New York (JTA) — Today we are proud to stand as “am echad,” one people, united in solidarity with the people of Darfur, victims of a government-sponsored genocide.
In an extraordinarily unified effort, the leaders of the American Jewish community fully recognize that the lessons of history have taught us to confront genocide wherever it may occur. Indifference or inaction is simply not an option.
The signing of a “Call to Action on Darfur,” addressed to President Bush by the leaders of major national Jewish organizations, all religious denominations and hundreds of local synagogues, federations and Jewish groups, asserts our role as a people who recognize our obligation to be a voice for those who remain unheard.
The situation in Darfur, Sudan represents the first genocide of the 21st century. We must seek to ensure that it’s the last.
This “Rwanda in slow motion” already has taken the lives of 400,000 people who have died through murder, starvation or disease in the process of being forcibly displaced by Sudanese government forces and the Arab militias known as Janjaweed (“evil men on horseback”), whom the government forces support.
Almost 3 million people have been uprooted and suffered murder, rape and other atrocities. Their homes, villages and livelihoods have been destroyed. They have been herded into camps without enough food, clean water or medical care.
Unless there is a decisive response, 1 million people may starve to death by the end of this year.
Sixty years ago, after the Holocaust, the world vowed “never again.” That vow was repeated after the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
The world cannot wait any longer to make good on those promises — and neither can the innocent victims of state-sponsored murder in Sudan.
Not alone
The Jewish community’s response on the grass-roots level has been extraordinary. Thousands of Jewish individuals and communities around the country have educated, agitated and raised money to end the Sudanese government’s policy of mass extermination.
In effect, they have been a catalyst for a broader response by the organized Jewish community to demonstrate to these individual Jews and communities that they are not alone in their outrage and commitment to keeping our collective promise.
Many of the sponsors of the Call to Action on Darfur have been engaged in activities and issued resolutions about the crisis. Last summer, more than 20 national Jewish organizations joined the Save Darfur Coalition, founded by the American Jewish World Service, partnering with other religious communities and important civil society leaders to raise awareness and end the atrocities in Darfur.
By signing and publishing this Call to Action, we now take another visible step forward in conveying the importance of this issue to all Jews, working to focus the Jewish community’s energies against this genocide and increasing Jewish communal involvement in this effort.
Together we stand firm in our insistence that it is the moral duty of all people of good will to band together against this heinous and systematic campaign.
To that end, the leaders of the organized community seek to fuel a groundswell of conscience that will result in our government’s assertion of its moral and political influence to lead the world in calling for immediate and comprehensive international intervention in Darfur.
Besides contributing to the Jewish Coalition for Sudan Relief, the AJWS Sudan Relief and Advocacy Fund or other humanitarian relief funds for the victims of Darfur, we ask Jews and people of faith and conscience everywhere to call on President Bush to lead the international community in:
• Creating security through a larger international peacekeeping force with the expanded mandate and ability to protect all civilians.
• Providing additional financial and logistical support for African Union troop training, mobilization and deployment to Darfur as part of that peacekeeping force.
• Increasing funds for humanitarian assistance and facilitating its urgent delivery.
• Assisting in the reunification of families, their voluntary return to their lands and the rapid reconstruction of their homes, schools and communities.
This call has been sent to President Bush, and the endorsing organizations are sending it to their constituents, urging stepped-up action.
Until conditions are established that permit the voluntary, safe and dignified return of those displaced by the conflict, and violators of the conflict are held accountable, our diligence must not wane. Each of us, in ways big and small, can make a difference.
Our collective memory of persecution and genocide evokes deep empathy for the victimized people of Darfur and keen recognition of our responsibility — as Jews, as Americans, as people of conscience — to aid them.
Bitter history has taught us that indifference must never be the response to genocide.
David Harris is executive director of the American Jewish Committee. Ruth Messinger is executive director of the American Jewish World Service.
After 100 days, it’s clear that new pope is a friend of the Jews
By Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor
New York (JTA) — As we mark the traditional “first 100 days” in the papacy of Benedict XVI on July 27, there’s one question that can easily be answered: Is he good for the Jews?
