NEVER AGAIN—Keara Cummings and Julie Lipson, right, show off materials from Beth Israel’s Never Again Postcard Brigade. BINA, a subcommittee of the Social Action Committee, teams up with other groups opposing the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

DEBORAH MOON/Jewish Review

Congregations bring Camp Darfur to Portland

By DEBORAH MOON

article created on: 2009-03-15T00:00:00

Purim celebrations of Jews’ escape from genocide will evolve into the chance to assist another ethnic group facing that fate when Camp Darfur comes to town March 11-12.

Congregations Neveh Shalom and Beth Israel are bringing Camp Darfur to Portland for a community high school program March 11 with the free interactive education event opening to the public 6:30-8:30 p.m., March 12 at Beth Israel. The March 12 opening will include some videos with more mature subject matter.

Camp Darfur is a traveling project of Stop Genocide Now. Attendees can wander through the mobile museum of tents, videos of survivors, speakers and action items while learning about the ongoing genocide in the western region of Sudan, as well as historical genocides including the Holocaust, Armenia, Cambodia and Rwanda.

The genocide in Darfur has killed an estimated 450,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million people, according to American Jewish World Service, which has spent more than $5 million aiding refugees in camps in Sudan and neighboring Chad. Congress declared the situation in Darfur a genocide in July 2004 and in September of 2004, then Secretary of State Colin Powell echoed that declaration on behalf of the Bush administration. Yet the genocide continues.

“Since all the high school students from synagogue’s Wednesday Night Schools will be at Beth Israel, we thought it would be a great opportunity to bring Camp Darfur and reach a lot of teens,” said Keara Cummings, a member of Beth Israel’s Never Again, a grassroots subcommittee of the congregation’s Social Action Committee. “We’ve found teen and young adults groups are the most passionate about Darfur.”

BINA founder Julie Lipson said the idea to bring Camp Darfur to Portland came from the new Neveh Shalom Says Never Again Darfur Awareness Committee.

“As members of the Neveh Shalom Says Never Again Darfur Awareness Committee shaped a vision for the group’s evolving efforts to speak out against the genocide taking place in Darfur, raising awareness among youth rose to the top of our priority list,” said Sarah Greenstein, chair of Neveh’s Darfur committee. “Diane Koosed from Kol Shalom’s Darfur Action Group mentioned that Stop Genocide Now had an educational tool that was powerful and popular among student groups. The Community Wednesday Night School forum seemed like a great way to bring this hands-on experience to the passionate, young people in our community.”

Since each community adds its own piece to Camp Darfur, Lipson said Portland has chosen to incorporate Purim into the event. She said Beth Israel students in an elective class led by BINA members will create a Purim component for Camp Darfur. Other high school groups and both congregations’ Darfur committees also plan to add Purim pieces to the event.

“In our history, even before the Holocaust, we have been persecuted,” said Lipson. “We see we escaped genocide on Purim … when Esther’s heroic efforts saved her people.”

Lipson also credited Koosed with helping BINA launch its first Darfur project—a postcard brigade. For a $5 contribution per month, participants receive a stack of stamped postcards preaddressed to various public officials and media outlets featuring timely messages on Darfur written by BINA. Signing and mailing the postcards can make a difference in what is happening in Darfur, said Lipson.

Contributions to the postcard brigade pay for postage, with the remainder going into BINA’s Postcard Brigade Fund. Since its launch in August 2008, BINA has raised $500, which it has donated to the Save Darfur Coalition and the Union for Reform Judaism’s Nothing But Nets project, which provides mosquito nets to refugees in Chad.

“A small amount of money goes to save so many lives,” said Cummings. “$10 pays for mosquito nets for an entire family.”

To join the postcard brigade, contact Lipson at binacommittee@gmail.com or 240-418-5607. For details about Camp Darfur, call Beth Israel at 503-222-1069.