition Responding to HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The PEPFAR legislation will be "marked-up" in the House foreign affairs committee on Wednesday, February 27th at 9:30 am (and may be televised on C-SPAN).

There are two important action items:

1. A conference call with Ruth Messinger on Monday, February 25, 2-3pm
2. An email action alert

More details follow below:

Please join congregation Kol HaLev and more than 20 congregations and organizations throughout the Cleveland, OH area for a special community-wide event: “Sounds of Justice” Havdalah Concert and Advocacy Event for Darfur, featuring JRF's director of Outreach and Tikkun Olam, Rabbi Shawn Zevit.

Saturday, February 9th at 7:30 pm, B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, 27501 Fairmount Blvd., Pepper Pike, Cleveland, OH.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE COMMUNITY

Help spread the word - download and post the event flyer.

JWW Backpack ProjectCongregation Bet Am Shalom in Whiteplains, NY, joins the Westchester Darfur Coalition and Jewish World Watch (JWW) in providing and education for children fleeing genocide in Darfur. JWW's Backpack Project will enable children in the Oure Cassoni refugee camp in Chad to attend schools run by the International Rescue Committee. Filled with shoes, books, school supplies, soap and toothpaste (all obtained as locally as possible), the backpack allows each child to make the most of school under the most difficult of circumstances.

Rabbi Harold M. SchulweisOn April 27, 2007, Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis of Temple Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California, California, delivered a major speech regarding genocide, the suicide of denial, and our collective responsibilities to transmit memory to our children and our children’s children.

Entitled In Honor of the Martyrs of Armenia, it commemorates the 92nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, speaks to all genocides, whether Armenian, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, or Darfur, and points out the consequences to a society which remains apathetic in the face of murder.

Listen, watch or read Rabbi Schulweis’ speech.

JRF urges our member communities to help make Global Days for Darfur a huge success: April 23rd to 30th

The Sudanese government-sponsored genocide in Darfur has already claimed up to 400,000 lives, displaced 2.5 million people and left more than 3.5 million men, women and children struggling to survive amid violence and starvation. The global community must act!

African, Arab, European and U.N. leaders agreed in principle Thursday, Nov. 16 to a joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping force for Sudan's Darfur region.

The force could be as large as 27,000-strong, including the existing 7,000-member African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, but the leaders did not lay out a timetable for the force to begin work partly because Sudan had some reservations.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said additional personnel could include as many as 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police officers.

"The next step is for the U.N. and AU to call a meeting of the non-signatories (of the Darfur Peace Agreement) ... and the government of Sudan. It should take place in the next couple of weeks to resolve outstanding issues by the end of the year," said Annan.

Photo of participants in the Mall in D.C. for the April 30th, 2006 Darfur rally.RRC students were quoted in a VOANews.com article following the September 17, 2006 rally:

See more photos of the April 30th rally.

On Saturday night, April 29, 2006, we had over 100 people at the 6th and I Street synagogues, where Rabbis Brant Rosen and Steve Gutow (who continued his inspirational words on Sunday) spoke passionately and eloquently about the situation. Dr. Carl Sheingold and John Riehl gave greetings on behalf of JRF, and we engaged in prayer and text study led by Rabbis Shawn Zevit, Micah Becker-Klein, Liz Bolton, Leila Berner, and Jason Klein.

On Sunday April 30, members of the JRF board and staff, RRC students and more than 25 JRF congregations sent rabbis and members to the rally. More details are in these news articles:

Jews For Justice In Darfur - CBS News
RRC Divests from Sudan - JTA

We were aware of the presence of the following JRF congregations at various rallies:
Adat Shalom, Bethesda, MD
Ahavas Achim, Keene, NH
Am Haskalah, Allentown, PA
Beit Tikvah, Baltimore, MD
Beit Hatikvah, Chatham, NJ
Bet Am Shalom, White Plain, NY
Bnai Keshet, Montclair, NJ
Chapel Hill Kehillah, NC
Columbia Jewish Congregation, MD
Dorshei Derekh, Philadelphia, PA
Hillel Bnai Torah, MA
Houston Reconstructionist Havurah, TX
JCA, Amherst, MA
JRC, Evanston, IL
Kol Ami, VA
Kol HaLev, Cleveland, OH
Kol Tzedek, Philadelphia, PA
Lev Ha-Ir, Philadelphia, PA
Mishkan Ha'am, NY
Mishkan Shalom, PA
Oseh Shalom, MD
RRC, Philadelphia, PA
RSNS, Plandome, NY
RTBI, NJ
Shir Hadash, Northbrook, IL
Society for the Advancement of Judaism, New York, NY
Valley Outreach Synagogue, Las Vegas
West End Synagogue, New York, NY