The text of our new fabulous flyer, designed by Sharone Senk at the Anti-Defamation League. Many thanks to Dave Henig at the Michigan Board of Rabbis and Vivian Hennock at the JFMD Marketing Department who made it happen on time, on budget and in style.

detroit2darfur Coalition http://detroit2darfur.blogspot.com

What:

The Detroit Jewish community’s coordinated response to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

Who:

All who remember. All who care. All who want to act now.

When:

• Sunday, April 16th
  Get the facts! Hear first-hand from experts and community activists at an educational forum.
• Tuesday, April 25
  Never forget! Observe Yom HaShoah at a community commemoration … take action for Darfur.
• Sunday, April 30
  Join us! Be part of the Detroit delegation to the Stop Genocide Rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Organizers are projecting that thousands from across the country will be
  there.

How:

Blog on! Check the detroit2darfur coalition advocacy blog for current information: [this blog!]

To help young people raise advocacy funds and for more information, please call the Jewish Community Council at 248-642-5393. To learn more about the Washington rally and national events, please visit http://www.ajws.org/ or http://www.savedarfur.com/. A DVD about Darfur is available for screening at the Jewish Community Council office.

Initiating Organizations: American ORT Detroit Chapter, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish World Service Detroit, Anti-Defamation League, Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Holocaust Memorial Center, Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan Board of Rabbis, Temple Israel, Temple Shir Shalom, Women’s American ORT Michigan Region … and the list is growing.

A message from Elie Wiesel:

I am haunted by what I know of Darfur.

In Darfur, humankind's center of suffering today, men, women and children are uprooted, starved, tortured, mutilated, humiliated and massacred -- and the whole civilized world knows it. And little or nothing, nothing significant, is being done to stop these massive violations of human rights. Who is guilty? Those who commit these crimes. But to the question, "Who is responsible?" we are compelled to say: "Aren't we all?"

We can no longer stand idly by....

As a Jew, and a survivor, I do not compare any events to the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet how can anyone, anywhere who sees the loss of life in Darfur, the systematic deportation, the killing of a people, not feel outraged? How can anyone who remembers other genocides -- Cambodia, Rwanda, the Holocaust, the former Yugoslavia -- remain silent?

If we neglect the suffering victims of Darfur, their plight will be our fault -- and, perhaps, our guilt.

That is why we must act today.

Won't you make your voice heard?

All are entitled to live with dignity and hope. All are entitled to live without fear and pain.

For the victims of Darfur, we must intervene.

Thank you,

Elie Wiesel

Our latest press release about an educational event on Darfur slated for Sunday, April 16th:

Community-wide Educational Event on Genocide in Darfur, Sudan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 29, 2006

BLOOMFIELD HILLS – The JN will be co-hosting a community-wide educational event with the Detroit 2 Darfur Coalition on Sunday, April 16th, at the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park, at 1:00 pm. The Detroit 2 Darfur Coalition was formed by Jewish leaders as a coordinated response to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

The event will feature Matthew Emry, the Senior Program Officer for Emergencies and Disasters at the American Jewish World Service in New York. Mr. Emry traveled throughout Africa in March and will brief the community on the crisis in Darfur. Event organizers plan to include Sudanese ex-patriots, brief comments by local response organizers and a screening of a video clip about the situation.

“There’s no coincidence that this event will fall on the intermediate days of Passover. It’s especially fitting at this time of the year that we mobilize our community to take action against the genocide in Darfur,” said Robert Cohen, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Council.

“This event will explain why action needs to be taken and what action needs to be taken. It will be an opportunity for parents from every segment of our community to educate their children about doing the right thing in the face of evil,” said Cohen. Since its forming in mid-March, numerous organizations have joined the Detroit 2 Darfur Coalition, including the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and the Holocaust Memorial Center.

The Coalition has also begun to make arrangements for Detroiters to join the Rally to Stop Genocide, which will take place at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on April 30. Organizers of the Save Darfur Coalition are projecting that thousands of Jews from across the country will participate in the national rally.

An informational blog on Detroit to Darfur may be found at: http://detroit2darfur.blogspot.com. The Jewish Community Council may be reached at (248) 642-5393.

Editorial about Darfur from today's Detroit News:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060327/OPINION01/603270303/1008

The Soul Seder! is this Thursday at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, 7:30 pm. This experience planned by Jewish and African-American Christian congregations is not only fabulous on its own terms, but we'll be asking the 500+ participants to sign Save Darfur postcards. RSVP to 248-357-5544 ... or just show up at the door.


Gregg Krupa at The Detroit News wrote a very nice piece about the Soul Seder in today's paper:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060327/LIFESTYLE04/603270369&SearchID=73239761086900

The Soul Seder got started after a clergy mission to Senegal and Israel, which was described last summer in this Detroit News article:

http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/0506/02/B01-201380.htm

Dave Henig at the Michigan Board of Rabbis, a Detroit to Darfur Coalition member, spotted this editorial, "Save Darfur Now, Not Later," in today's Jewish Week:

http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editorials.php3#0

Hey, Robert Sklar, editor of the Detroit Jewish News, wrote a great piece in today's paper about Darfur and Andrea Nitzkin -- one of the founding members of the Detroit to Darfur Coalition. Andrea is an outstanding example of how one person's activism can make a difference. Andrea's passion for justice in Darfur and her independent leadership are newsworthy and inspiring. See the JN, page 5.

If anyone knows of other Detroit-area Darfur efforts, please let us know ...

This just in from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the national organization of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit:

The Save Darfur Coalition has received over 100,000 paper and electronic postcards and large numbers continue to roll in every day. I encourage you to accelerate your postcard efforts in the days ahead ... Many communities, including some that are a considerable distance away from Washington, DC, also are planning to send large numbers of participants to the April 30 rally. Get your cards in and add to the numbers. It's so easy -- just go to www.savedarfur.org and the website immediately opens to the electronic card. Send your off today and forward this information to everyone you know.

A Week of Prayer and Action for Darfur (April 2-9) has been declared by the various faith communities that are members of the Save Darfur Coalition. Materials appropriate for the various religious traditions are available at http://www.savedarfur.org/go.php?q=communitiesOfFaith.php. To read more about this, go to: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=62681

It's clear that our efforts are working. The media and public officials are taking notice and we need to keep moving forward!

No question that blogging will help us get the message out about Darfur in powerful ways.

Allan Gale, Associate Director of the Jewish Community Council, wrote "Confronting the Bloody Stain," which appeared in the Detroit Jewish News back on June 18, 2004.

There is a humanitarian crisis in Africa, in the Sudan that, in the memory of the fate of Europe's Jews in World War II, demands the attention of the Jewish community.

The Darfur region, located in the northwest part of the country; is home to a large population of black farmers. This region has been the site of a year long ethnic cleansing effort by Sudanese Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed. These groups have been uprooting farmers and destroying villages through the systematic use of rape, murder, razing of structures and crops and forced displacement.

One million people have been displaced. And there are reports that approximately 1,000 individuals are- being killed each week, many by forced starvation (a result of the deliberate denial of access to relief organizations. An immense, internally displaced population has been created. This violence, many observers believe, is primarily motivated by race; but there are economic and political considerations as-well. The attackers are attempting to "Arabize" the area by eliminating the presence of all black Africans.

The Janjaweed operate with the support of the Sudanese government which claims that it is acting to suppress an insurrection in the region. This situation has become even more urgent now because of the onset of the rainy season (June/September). If intervention does not take place immediately, seasonal conditions will make it impossible to truck in relief or aid workers for several months it is estimated that close to half a million people may perish as a result.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and President Bush must act. Both must show leadership on this issue. President Bush needs to clearly and publicly state that the violence in the Darfur region is ethnic cleansing. Such a declaration will solidify national and international support for an intervention to stop the violence and send in human rights investigators. In the Sudan Peace Act of 2002, Congress declared that the Sudanese government had committed acts of genocide. The U.S Commission on International Religious Freedom found evidence of genocidal atrocities against civilian populations there.

Let us act together quickly, so that this new century does not carry the bloody stains of the previous one.

The Never Again Campaign (www.neveragaincampaign.org) was started by students at Northwestern University. Worth checking out; good links page.

Wondering how we got that link? Community member Michael Horowitz of West Bloomfield forwarded the link to his network of friends and colleagues ... and it ended-up with us via Howard Neistein at the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit. When people like Michael and Howard take note and take action -- even if it's just a few clicks and few seconds out of their day -- it makes a huge difference. This blog is a place where that kind of information is aggregated and shared.

Kol ha'kavod to the students at Northwestern for their activism ... and to Michael and Howard for theirs!

Our first press release:

Detroit to Darfur: Michigan Jews Respond to Genocide in
Africa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: P.J. Cherrin, 248-642-5393
March 22, 2006

BLOOMFIELD HILLS – Concerned about the current crisis in Africa, the local Jewish community is mobilizing an organized response to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Detroit to Darfur, a coalition that includes the Jewish Community Council, the Board of Rabbis and the American Jewish Committee, along with congregations and individual activists, has recently been formed and is already planning several community events.

"This is a world crisis that cannot be ignored and affects every one of us," said Robert Cohen, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Council, a lead organizer of the Detroit to Darfur Coalition. "Our goal is to educate and mobilize the Detroit community about the horrific situation in Darfur. As Jews, we understand that a holocaust must never happen again."

Plans are underway for an educational forum on the afternoon of Sunday, April 16th, which will be open to the public. The Coalition has also begun to make arrangements for Detroiters to join the Rally to Stop Genocide, which will take place at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on April 30. Organizers of the Save Darfur Coalition are projecting that thousands of Jews from across the country will participate in the national rally. Leading that Coalition are the American Jewish World Service (http://www.ajws.org/) and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (http://www.jewishpublicaffairs.com/), the national organization of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit.

Organizations are encouraged to screen a DVD, produced by the Save Darfur Coalition (http://www.savedarfur.org/), which is available at the Jewish Community Council office. The DVD includes background and history on the genocide, details on the US and UN response, stories of individual Americans who have mobilized, ideas for taking action, and information about the “Million Voices for Darfur” postcard campaign.

Individuals interested in more information on upcoming events, including the April 16th forum, the Washington rally, the DVD, or participating in Detroit to Darfur can contact the Jewish Community Council at (248) 642-5393. An informational blog on Detroit to Darfur may be found at: http://detroit2darfur.blogspot.com. Registration for the rally is available at http://www.ajws.org/.

Oh yeah, let's mobilize the Jewish community using the tools of the 21st Century ... This blog will help us stay in touch and share information on our local efforts to stop the genocide in Darfur.