by rabbi reuven taff
Recently, by chance, I was seated next to a member of another local synagogue on a flight to Los Angeles. During our conversation, he said something surprising — that he was delighted that I had spoken out publicly on issues of social and moral concern over the years. Then he said something more surprising: that he was shocked that I have kept my job.
I told him that every citizen has the obligation to take stands on issues that affect our society and the world we live in.
Our conversation then turned to the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. I shared with him that I had just written a letter to Steven Spielberg, who has been asked by the Chinese government to produce the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
In my letter, I noted that he has the ability and power to influence the Chinese government to stop selling weapons and aircraft to the Khartoum regime, which uses them in the genocide that has already claimed more than 400,000 lives.
I also urged him to reconsider his contract with China unless it exerts its influence on Sudan to stop the genocide. While President Bush’s recent sanctions against the Khartoum government is welcome, it is late in coming.
It is my hope and wish that the killings and rapes by the Janjaweed will cease. If not, it may be time to consider a campaign to boycott the 2008 Olympic Games.
It’s time to break the wall of silence because our silence means our complicity.
We need to stand up and do our part to end the genocide in Darfur.
I also felt the need to act about the British boycott situation. Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic acts continue as the British University and College Union (UCU) voted to adopt a policy broadly supporting a boycott of Israeli academic institutions and called for a moratorium on E.U. funding for Israeli research. I wrote a letter to the professors in the organization telling them I was baffled by such a decision.
I have always held college and university professors in the highest regard because they are the ones who shape the minds of young people who will become responsible citizens of the world.
I respectfully urged the organization to rescind this decision immediately and get on with the business of educating the students so academic freedom can triumph.
My moral compass also compelled me on June 2 to speak to my congregation on the subject of the war in Iraq. I have never ever publicly criticized our president, always respecting the individual who serves our country in the highest office of the land.
But I could no longer be silent.
As I observed, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq continues to escalate, with these deaths relegated to some obscure page in our newspapers and barely reported by our television news media.
Every Shabbat before the Mourner’s Kaddish, I now read the name of American soldiers killed in Iraq the previous week. It is time for the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to figure out how they will govern and live together in peace. While the president has shown a willingness to take bold action to fight the war on terror, I question sending more troops to Iraq when we continue to witness the grievous consequences.
This is not a partisan issue; this is a moral issue that should concern all Americans.
If ever we needed leadership in our country, it is now.
It is time for rabbis and other faith leaders, as well as responsible citizens, to speak out.
We never want to say, “It could have been different if we had acted.”
Rabbi Reuven Taff the spiritual leader of Mosaic Law Congregation in Sacramento. He can be reached at rabbi@mosaiclaw.org.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California