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Walking for Darfur: Or Ami Steps Forward to Stop Genocide

Over forty Or Ami members joined together with others from across the San Fernando Valley to walk for Darfur, decrying the genocide that continues to plague that part of the Sudan. Teen Osher Shefer shared these reflections on the Walk for Darfur:

“Come on, Get up!” Waking up early to drive 20 miles east wasn’t my idea of a lazy Sunday morning. As we got into the car, I briefly thought about Darfur. With my iPod on, it wasn’t truly on my mind. Arriving at Jewish World Watch (WWW) rally at the Milken Jewish Community Campus in West Hills, I realized how many people actually got up like me and spent part of their Sunday for this wonderful cause: ending the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. We got our picket signs up and our big banner and we started walking. The walk was fantastic. Every time somebody honked at our work, we all cheered in joy and felt appreciated. The line of walkers continued past the corners of every block. It was good to know you weren’t alone. As we came back to Milken Jewish Community Campus, we felt like we had accomplished something great. At the Jewish Center, there were little tents set up for us inside the pavilion. Within each of them was a little memorial to honor the hundreds of thousands who died in the genocides in Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, the Holocaust, and Darfur. Looking through these was heartbreaking. To think that all these hundreds of thousands of people died because of racism. This thought brought me to tears. As I walked into each tent, I realized that this had happened during the Holocaust and it shouldn’t happen again. We are always talking about how history repeats itself and we should learn from it, and here was our chance. When I finally came out of the last tent, I looked down at my neck card. Around each person’s neck was card with one paragraph describing someone’s terrible story of their experience in Darfur. I read mine, and then my mother’s and my father’s. I read my friends’ as well. These cards and this experience made me realize how unfortunate and how terrible their lives are. We need to help them…they need us. We Jews regularly remember the Holocaust and decry the world’s inaction. May this Walk for Darfur raise additional awareness and lead others to work toward the end of modern genocidal regimes.
To learn more about how to help stop the genocide in Darfur, go to Jewish World Watch.

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