Next for Darfur: Activists hope to diversify their coalitions
Energized after a rally that drew some 75,000 people to Washington, DC, Jewish community leaders are planning the next steps in a grassroots campaign to draw attention to the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
And while organizers of the April 30 rally and the anti-genocide effort were pleased at the large Jewish turnout for the event and progress on a peace deal between Darfur rebels and the government of Sudan, they also saw the need for more non-Jewish groups to get involved.
Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service and a prime organizer of both the rally and the American campaign against Sudanese genocide, called the gathering “phenomenal in every way.”
“We loved the turnout, and we loved the turnout from the Jewish community,” she told NJJN. “We loved the turnout from the diversity of the Jewish community and we loved the fact that it wasn’t just the Jewish community.”
Messinger acknowledged, as did many observers, the disproportionate Jewish turnout for a cause whose victims are primarily black and Muslim.
“I think the Jewish community came together sooner and faster around Darfur because we’ve had genocide, and we know the dangers of silence from the international community,” she said. “We devoted a tremendous amount of effort to making this day happen.”
Looking “around the country” at such cities as Boston, St. Louis, and Cleveland, Messinger called it “exciting” that “Jewish community relations committees did what I believe Jewish community relations committees are supposed to do. They reached out to non-Jewish partners in those communities — Christian, Muslim, African-American — and they said, ‘Let’s do this together.’ In some places it didn’t take right away because those communities had other issues on their agendas or they weren’t so comfortable with the partnership. But in some places, it worked beautifully.”
Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey, said that a “majority” of participants came from Jewish groups, while he saw “relatively few” representatives of other faiths. In an op-ed in this week’s edition of NJJN, Kleinman suggests that the Jewish community continue to build coalitions with non-Jews on the issue.
“Even as we lobby with our elected officials to do more for the people of Darfur,” writes Kleinman, “we must remind our coalition partners that an effective result will only come from a sense of urgency that will lead to action by both leaders and followers.”
In New Jersey, at least, efforts for Darfur have been multi-ethnic. In a joint effort with the state’s Commission on Holocaust Education, a coalition called NJ Responds to the Crisis in Darfur is circulating educational materials about the genocide. In April, the coalition distributed teaching tools to some 600 high schools throughout the state.
Pleased that the next step in the campaign to save Darfur will be dissemination of the high school teaching guides, Lori Price Abrams, director of the MetroWest Community Relations Committee, said, “This is not anybody’s issue alone. We have to enlist as many people as possible. We as a people have all been imprinted in some ways by the Holocaust. It is part of our collective psyche as Jews. We need to take action, but that doesn’t mean others don’t need to take action.”
Through the nationwide Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Price Abrams said, she plans to keep the MetroWest federation actively involved in the campaign, to continue contacts with other coalition partners, and to support legislative efforts in support of Darfurian survival.
With local Jewish leaders playing prominent leadership roles, the NJ coalition includes representatives from Latino, African-American, and Asian community and church groups, as well as leaders of the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and UJC MetroWest.
The Rev. Luke Davis of the Greater Harvest Baptist Church in Newark told NJJN his congregation had an activity scheduled for April 30 and members could not attend the rally.
But, he said, “the coalition needs to stay on the case and keep in the forefront. I don’t think this is something that public opinion should be lax on. We need to keep this in the public eye so that those persons who can really make a difference — our elected officials — can keep pressure on the Bush administration to do what is necessary.”
Blanche Foster of the Darfur Rehabilitation Project, a Newark-based nonprofit established by individuals from Darfur, said she was impressed with the number of Darfurian exiles who mobilized to attend the rally.
“There was a huge showing,” she told NJJN. “I don’t know numbers, but I was happy that the world got a chance to see how the normal American feels about this issue. It is with our collective cooperation that we are able to bring about change. We have to keep our eyes on what is happening because it is happening quickly. We need to do outreach in all communities, the schools, and the churches as well, because for the most part, this has not been a well-publicized genocide.”
Messinger said such outreach needs to continue. “Some pieces of the work are just beginning. The thing is not only to keep all of our community focused on this, but to build with those other communities — some of which were there — but there are still lots and lots of areas to work in. We are still putting together where we think the major focus should be.”
Other efforts
Leaders throughout the region said the rally was a starting point for renewed efforts to create awareness about the genocide.
“The first thing we need to do is make sure we capitalize on the excitement and momentum that such a big event has given to this issue,” said Alana Cooper, associate regional director of the ADL.
Cooper said the ADL would begin another youth outreach effort aimed at high school and college newspapers. “Getting young people involved in issues of social justice is a big way that changes get made in our world,” he said. “In the fall, we would like to put together these student journalists with some professional reporters so they can learn how to report and write articles on issues like this. We are aiming at kids who are already involved in their high school newspapers. So many kids don’t know about this issue, and when they find out, they are horrified.”
Carolyn Fefferman, a senior policy adviser to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and his liaison to the state’s Jewish communities, is working in support of a $60 million supplemental appropriation Menendez is seeking to steer through Congress. The funds would help pay for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
Fefferman was active in the issue when, as an associate at the Community Relations Committee of UJC MetroWest NJ, she helped organize the interfaith and interracial anti-genocide coalition in New Jersey.
Almost all leaders, meanwhile, praised the seeming progress that was made a day after the rally when Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick applied pressure on the Sudanese government and Darfur to sign a peace agreement that could help end a conflict that has killed at least 180,000 people and displaced some two million. In addition, President Bush has called for more UN peacekeepers for Darfur and pledged an increase in food aid from the United States.
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