Friday, July 09, 2004

This article, from the June 11, 2004 issue of the Forward, reports that Jewish Groups Step Up Efforts To Help Sudanese.

The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, an umbrella organization of 40 Jewish associations that meets on an ad hoc basis to address humanitarian crises worldwide, decided last week to create a new 11-agency coalition to focus exclusively on Sudan. Dubbed the Coalition for Sudan Relief, the new entity has began to lobby Congress and the Bush administration to put pressure on the Sudanese government to allow access for relief shipments and personnel to the western Sudanese province of Darfur.

....The driving force behind the stepped-up activism has been the American Jewish World Service, a Peace Corps-style aid group that is supplying assistance to the refugees. In an effort to alert the public, the organization is launching what insiders describe as its first-ever advertising campaign in the national media. The campaign will focus on the plight of Sudanese refugees.

....On Tuesday, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement urging the Sudanese government to grant full access to "aid organizations, human rights investigators, and international monitors" and urged America to take all steps to avoid genocide.


This JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) story from July 6 reports on more Jewish activity and mentions that Elie Wiesel for several years has been trying to "place the Sudan violence on the public agenda." The story, however, begins with a rather stupid and flippant line: "It seems the phrase 'never again' isn’t just for the Holocaust anymore."

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