Top rabbi practices what he preaches

By Denise Dick

The speaker talked about the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

YOUNGSTOWN — If we have learned one lesson from the Holocaust, it is the lesson of what can happen when good people stand idly by, the man named the most influential rabbi in America told attendees of a lecture.

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, was the featured speaker Thursday at Congregation Rodef Sholom’s Dr. Sidney M. Berkowitz Memorial Lecture Series.

Newsweek magazine recently named Rabbi Saperstein the No. 1 most influential rabbi in America. The criteria used in developing the list included whether the rabbi is known nationally or internationally, whether they have political or social influence and their impact on Judaism during their career.

In speaking about the lesson of the Holocaust, Rabbi Saperstein was referring to the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan that has been labeled a genocide by human-rights groups.

“I have a nightmare of a Darfur Genocide Museum,” Rabbi Saperstein said.

The crisis involves the murder and displacement of African farmers and other civilians by a government-backed militia.

The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced more than 2.5 million people. More than 100 people continue to die each day; 5,000 die every month, according to the Web site DarfurScores.org.

He referred to genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda as well.

“We have to make saying ‘Never again’ really mean something,” the rabbi said. “If ‘Never again’ is to mean something, we have to end the genocides.”

“Never again” is a phrase used in referencing the Holocaust.

Rabbi Saperstein also spoke of the need to secure Israel and the threat posed by Iran to the entire region if that country secures nuclear weapons and the technology to deploy them.

Rabbi Franklin Muller of Congregation Rodef Sholom, in introducing the speaker, said Rabbi Saperstein had fasted for three days last summer for Darfur and organized other rabbis to continue the fast.

“This man had made more sacrifices for justice than anyone I know,” Rabbi Muller said.

As director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Saperstein represents the national Reform Jewish Movement to Congress and the president’s administration. He’s also served on many boards including the NAACP, People for the American Way and the leadership conference on Civil Rights and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life.

denise_dick@vindy.com