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December 24, 2004/Tevet 12 5765, Vol. 57, No. 17
Israel to aid distressed Sudanese
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - For the first time, Israel is sending humanitarian aid to an Arab nation with which it has no ties.
The Jewish state has joined the American Jewish World Service, the Union for Reform Judaism, the UJA-Federation of New York and the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest, N.J., in donating $20,000 each for an educational project in Chad, now home to at least 200,000 refugees from Sudan.
The Sudanese situation reminds Jews of the Holocaust, said Ambassador Arye Mekel, consul general of Israel in New York.
"Israel, as the Jewish state, can't sit idly by when such a humanitarian disaster is taking place," Mekel said, adding that this is only Israel's first step in offering aid to affected Sudanese.
Since last year, government-backed Arab militias have killed tens of thousands of Africans in the country's Darfur region.
The new program in Chad, set to begin Jan. 1, is run through the International Rescue Committee and offers schooling to the children of the Kashuni camp - many of whom have been orphan-ed. Children comprise more than half of the camp's population.
Giving displaced Sud-anese children "something of a routine and quality educational programming is really important," said Ruth Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service.
"It is critical for the Jewish community to respond to this genocide" and to back the Jewish promise that "we would never again let the world stand silently by," she added.
In addition to the deaths and countless rapes, some 1.6 million people have been displaced in the conflict that broke out in February 2003.
The Jewish Coalition for Sudan Relief, made up of 24 mostly North American Jewish groups, was created in June and has raised some $250,000.
Separately, the American Jewish World Service has raised $500,000, and the Union of Reform Judaism has raised $172,000.
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