Shavua Tov – A Good Deed For This Week - 1/12/2007

Let My People Go:

As we were freed, so we must free others

In Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him.  The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the Lord am your God. – Exodus 19:33-34

When we accept our history as slaves we also assume a responsibility toward others who are so oppressed.  While the Haggadah teaches that God brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, we must act in today’s world.  We would not have survived if it were not for the midwives, Shifra and Puah, who refused to obey Pharaoh’s illegal order to throw all the Israelite sons into the Nile.  Similarly Pharaoh’s daughter and Moses’ sister played key roles in our survival.  Because we know the heart of the slave we are obliged to act against oppressors and to advocate for those who are oppressed.

The American Anti-Slavery Group is a U.S.-based non-profit dedicated to the abolition of modern day slavery. While many believe that the slave trade, which includes individuals stolen and sold as chattel and sex slaves, ended some time ago, there are still over 27 million people held in bondage today to throughout Africa and parts of Asia and in the United States.  Slavery isn't history. It's a modern human rights crisis that has only begun to be addressed. Learn more about this grave injustice and find out what you can do at http://www.anti-slavery.org/

Responding to Threats of Genocide Today – Darfur –The United States government and the UN have both declared that a genocide is occurring, but no one has yet intervened to stop it.  Tens of thousands of civilians have been murdered and thousands of women raped in Sudan’s western region of Darfur by Sudanese government soldiers and members of the government-supported militia, the Janjaweed. About 2 million civilians have been driven from their homes, their villages torched and their property stolen. Some of the victims have escaped to neighboring country of Chad, but most are trapped inside Darfur. Thousands die each month from the effects of inadequate food, water, health care, and shelter in a harsh desert environment. All are afraid to return home because the countryside is not safe.

Check the site of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for information and a poster describing action you can take.  http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/darfur/contents/01-overview/