Rabbi's Message

Rabbi Elyse Wechterman
Read about the Rabbi
May 2005

Never Again!

This coming Friday, May 6, is Yom HaShoah – the day set aside for Jews and caring people every where to remember and honor the victims of the Shoah – the Nazi Holocaust. Throughout the world, Jewish communities will gather for prayer services and memorials. Amongst those gatherings, one of the most common sights is bound to be signs reading “Never Again!”

“Never Again!” originally meant that never again would the Jewish people allow the world to stand idly by in the face of the murder of millions of our fellow Jews. And for the most part, the worldwide Jewish community has succeeded in creating security agencies, lobby groups and political action committees devoted to the monitoring of anti-Semitism and the safety of Jews everywhere. More so we have strived to create Israel as a haven for Jews in need.

So what of this phrase “Never Again”? Is it to be retired? Or does it’s true meaning go beyond the all important, but yet narrow concerns for Jewish safety and security? Wasn’t it supposed to mean, in fact, the end to genocide in general? The end of mass exterminations and ethnic “cleansings” everywhere?

Yet we know, sadly, that there have been a number of genocidal ethnic “cleansings” since the time of the Holocaust: Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia/Herzegovina to name a few of the better known ones. And still another is going on right at this very moment. Nearly 300,000 civilians have been murdered and another 2 million displaced in the Darfur region of Sudan at the hands of government-backed militia known as the Janjaweed in the past 18 months. The Janjaweed have continued to rape, torture, murder, and pillage with impunity despite the fact that the 18-year old Sudanese civil war ostensibly ended months ago.

The United States Congress, international aide agencies, and a host of international religious organizations have called the horrors in Darfur “genocide” hoping to push the United Nations, the United States and others to intervene, to no avail.

As Jews, if our cries of “Never Again” are to mean anything – we must raise our voices in protest at the actions of the Sudanese government and, more importantly, at the western world’s failure to act in the face of this unfolding genocide.

The United Jewish Communities (“the federation”); the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, the ADL, National Council of Jewish Women, all the rabbinic and synagogue organizations and most of the national and regional Jewish organizations in America have joined the Save Darfur coalition and has called on Jews everywhere to make themselves heard. Several communities have designated Thursday, May 26 as a day of fasting and political action to bring awareness and pressure to bear on this issue.

I am asking you, pleading with you, as a Jew who understands the risks of not speaking up, to raise your voice as well. Write a letter, sign a petition, send a donation, wear a green wrist bracelet, do something to make our observance of Yom HaShoah this Friday more than simply lip service to a meaningless phrase. Let your voice be heard saying “Never Again!”

For more information on the crisis in Darfur and ways you can help, please go to www.savedarfur.org or www.ajws.org (American Jewish World Service). If you are interested in talking to me about a community event to raise awareness and bring voice to this issue, please let me know.

B’Shalom
Rabbi Elyse

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