Conservative Movement Issues Call to Action, Condemns Ongoing Violence in Sudan

Jewish tradition teaches us, “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:16). Conservative Jews worldwide have a moral obligation to help end the bloodshed in Sudan and ease the humanitarian crisis.

Arab militias (known as Janjaweed) are conducting a violent campaign of ethnic cleansing against the black African population in Sudan’s Darfur region. Currently, 2.3 million people in Darfur require emergency assistance. An estimated 3,000 will die there every day for the next 120 days – of which about 75% will be children under age five.

The Conservative Movement strongly condemns the ongoing violence and the Sudanese government’s failure to end it. We urge the following actions:

We strongly encourage all Conservative Jews to contribute funds to help alleviate the suffering of the Darfur refugees through the Jewish Coalition for Sudan Relief.
We call upon the United States government and its citizens to provide greater resources to help alleviate the human suffering in Darfur;
We praise the US Administration for its continuing efforts to pressure the Sudanese government to end the violence and ease the humanitarian crisis, and we praise the recent high-profile visits by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, which have helped to bring more international attention to this crisis;
We strongly urge the US Administration to work to persuade the United Nations Security Council to take effective action that will halt these continued atrocities; and
We call upon all Conservative Jews around the world to contact their respective government leaders to denounce the killings in Darfur and to advocate for an effective international solution to this crisis.

For more information, contact Lewis Grafman, USCJ Director of Public Policy.

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