In their continuing campaign to spark communal activism against the genocide in Darfur, members of The Jewish Center in Princeton are sponsoring Darfur: Day of Action, a daylong educational program on the issue on Wednesday, Nov. 15.

The day will revolve around a trip to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington to see the museum’s multimedia exhibit, Genocide Emergency — Darfur, Sudan: Who Will Survive Today? The exhibit features photographs from the camps where some of the more than 1.5 million displaced people of Darfur have found refuge over the past three years, as well as commentaries from visitors to the region, where as many as 400,000 civilians have died at the hands of Janjaweed militiamen hired by the Khartoum government.

The program will also include briefings on Darfur by John Heffernan, director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative of the museum’s Committee on Conscience, and John Pendergast, a Sudan specialist with the International Crisis Group, a Washington-based independent think tank. The group also plans to meet with U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-Dist. 12).

Rabbi Adam Feldman, religious leader of The Jewish Center, characterized the day of action as a logical next step in the effort to build community involvement in the issue in the wake of last spring’s Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide in Washington.

“We’re hoping that this prompts us to do more,” Feldman said as he sat in his office with congregants Sally Weisman and Alison Politziner of Princeton, who are coordinating the day of action. “We need to learn to lobby as a community,” he said. “Our goal is to come back with some tools to work with in the Princeton community.”

Feldman noted that he has invited his colleagues in the Princeton Clergy Association to join in the initiative, and he is hoping that congregations from throughout the region’s interfaith community will join in the effort to make a difference in Darfur.

In fact, said Weisman, cochair of the Social Concerns Committee at the synagogue, everyone involved is hoping for broad participation in the event from the Jewish community and the wider Princeton community.

“I think part of our role is to educate our congregation and community to be very outspoken about the situation in Darfur,” she said. “What are the steps we can take? What are the things we should be doing as a community? There really are direct results of people getting involved.”

Politziner also stressed the practical value of the day. “We will all be educated,” she said, “and we will have a direct focus on what’s the next step to take, because it’s a day of action.”

Feldman stressed the importance of thinking about Darfur as a Jewish issue.

“I just think about what Elie Wiesel said at the rally [last spring],” the rabbi said. “He said, ‘No one was there for us during our Holocaust. We have to be there for them.’

“If anyone understands this, the Jews do,” Feldman said. “As a Jewish community, we have to care about Darfur.”

Buses will leave from The Jewish Center for the Darfur: Day of Action at 7 a.m. on Nov. 15. For information, contact Weisman at The Jewish Center, call her at 609-921-0100, or dowload the registration form (pdf).