A plea for Congo

The next government must make peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a priority, 70 rabbis and cantors write in The Times today.

Sir, In the run-up to the last general election, we wrote to the main political parties about the wars and human tragedy that have engulfed the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The plight of the Congolese people is a dire one: on a daily basis they experience murder, rape, looting, mass-displacement and the violence associated with the illegal mining of “blood minerals”.

There has been an unprecedented drive to help change this broken landscape over the past five years. Yet we know that more could and should have been done. More than six million Congolese people have already lost their lives, approximately three million remain displaced, countless women and young girls have been raped, and many will die from the ensuing HIV/Aids pandemic.

As rabbis, many of whom have relatives who perished in the Holocaust, we can neither stand idly by nor close our hearts to the pleas of the Congolese people. For this reason, we once again join our voices with Save the Congo to ask political parties for their unwavering personal commitment to make peace and stability in the DRC a priority for the next government.

Rabbi David Mitchell (Patron of Save the Congo)
Rabbi Colin Eimer (Patron of Save the Congo)
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner (Senior Rabbi, Reform Judaism)
Rabbi Danny Rich (Chief Executive, Liberal Judaism)
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg (Senior Rabbi, Masorti Judaism)
Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger, DBE
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE
Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris
Rabbi Sybil Sheridan
Rabbi Charley Baginsky
Rabbi Natan Levy
Rabbi Alexandra Wright
Rabbi Jeffrey Newman
Rabbi Aaron Goldstein
Rabbi Janet Darley
Rabbi Mark Solomon
Rabbi Celia Surget
Rabbi Dr Michael C Hilton
Rabbi Amanda Golby
Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild
Rabbi Warren Elf
Rabbi Richard Jacobi
Rabbi Rachel Benjamin
Rabbi Helen Freeman
Rabbi Dr. Margaret Jacobi
Rabbi Ariel J Friedlander
Rabbi Mark Goldsmith
Rabbi Fabian Sborovsky
Rabbi Janet Burden
Rabbi Jeremy Gordon
Rabbi Lawrence Becker
Rabbi Judith Levitt
Cantor Zoe Jacobs
Rabbi Miriam Berger
Rabbi Anna Gerrard
Rabbi Jason Holtz
Rabbi Michael Foulds OBE
Rabbi Dr Norman Solomon
Rabbi James Baaden
Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers
Rabbi Josh Levy
Cantor Cheryl Wunch
Rabbi Michael Pertz
Rabbi Dr Jacqueline Tabick
Rabbi Rebecca Qassim Birk
Rabbi Larry Tabick
Rabbi Lea Mühlstein
Rabbi Dr Barbara Borts
Rabbi Irit Shillor
Rabbi René Pfertzel
Rabbi Francis Ronald Berry
Rabbi Rafael Kaiserblueth
Rabbi Frank Dabba-Smith
Rabbi Bobby Silverman
Rabbi Dr Thomas Salamon
Rabbi Mijael Even-David
Rabbi Anthony Hammond
Rabbi Maurice Michaels
Rabbi Paul Freedman
Rabbi Sandra Kviat
Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah
Rabbi Leah Jordan
Rabbi Monique Meyer
Rabbi Danny Smith
Rabbi Dr Frank Hellner
Rabbi Dr Judith Rosen-Berry
Rabbi Lisa Barrett
Rabbi Dr Andrea Zanardo