Fresh Updates from RAC

Last Thursday, South African police forces opened fire on miners who were on strike protesting their wages. At least 34 have been declared dead at the hands of law enforcement. Although the circumstances surrounding the escalation of the conflict remain unclear, President Zuma has declared this a week of national mourning. Rabbi David Saperstein, along Rabbi Eric Yoffie (President Emeritus of the URJ), Al Vorspan (Senior Vice-President Emeritus of the URJ), Rabbi Israel S. Dresner (Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Anshe Amunim) and other former anti-apartheid activists, joined together in solidarity to send the following letter to President Zuma urging an immediate end to violence, calling upon all sides to cease and desist form provocative actions that may result in violence, and supporting the right to organize and petition the government peacefully.

Read the entire letter below:

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I’ve only been in Washington for a few days, but already I’ve learned an important lesson from my time with the United Nations Foundation: Ask questions. To help future Machon Kaplan participants and interns, I’ve devised four questions to guide through the beginning of the experience. While these might not be as memorable as the four questions my family might ask during a lovely Pesach Seder, they have nevertheless been instrumental for me in learning how to be a good DC intern:

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When I was asked earlier this month if I might be interested in contributing a guest post to RACblog to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Rabbi Sally Priesand’s ordination as the first female rabbi in the United States, I thought it would be easy. I am not a rabbi, cantor or Jewish educator – but I am a young Jewish woman. I spent the first few years of my post-collegiate life working in the professional Jewish community, and I remain connected professionally, socially and spiritually to the RAC and the Reform Jewish Movement. There must be so much I could say.

But then I sat down to write. And it hit me – I don’t actually distinguish my Jewish identity from my identity as a woman. I don’t have to.

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In response to Representative Rosa DeLauro’s (D-CT) introduction of the United States Leadership to Eradicate Obstetric Fistula Act of 2012 and in light of the crisis that obstetric fistula poses across Asia and Africa, Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:

I could not commend highly enough Representative Rosa DeLauro for introducing legislation that would allow the U.S. to invest in proven methods to correct obstetric fistulas in Sub-Saharan Africa, and I call on Congress to offer bipartisan support and swiftly pass this legislation.

This legislation can eliminate in a decade the scourge of obstetric fistulas through a network of clinics and teams of U.S. and African doctors, social workers and midwives. And it can do it at the cost of $10 million per year. Think of it: a million women in Sub-Saharan Africa whose lives would be transformed for the better. Read more…

It’s not too late to plan a Jubilee Shabbat event in your synagogue, community, or even for your home and family. This year’s Jubilee Shabbat weekend is taking place May 18-19, and it is co-sponsored by the Religious Action Center, American Jewish World Service, Tikkun, the Shalom Center and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America (RHR-NA). The weekend is just one opportunity to set aside time to pray, reflect, study, and act around issues of global inequality and poverty.

Each week we set aside time to rest during Shabbat. But the Jubilee, which represents the seventh Sabbath cycle, reminds us to not only rest, but also to envision what it would mean to take time on Shabbat to make our local and global community relationships more whole. One way to do this has been to support the cancellation of third-world debts. The Religious Action Center has partnered with the Jubilee USA Network for over a decade to support the cancellation of unjust debt in the developing world to help eradicate poverty. The inspiration for debt cancellation and a modern Jubilee, and the successful debt relief of over $100 billion dollars over the past decade, was inspired by the parsha Behar-Bechokotai in Leviticus.

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Every seder is a memory-making moment. Friends and family gather to read from the Haggadah, to eat matzah and drink wine. At our seders, we are a real “by the book” kind of family when retelling the story of the Israelites’ redemption from slavery and exodus from Egypt. Of course, my children will add a few words about a lesson learned in school or sing a new tune to an old song, but so many homes also add a contemporary twist to the seder text to raise awareness of a particular plight of a group of people – women’s rights, gender equality, labor issues, and the list goes on. This is something my family has never done.

So when I was presented with an invitation to attend the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Justice Seder with Secretary Tom Vilsack, I accepted. The seder was held in partnership with Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice.

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There is a war being waged on LGBT people throughout the world. In Iraq, teenagers suspected of being gay have become targeted for beatings that frequently turn fatal. In Russia, the national legislature may soon consider legislation that would prohibit any form of LGBT advocacy. In Uganda, the government is –yet again – considering legislation that would impose the death penalty on lesbians, gays, and bisexuals.

In recent weeks, Iraqi gay youth – and youth suspected of being gay –are being killed with even greater frequency than usual. Militias have distributed hit lists. In the last six weeks, as many as 58 Iraqis who are gay or perceived to be gay – many of them only teenagers – have been killed; some have been bludgeoned to death with cement blocks. (You can read about some of the victims here – warning: there are graphic images.) Perhaps worst of all, these militias are believed to be operating with the support of the Iraqi government. Read more…

“Send Bashir to ICC!” chanted a crowd gathered in front of the Sudanese Embassy this morning, demanding that Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, be tried at the International Criminal Court for his violent actions against his own people.

Joining Rabbi David Saperstein at the protest were Congressmen Al Green, Jim Moran, and Jim McGovern; actor and activist George Clooney and his journalist father, Nick; John Prendergast, president of the ENOUGH Project; activist Martin Luther King III; Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP; Tom Andrews, president of United to End Genocide; and dozens of other human rights leaders. Together, they defiantly trespassed the Sudanese Embassy, patiently awaiting the last of three verbal warnings to step off the property. When they did not heed officers’ warnings, they were arrested and led off the property in plastic handcuffs.

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