October 2006

TThis year on Yom Kippur I will advise our congregation
to heed the words of the great sage Hillel: “If
I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only
for myself, what good am I? And if not now, when?”
We must remember that the true meaning of our fast is
to compel us to do justice and love mercy, for all people
everywhere.

The most important way we can realize this
message is to make true our promise of “Never Again.”
After the Holocaust, Jews should be the most sensitive
of all people to acts of genocide
and persecution of
minorities. Indeed, Jews have
taken a leading role in the
movement to protect the tribal
peoples in Darfur, Sudan from
the ongoing cloud of genocide
that hangs over them.

Since February 2003,
a government-backed militia
known as Janjaweed has been
engaging in a genocidal campaign to displace and wipe
out communities of African tribal farmers in Darfur.
When I see pictures of these Sudanese refugees exiled
from their homes by government-backed militia, I am
struck by how much the lean-to’s in which the refugees
find shelter look so like sukkot, the simple huts in
which our ancestors dwelled when they fled from
Egypt. But while sukkot is a time of celebration and joy
for us, for the refugees it is quite different. Their flimsy
shelters are all that they have to protect them against
the harshest of desert environments.

As Jews, we of all people cannot turn away
from this dire humanitarian crisis. The American
Jewish World Service has ongoing activities to help the
people of Sudan achieve freedom and safety. We will
have flyers on the Darfur situation, and envelopes to
donate to the AJWS, at our Yom Kippur and other fall
holiday services. To learn about the campaign to raise
awareness, take political action and bring an end to the
atrocities in Darfur, you can also visit
www.ajws.org/darfur/.

The American Jewish World Service is active
around the world in following the Torah’s teachings to
assist the poor and the oppressed and to “know the
heart of the stranger, for we were strangers in the land
of Egypt.” I encourage our congregants to support
their work as an expression of our Jewish values.

May we enjoy a festival season of peace, prosperity
and security for people all on Earth,
Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday),

Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan