Jews For Justice In Darfur

Tradition In Social Justice Informs Jews' Activism For Darfur

(CBS)  For her part, Carol Anshien, who stood alongside Schreiber at the rally, emphasized the mantra of social action as it was preached by formative twentieth-century Jewish theologian, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

"He used to say, 'I am praying with my feet,'" Anshien recalled of Heschel's metaphor that action – physically moving to effect change for others — is valuable worship.

Anshien was not the only one moved by Heschel's words. In fact, a number of synagogues and Jewish organizations that coordinated trips to the Darfur rally quoted Heschel on their Web sites.

"In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, all are responsible," it said on Web sites ranging from that of the Jewish Theological Seminary to that of the Temple Beth Sholom of Smithtown, NY.

What became apparent at the Darfur rally was that for Jews, applying Heschel's words means so much more than preventing another Holocaust.

The Holocaust is, without question, the most direct, and visceral, association for the Jewish community when the term "genocide" comes up. And, yes, Jews still ache that there was silence when lives could have been saved during World War II.

Yet Strassfeld explained that the concern now "needs to be for the universal, from the particular." That is, the lessons of the Holocaust, not to mention those of the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia, need to benefit not only those who are suffering in Darfur right now but anyone, anywhere else in the future, who might suffer as well.

What it really comes down to, Eliza Feller from the Beth-am synagogue in Baltimore said, is "basic Jewish values: looking out for your neighbor."