Directed by Michael King

Followed by panel discussion on historical and contemporary responses to genocide with the film’s director, Michael King and American Jewish World Service, Jewish World Watch and the USC Shoah Foundation

About the Film
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Michael King presents this powerful documentary exploring lessons from the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide in a quest to understand what should be done to stop the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The film follows a young Rwandan activist who lost 100 members of her family in the genocide and a renowned British Holocaust historian on a journey across 15 countries and three continents interviewing survivors and the descendants of righteous gentiles. Named “Best Documentary” at the Palm Beach and Beloit International Film Festivals.

Watch the trailer

Buy tickets now at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/243202 or call 800.838.3006.

Students/Seniors $9
General Admission $12

Rabbi Schulweis argues that God is not a noun but an adverb.  We do not look to God, we look to be godly.  What is godly?  If we examine what we ask of God, then we can understand what is demanded of us.  In our morning prayers, we ask God to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, the comfort the distraught, to free the bound.  We ask God to heal the sick.  But this is not a one-way relationship.  We do not rely on God to do all of this alone.  We assist God, we work as God’s agents on earth.  We use medicine to heal.  We use law to liberate the imprisoned.  We use compassion (and chocolate) to comfort.  God reminds us 36 times in the Torah that we must care for the stranger, for we ourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.  Not standing idly by the blood of our neighbor.  These are among the commandments we are reminded of this week.  The Hebrew word used for neighbor is “re’eicha”. This neighbor is someone close by, someone we know and love, someone we see at the supermarket.  The Hebrew word is used nearly 200 times in the Tanakh to describe a friend, someone close, but also foreigners, people who speak different languages, and even people who disagree with each other.

So we read these commandments, these mitzvot, as referring to our interactions to everyone in the world.  Those close to us, but also those far away who speak a different language and have different beliefs.  In today’s global society, we can see what happens on the other side of the world as it occurs.  On our phone, on our computer, scrolling across buildings.  We are just as aware of events 10,000 miles away as those happening around the corner.  These are our neighbors, these are the people we must care for.  When our parsha says, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18) – it is the world we must take into account.  When it says “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor” (Lev. 19:16) – it is reminding us of the global community we have created, how we are responsible one for the other.

Much is expected of us if we are to be godly.  As God commands, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2).  We speak to God as the Sovereign of the entire world, Melekh HaOlam, so too are we accountable for the entire world.

You will need to stand on both feet, because this is not easy work.

Ari Averbach is the Harold M. Schulweis Rabbinic Intern at Jewish World Watch.  You can meet him in person at the Walk to End Genocide in Los Angeles.

We need volunteers in Los Angeles to raise awareness for the Walk to End Genocide on May 20.  If you can help, please download and print out these flyers and posters and put them up in your local school, synagogue, church, business or community center.  We also have brochures available at our office in Encino, call us or email info@jww.org if you want to pick some up.  Help us make this year’s Walk the biggest one ever!

Walk to End Genocide 2012 Flyer – 8.5×11

Walk to End Genocide 2012 Poster – 11×17

This week’s haftarah, which can be found in II Kings 7:3-20, starts with a famine in the land.  This is a recurring theme, isn’t it?  King Jehoram of the Northern Kingdom was so upset that he ordered the death of Elisha the prophet for not being able to ask God for food.  Some people in Israel turned to cannibalism, one woman ate her own son to stay alive.  It does not get much more grim than this.

Elisha prophesied that tomorrow there will be food in the city.  Unbelievable.  With the severe drought that preceded the current situation, the idea of barley and fine flour seemed foreign.  How could it possibly arrive?  The king’s aide doubted God’s ability.

At the same time as Elisha’s prediction of food, there were four men with tzaraat standing outside the city gates.  We commonly translate tzaraat as leprosy, though biblically this is not equal to the bacterial disease of the nervous and respiratory tracks we fear today.  Tzaraat was a physical manifestation of internal wickedness, including pride, selfishness and slander (think of Miriam after she spread l’shon ha’rah about Moses’ wife Tzipporah in Numbers 12:1-10).  Skin turned snow-white and flaky to show the evil within.  Because of the condition, metzora’im (lepers) must live outside the city so as not to afflict others, but also for spiritual cleansing and to think about the evil they have done.  These are society’s lowest of the low.

These four metzora’im did not hear Elisha announcing that tomorrow there would be food.  They were starving (even more so than the people inside the walls of the city).  To be proactive, they headed to enemy territory – the nearby Arameans.  “Im y’chayunu nichi’eh, v’im y’mitunu vamatnu. If they let us live, we will live; and if they put us to death, we will die.” (II Kings 7:4) Better to be killed trying to get food than to give up and die of starvation waiting for food to miraculously arrive.

When they arrived at the camp of the Arameans, they found it deserted.  The entire city was still set up, but there were no people (it turns out God scared them away via miracles to save the Israelites).  The metzora’im took the Arameans’ silver, gold, and clothing.  They fed themselves on the food that had been left in haste.  But then their eyes opened.  There was far more food than the four of them could consume.  They remembered that the city, which had evicted them for their tzaraat, was also starving.  They sent a message back to the city and soon everyone ran out of the gates to get food.

The incredible part is that the heroes of this story are the four metzora’im. The men who were ejected from their own city because they were greedy, selfish, and had done such harm that it showed on their outsides.  If these four can help solve issues of hunger – if they can reverse their ways and become so selfless as to save the kingdom which would not count them among their own – then we can all do something.

The person who lost the most in this story is the naysayer.  One of the king’s men did not believe that food would come.  Instead of believing, instead of being supportive, and forward-thinking, the doubter declared it impossible for food to arrive.  In the end, he was trampled to death by the masses rushing to get food.  We can learn so much from this story.  Even the most degenerate members of our society can redeem themselves.  The mighty can fall to their own pragmatism.  There is always another option.  And there is always food, if we don’t stand in its way.

In the Birkat HaMazon, the grace after meals, we thank God for providing food for every living being.  We say that, yet we know full well that people are starving all around the world.  Does this mean that God has not provided food for them?  Or does it mean that there is enough food; we just need to take charge and make sure that it is distributed properly?  I choose the latter.  Let us be like the outcasts, the metzora’im, and share the bounty with those who need it most. Let us rally to open up the gates to South Kordofan and the refugee camps in Chad and people all around the world who lack access to the bounty of the earth.

Join JWW in calling for humanitarian aid to South Kordofan at the Walk to End Genocide on May 20 in Los Angeles.

Anyone and everyone can help! Join or start a walk team, walk as an individual, make a donation, volunteer or become a sponsor! There is no fitness requirement for this family-friendly walk, so everyone can participate and enjoy.

Take one step closer to a world without genocide. With your help we will raise thousands of dollars to help realize a better future for people around the world suffering human rights abuses.

Register now and start your fundraising!

For more information please contact Walk Coordinator Jenny Pinzari at walk@jww.org or 818.501.1836.

Anyone and everyone can help! Join or start a walk team, walk as an individual, make a donation, volunteer or become a sponsor! There is no fitness requirement for this family-friendly 5K walk, so everyone can participate and enjoy.

Take one step closer to a world without genocide. With your help we will raise thousands of dollars to help realize a better future for people around the world suffering human rights abuses.

Register now and start your fundraising!

For more information please contact Walk Coordinator Jenny Pinzari at walk@jww.org or 818.501.1836.