The answer is yes. The facts on the ground are all that’s needed to see that this assessment is accurate and that the improvement of relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jews — begun 40 years ago with the Second Vatican Council and a major legacy of Pope John Paul II — will continue during the tenure of the new pontiff.
Since the outset of his papacy, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has made a series of important gestures toward the Jewish community — including, most recently, his first official meeting with community representatives at the Vatican.
There, in a June 9 meeting with 25 representatives from the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, the official Jewish communal body for relations with the Holy See, the new pope asserted that Catholic-Jewish relations would remain one of his top priorities.
When he greeted this group of Jewish leaders from around the world, Benedict entered a room filled with friends who had known him as a cardinal and had already developed a respect for his thoughtful and considered approach to dialogue.
None of this was surprising. It was clear from the outset of his papacy that Benedict was committed to the reforms of Vatican II and the legacies of his predecessors — Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI and especially Pope John Paul II — concerning the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Jewish people.
The high level of respect for the former Cardinal Ratzinger dates to 1999, when he published the document “Dominus Iesus” that many read as an attack on those who stood outside the Catholic Church.
Concerned that his words might be misunderstood by the Jewish community, Ratzinger published a letter on Dec. 29, 2000, in the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, in which he expressed remorse for the anti-Jewish attitudes that had persisted throughout history, leading to “deplorable acts of violence” and the Holocaust.
His statement recognized that the church’s “insufficient resistance to this atrocity can be explained by an inherited anti-Judaism present in the hearts of not a few Christians.”
Expose, study and be disturbed
Yet at the same time, Ratzinger demonstrated a profound understanding of and respect for Jewish religious traditions and teaching. Then as now, he showed himself to be a scholar and a theologian ready to engage in a dialogue of substance and meaning.
During the inaugural mass, the new pope stated that he would reach out to “my brothers and sisters of the Jewish people, to whom we are joined by a great shared spiritual heritage, one rooted in God’s irrevocable promises.”
On May 9, Benedict sent birthday greetings to the former chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, who greeted Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to the city’s central synagogue.
Benedict thanked Toaff for his work in helping to foster good relations between Catholics and Jews — a sure promise that this would continue into the new papacy.
The pope’s prepared remarks to officials of Jewish organizations at the June 9 meeting hit all the right notes. He appropriately noted that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and Nostra Aetate, the landmark declaration against church-sponsored anti-Semitism.
He also made an important statement: “At the very beginning of my pontificate, I wish to assure you that the church remains firmly committed, in her catechesis and in every aspect of her life, to implementing this decisive teaching.”
What stands out is that he answered one of the major concerns of our community — that Nostra Aetate must be taught in all corners of the Catholic Church and not just remain an interesting historical document, but one that is lived and permeates church teaching.
Benedict also acknowledged the burdens of the past and of history and spoke of the “moral imperative” of addressing the questions raised by the Holocaust. At a time when there are those inside and outside the church who say the Jewish community should stop dwelling on the past, this pope knows that the only way to address the sins of the past is to expose them, study them and continue to be disturbed by them.
Finally, he spoke of the progress of dialogue and made reference to the pragmatic suggestions of the most recent meeting, held in Buenos Aires last summer, between the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations and the Holy See’s Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews. In that statement, Benedict pointed us back to the importance of working together in “building a reconciled world.”
Then, uncharacteristically for a pope, he stood up and spent several moments in quiet and private conversation with each and every Jewish representative.
There will be many challenges ahead. Jewish organizations have expressed dismay and concern about the Vatican’s pending beatifications of Spain’s Queen Isabella and Pope Pius XII.
But Benedict has shown he is willing to listen to our concerns, demonstrated most recently by his decision to postpone the beatification of Father Leo John Dehon, a 19th-century priest, so that the church can allow for a serious study of his anti-Semitic writings.
This gesture, among others, is characteristic of a man who has devoted himself to maintaining close ties with the Jewish community, based on mutual understanding and respect.
Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, the director of interfaith affairs for the Anti-Defamation League, met recently with Pope Benedict XVI as a member of an official Jewish delegation to the Vatican.
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