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Janice Kamenir-Reznik is
president of Jewish World
Watch, an organization she
co-founded with Rabbi Harold
M. Schulweis as a Jewish
response to genocide. JWW’s
mission is to educate and
mobilize synagogues and the
community to advocate against
genocide and to aid victims of
genocide and mass atrocities.
jewishworldwatch.org
Ari Brochin, founder and former
executive director of the Union
of Progressive Zionists, is a
defense attorney specializing in
human rights. He has worked on
litigation challenging Bosnia’s
postwar constitution before the
European Court of Human Rights
and the United Nations special
rapporteur on minority issues.
Most recently, he defended
activists arrested while protesting
at a Harlem police precinct
against stop-and-frisk laws.
Glenn Richter is co-founder
and former national coordinator
(from 1964 to 1990) of the
Student Struggle for Soviet
Jewry. He later worked for
the New York City Housing
Authority. He is an active
volunteer in several synagogues
and Jewish organizations.
Rabbi Sarah Bassin is executive
director of NewGround: A
Muslim-Jewish Partnership for
Change in Los Angeles. She
is the recipient of a Joshua
Venture Group fellowship.
Steve Eisenbach-Budner is
the founder and executive
director of Tivnu: Building
Justice, which enables Jews
from across the spectrum to
integrate their Jewish identities
with their commitment to
creating communities in which
the basic needs of people are
met. Eisenbach-Budner was
just awarded a Joshua Venture
Group fellowship. He and his
life partner, Deborah, and their
three children, Tamir, Lev, and
RozaBess, make their home in
Portland, Ore.
[22]
A
anice Kamenir-Reznik’s central analogy casts
ppealing to scripture within a moral debate treads
all of today’s Jews in the role of European
on difficult territory. For most moral claims, texts
citizens during the Nazi era who “stood by apa- exist to both support and contradict the claim. For exthetically” — who did not resist the Nazis’ ac- ample, biblical texts that enable genocide parallel those
cession to power. There
that affirm the value of all
is little question that the
human life. Particularly in
Nazis relied on this sort
social justice circles,
“The world is too dangerous to live Jewish
of acquiescence in order
we find ourselves tempted
in — not because of the people
to achieve their genoto select and cite isolated
cidal aims. However, the
who do evil, but because of the texts that support our moral
analogy to contemporary
inclination.
people who sit and let it happen.”
Jews elides the difference
But if our use of scripbetween the obligations
ture
is
to have integrity, we
— Albert Einstein
of citizens and the obligamust be able to respond
tions of people anywhere.
to those who challenge us
Since the Holocaust, Jews the world over have asked: with competing texts. We
The obligation to protest
wrongs committed by How could the people of Europe have allowed the need to articulate general
one’s home country is, extermination of 6 million Jews? We are perplexed rules that guide how we
and ought to be, differ- that people who otherwise might have been upstand- use scripture to explain
ent from the obligation to ing Europeans morphed into genocidal perpetrators. why we favor one text
protest atrocities through- More interesting is our deep disgust with those Euro- over another — something
out the world, because peans and others who stood by apathetically. While scholars call “hermeneucitizens of a country have I am deeply disturbed by bystanders who enable tics.” I favor the system
particular knowledge of genocidal demagogues, I recognize that most people of Dr. Charles Cosgrove,
— including most Jews — have been and continue to who offers five principles
that country’s dynamics.
States and interna- be bystanders to the 47 genocides that have taken in his book, Appealing to
tional institutions have a place since the Holocaust.
Scripture in Moral Debate.
legal and moral obligation
Our ancient texts admonish us to take respon- His system brings a comto act in the face of mass sibility for those who are vulnerable and victimized. prehensive rather than a
atrocity. But acting on one’s Yet many Jews not only refuse to support organiza- selective search, in which
individual conscience is dif- tions that are dedicated to combating contemporary we enhance the strength of
ferent. Individuals cannot genocide and providing aid to survivors, they also the moral claims we make
be relied upon to identify argue against Jews using Jewish resources to help and our ability to answer
situations abroad that call non-Jews: Darfuri genocide survivors or Congolese critics.
—Sarah Bassin
for intervention. It is missurvivors of massive femicidal rapes.
guided to cast the political
mplicit in KaminerEvery Jew should be among those leading the
need to create robust instiReznik’s call to action is
charge against genocide and mass atrocity. If we are
tutions to resist genocide as
a difficult question: What is
not leading the charge, if we are not protesting loudly
a matter of personal virtue.
the scaffolding that enables
against genocidal behavior, then we are — for all intents individuals to move from
—Ari Brochin
and purposes — bystanders. Or, in Einstein’s words, we a bit of knowledge on a
y late father used to are sitting and letting [bad things] happen. subject to action? This shift
—Janice Kamenir-Reznik eludes most of us most of
ask me: “Why do
you want my shul to anthe time on most issues.
nounce your rallies (for various Jewish causes)? You Many of us verge on feeling overwhelmed “just” from
know the people are not going to attend.” And I meeting the demands of our work and personal lives.
would respond, “But if we don’t announce the rally, Add to this that the number of issues meriting parayour fellow congregants won’t even feel guilty for mount attention is enormous and we have a serious
not showing up.”
situation of overload and possible paralysis. Today, when the allotment of time for work
Here are three antidotes:
is so enormous and the capacity to pay atten• Foster a personal, emotive response to the
tion so diminished, it is more difficult to get people affected by an issue. Meeting, listening to,
people to register any protest — beyond a sym- and engaging with a live human being is worth a
pathetic mouse click or smartphone tap on an thousand virtual articles.
online petition. Thus, family — our collective
• Build a community with whom you commit to
Jewish family from Israel, the former Soviet act on an issue. Be missed if you don’t do your part.
Union, Europe, Ethiopia, and the Americas —
• Be accountable to your community and track
should be first in our prioritized concerns. And yourself! Keep a written record of what actions you
yet, if we fail to at least consider the plight of so perform, including “small” ones. Recognize that the
many others in distress, we’ve failed our moral energy you expend will help get you “unstuck,”
responsibility to acknowledge God’s dominion paving the way for more energy and more action.
over all His creations.
—Glenn Richter
—Steve Eisenbach-Budner
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DECEMBER 2012 | TEVET 5773