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<< Back to E-Drash Blog 2010-01-26Darfur Shabbat Drash: "What am I?" 
“What am I?” Earlier this month, there were two names that caught the attention of media outlets at the time of their deaths. I couldn’t help but link them in my mind. Meip Gies died at the age of 100. James W. Von Brunn died at age 89. They share healthy lifespans, and a link to a historical event. There, the similarities end. Many of you remember Meip, may her memory be for a blessing. Of all the famous people who populate our celebrity-saturated culture, she was among the most reluctant and most impressive. Meip Gies hid Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. Made famous by the diary she found after the Gestapo found the Franks and their fellow-hiders, eight in all were ratted out by a still-unknown individual, Meip gave the diary after the war to her former employer, Anne’s father Otto, the only surviving member of the family, after the war. Meip was known, but did not achieve fame until decades after Otto published the diaries, when, in the late 1980s, a wonderful documentary called “Anne Frank Remembered” sought her out and put her compelling story on camera. She then published a memoir and was in demand on the lecture circuit, claiming, “I am not a hero, I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more — much more — during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness.” She tried to bribe the Nazis after Franks were captured, she and her husband Jan housed Otto after the war, she and Jan hid a Gentile war resister in their home even as they hid eight Jews in the Annex. But she did not seek fame or reward. When told her actions were extraordinary, she said not only did she believe they weren’t, but also that it was important to say they weren’t. If saving people in the face of extraordinary evil is an act of unusual heroism, she reasoned, then most people will conclude that, since they are not cut from heroic timber, will not feel that saving lives is their business. Rather, admit the ordinariness of the act of caring for another human being, and let the world know that they, too, can affect the course of history simply by not standing idly by in the face of evil. You might not remember James W. von Brunn. He died in police custody earlier this month, on January 6th, at age 89. On June 10, 2009, von Brunn, a proud racist and anti-Semite, walked up to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and fatally shot Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, who was holding the door for him. Von Brunn was then shot by other security personnel and taken into custody for the remaining months of his life. Stephen Johns, may his memory be for a blessing, left behind a son, a wife, a mother, who are living testimony to the fact that hate still stalks those who stand guard of the memory of our people. The day Officer Johns was murdered the day the Museum was commemorating the 80th anniversary of Anne Frank’s birth. Officer Stephen T. Johns and Meip Gies tell Jews that we are not alone. They tell us we have obligations. They tell us those obligations are human obligations, not limited by race, color, or creed. They are not alone in telling us this. Last week I spoke of our common obligation to help with the relief effort in Haiti. That’s still true, if anything more true given the information that has come out of that devastated place in the seven days since we last spoke. There is no need to ask if there is an obligation, of course there is an obligation. (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 73a), "How do we know that if a person sees another person drowning, mauled by beasts, or attacked by robbers, s/he is bound to save him? From the verse, “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor!” (Leviticus 19:16)". God says, If you see it, you have to respond to it, (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 7:2) "And any who sees a poor person begging and hides his eyes and does not give him charity transgresses a negative commandment, as it says (Deuteronomy 15:7), “Do not harden your heart or close your hand from your poor brother.” " In Maimonides’ day, one saw less; he didn’t have a broadband connection or an expanded cable package. Now we see more, and our obligation grows. Not coincidentally, we have greater means to help. Most of us can help the victims of a natural disaster without having to dip into the funds we pay for an expanded cable package. And even if we do, we don’t have to do without the necessities to send a little something to those sleeping under the stars in Port-au-Prince tonight. It is comparatively easy to think of those who are on the front page of the newspaper. It is harder to maintain interest in suffering people whose suffering is old hat. Such is the case with the refugees of Darfur. The genocide there is long, ongoing, and not the stuff of headlines. It is far away. It involves people most of us have never heard of. Unlike Hollywood, the “Who’s a Jew” game is rather easy to pay vis-à-vis the tragedy in the Sudan: There are no Jews in or around Darfur. That is, until word of the genocide got out. Then, North American Jewish groups were among the first to raise a cry. That’s because we have a special interest in genocide. This Wednesday will mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We have a special interest in genocide. From the days when we cried and worked for the slaughter to stop till today, we have vowed Never Again. I stood in this synagogue on Yom HaShoah a few months ago and said we must decide if Never Again means Never Again to us, or if we mean Never Again anywhere. Never Again to us carries a powerful message: it means we don’t blame others for standing idly by while Europe’s Jews were destroyed, because we would have done the same if the situation were reversed. It means we believe that Meip Geis was not just extraordinary, but that she did something we wouldn’t have done for her. Our alternative to this lonely and brittle mode of thinking is Never Again anywhere, even if the targets of genocide are not Jewish. Meip Gies is our role model, not a sucker. I need not repeat all I said that night, though it all remains relevant. You can read it on the edrash blog at bethjacobsynagogue.ca. Suffice to say, we must ask "Im ein ani li, mi li, u’ksh’ani l’atzmi mah ani, v’im lo achshav, aimatai? As Hillel said, if I am not for myself, who will be for me, and if I am only for myself, what am I, and if not now, when?" (Mishnah Avot 1). Someone told me they heard it said that we shouldn’t take our focus off of the needs in Israel and the Jewish community, because there are no Jews in Darfur. As I read last week, (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 61a) "Our Rabbis taught: We sustain the non-Jewish poor with the Jewish poor, visit the non-Jewish sick with the Jewish sick, and bury the non-Jewish dead with the Jewish dead, for the sake of peace." If I am only for myself, what am I? We have a special interest in genocide. It reflects poorly on us if we don’t act. We can do better. The Sudanese government, supporters of the genocide, went to the trouble of accusing Jewish groups of fanning the flames though political advocacy and publicizing the Sudanese government’s actions. That’s a record to be proud of: Folks who support genocide see North American Jews as their enemies. That’s an enemies list to be proud to be on. And why do we do it? Why send money for a tent, a meal, a medical kit, when this has been going on for seven years and may not stop anytime soon? Is this not just throwing money down a humanitarian pit? Look to the first words of today’s parashah. God tells Moshe to go to Pharaoh and warn of the plague to come. Pharaoh will refuse to relent, God says, that much is certain. But do it anyway, to make God’s wishes known to the world. You’ll tell your children, Moshe, what God did and what God wants, is the command. Let the world know God exists. That’s our duty. It is not about stopping the genocide, I wish I knew how to do so, but I don’t. It is about letting the world know that God exists, that God’s people still hold out hope for a more Godly world. We are to represent the will of the Universe to the people who need it. They are not forgotten. Let them know that in a far-away, cold land, people care. We care because we know that that message of hope is what God gave us, and what we will bring to the world. We should demonstrate God’s will in our own homes, because it is the basis for Jewish life. We should act as we think God would act in our community, because Hamilton could use people with a sense of justice. The same is true for Haiti, because they could use it. And the same goes for Darfur. There are a lot of claims on your money, heart, and time. But we have a special interest in genocide. Officer Stephen T. Johns is dead. He died at age 39, an innocent victim of a madman who would have us forget. Meip Gies is dead, age 100. Her story is testimony to how we can bring Godliness into the world. We don’t have to be extraordinary. We just have to believe that we are here to act with decency to each other. Black or white. Jew or Gentile. Near or Far. We were freed from Egypt to show the world God exists. We know how to do it. Click here for links to more information and how to act. |
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