The Movement for Reform Judaism

The American Jewish community is very concerned
about Darfur. They are heavily engaged both in
lobbying and in raising funds for relief and development
work. The same could not be said for the British
Jewish community. 

Part of the explanation may lie with the American experience in Somalia but quite a lot has to do with the different psychologies of the two communities.

We in Britain, closer to the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, still see ourselves as the victim rather than the saviour, the person needing rescue rather than the rescuer.  It manifests in our fear of extinction through loss of numbers as well as our acute anxiety about security.

Much of that is both understandable and realistic.  267,000 Jews, one quarter of one percent of the population, are bound to think and feel differently from 5.8 million Jews, three percent of the population.  The ever present threat to the safety of Jews here is demonstrated by the need for a Community Security Trust and its essential work.

But we are a community which has never seen its existence as an end in itself.  Whilst we need to survive in order to go beyond survival, we need to go beyond survival to make survival meaningful.  Judaism has consistently placed the ethical at the heart of its very being and its understanding of God.  We are both promised and obligated to be a blessing to all the families of the earth, to work for social justice, to engage in tikkun, repair of the world - to pursue the good.

Beset by continuing demographic and security problems, perhaps we could nevertheless decide over the coming High Holydays to re-balance our concerns just a little.  May we, both personally and communally resolve to make the coming year a year in which our responsibilities to others achieve a higher profile - so that the contrast between the American Jewish community with regard to Darfur and other regions of overwhelming need and concern is not quite as stark as it is this year.

May the coming year be shanah tovah - a good year not just for us but for others; and may that, in some small way, be reflected in our individual and communal priorities.

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Who could disagree?
written by a guest , September 14, 2006

Yes, who could disagree with that? Too bad it came too late for the Rosh Hashanah issue or even the one after, but it's in the file for December....

Larry.

response
written by a guest , September 16, 2006

in recent trips to France and Austria I was struck by homne much more under siege the Jews of Europe seem to feel. Rabbi Bayfield's comment reinforces that observation