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Hillel Students Urge their Campuses to "Never Forget. Save Darfur"
December 14, 2005Comments (0) | Add | E-mail this to a friendHillel students are taking action to respond to the shocking numbers produced by the genocide in Darfur, Sudan: 400,000 are dead, 220,000 are living in refugee camps in Chad, and 1.83 million have been displaced within their own country.
"Our Weinberg Tzedek Hillel program is working with other campus groups to raise awareness about the ongoing atrocities in Darfur not only because it is a humanitarian outrage, but because the Jewish people is all too familiar with the effects of genocide. We cannot say 'never again' in reference to the Holocaust if we sit on the sidelines today," Hillel President Avraham Infeld said.
The students' creativity has stood out as they educate increasing numbers of people about the crisis. With the help of Human Rights Watch, many Hillels are bringing a child's perspective of the situation to dozens of communities. The exhibit, entitled "Darfur Drawn: The Conflict of Darfur Through Children's Eyes," features drawings by Darfurian children living in refugee camps and offers a heart-wrenching portrait of the violence in the region. After premiering at New York University's Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life this spring to a bevy of media attention, the exhibit is now being showcased at Hillel's Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center in Washington, D.C., and campus Hillels throughout the United States.
Another witness of African genocide, "Hotel Rwanda" subject Paul Rusesabagina, has shared his harrowing tale and inspired students to take action in Darfur at several universities this year. Most recently, he visited the University of Pittsburgh at the invitation of the Edward and Rose Berman Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh, where he addressed a packed audience of students and community activists and inspired them to stand up and take action.
"We don't want this to come and go like a flash in the pan," student coordinator Adam Donnell said. "We want it to have a lasting impact."
At the Claremont Colleges in Southern California, students are educating their peers about the crisis alongside a healthy serving of carbohydrates. Through the Challah for Hunger program, the brainchild of Hillel student leaders Ellie Winkelman and Melinda Koster, students bake more than 100 loaves of challah each week to sell on campus, with the proceeds going to the American Jewish World Service's relief efforts. The students distribute literature about Darfur with the challah and encourage customers to sign petitions and write letters to government officials about the situation.
Across the country at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, students are honoring the memory of children who perished during the Holocaust while raising money for Darfurian children at the same time. The Dimes for Darfur project aims to collect 1.5 million dimes ($150,000) this year, which symbolizes the 1.5 million child Holocaust victims. Earlier this month, students demonstrated the grand scale of the project with the Dimes Mile, in which they paved a prominent area of campus with a mile of double-sided tape for passers-by to place their contributions.
Hillel has worked in tandem with mtvU, AJWS, STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), the Save Darfur Coalition, the International Crisis Group and other organizations to serve as advocates for the Darfurians. Hillel's advocacy efforts are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Darmstaedter Estate through the UJA-Federation of New York.
To learn more about Hillel's "Never Forget. Save Darfur" initiative, visit Tzedek Hillel.
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