Jews once again lead call to end the crisis in Darfur

The New York protest, organized by the Save Darfur Coalition, a 2-year-old coalition of more than 170 faith-based and social action organizations, was heavily attended by Jews, much like an April protest in Washington that drew between 60,000 and 75,000 people.

In Washington, some 20 percent were Jewish, according to some estimates.

Among a sea of New York protesters wearing blue hats and berets — which organizers suggested people wear to symbolize the blue helmets worn by U.N. peacekeepers — were many Jews wearing yarmulkes.

Jewish groups from all over the country came to hear speakers such as Albright; the executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Rabbi Steve Gutow; the director of the National Council of Churches, Tony Kireopoulos; and actress Mira Sorvino.

Some came to the protest — which also featured musical performances by Suzanne Vega, O.A.R and others — as the leaders of Jewish groups.

Arieh Lebowitz, the communications director of the Jewish Labor Committee, an organization that acts as a liaison between the Jewish community and organized labor, brought a handful of people to the rally. The committee, which was founded in 1934 in response to the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany, has historically taken up social action causes that are both Jewish and non-Jewish because it sees the Jewish cause and the human cause as the same.

“I don´t think this is a Jewish issue. It is a human issue,” Lebowitz said of the situation in Darfur. “Just as when the Nazis came to power, it was not a Jewish issue. It was a human issue.”

Others came under the auspices of Jewish groups.

Shula and Rachel Smith, sisters from Philadelphia who are 14 and 19, respectively, came as members of Habonim Dror, a labor Zionist youth movement.

“It seems like a lot of kids just don’t care about what is happening in Darfur because it doesn’t affect them,” Rachel said. That disaffection applies to everyone, she said, not just kids.

“But there are so many Jewish groups here, it’s awesome,” Shula added.

Some non-Jews hitched rides with Jewish groups.

Kaitlin Tufts and Nicole LaHausse are students at Colgate University who traveled four hours from upstate New York to the rally on a bus chaperoned by Rabbi David Levy, the Jewish chaplain at Colgate.

The group of 55 students from the university’s interfaith community — 12 of whom were Jewish, according to Levy — were accompanied on their trip by a Sudanese refugee who found out about the protest because he worked in the silkscreen shop that made the T-shirts the group had printed for the rally.

“In the Jewish community, we should be playing up the need to help,” said Ruth Messinger, the president of the American Jewish World Service, which co-founded the Save Darfur Coalition along with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“We learned from the Holocaust about what happens when people are not willing to stand up for you. Now we are willing to stand up for people who are victims.”

Messinger, who was not at the event for personal reasons, but was checking in with organizers, said she is proud that the Jewish community has taken up the Darfur cause, especially since it is one that involves mostly Muslim victims and aggressors — a fact that she acknowledges is often downplayed.

But while Jews were well represented at the rally, some wondered about the relatively small turnout of another group that would seemingly have a natural connection with the plight of those suffering in Darfur — African Americans.

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=17065&intcategoryid=4

...in response to the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany, has historically taken up social action causes that are both Jewish and non-Jewish because it sees the Jewish cause and the human cause as the same.

Praise YHVH! We are almost as good as yids, it turns out!

“I don´t think this is a Jewish issue. It is a human issue,” Lebowitz said of the situation in Darfur. “Just as when the Nazis came to power, it was not a Jewish issue. It was a human issue.”

Just like its not a jewish issue when jews demand billions of dollars in reparations from European governments and companies for letting the hollowcost happen. Sheesh, even when they lie, they still twist it further to beyond a lie.