Activist encourages Jews to serve

Ruth Messinger, the former Manhattan borough president and a one-time challenger to Rudolph Giuliani for New York City mayor, now leads the American Jewish World Service. The nonprofit organization is the premier Jewish relief and development fund, active in providing health care, literacy, clean water and nutrition programs in 36 developing countries.

Messinger will speak Saturday at Durham's Judea Reform Congregation on "Jews as Global Citizens." On the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which falls on Wednesday, Messinger is challenging Jews to increase their commitment to solving world crises. We caught up with Messinger before her trip.

Q. Explain what you mean by Jews as global citizens.

A. Jews are commanded to respond to the needs of the widow, the stranger, the orphan. Jews are told that the greatest sin in the world is poverty. Jews are told we have an obligation to pursue justice. I assume all members are paying attention to the needs of their own Jewish community, Jews around the world, to various problems in Israel and the Middle East. But we believe there is also room, space, interest for young Jews to be part of a service project that goes to dig a well or build a library in rural communities in Africa.

We believe the Jewish community can be mobilized to try to stop a genocide now in its fifth year. We believe the more Jews know about the ways they can be active in alleviating poverty, oppression, hunger, disease around the world, the more Jewish activism there will be in those areas. It's global awareness and global participation.

Q. Many faith-based international relief organizations are driven by a desire to see people converted to their faith. But that's not the goal of the American Jewish World Service, right?

A. We derive our mandate from our understanding of the Jewish obligation to heal the world. We're certainly not about proselytizing. We do discover in our work there are all kinds of opportunities to let people know that Jews are committed to social justice.

Q. You've been very outspoken about calling for an end to the genocide in Darfur. You just came back from Chad and Rwanda. What did you see there?

A. In Chad, I spent four days meeting with Darfur refugees who are living in refugee camps in Chad, and with Chadian displaced persons who are also victims of the [Sudanese] janjaweed militia and are living in camps for displaced persons.

Anyone in one of these camps is living in desperately difficult circumstances, trying very hard to meet the needs of their families, but coping with serious post-traumatic stress, depression, loss of family members, women who have experienced not only rape, but gang rape.

They are living in conditions that for them are drastically different from what they had before -- dependent on food distribution instead of being able to farm for themselves.

These are massive life dislocations, and people's single greatest plea is "Help me get back home."

Q. That's unlikely, isn't it?

A. No. That's exactly the agenda we're working on. If the United Nations peacekeeping force is properly outfitted, resourced and trained, and is allowed by Sudan to have free access to Darfur, then the world powers believe we can put an end to the violence and begin the very long process of where and how people can return to their homes.

Q. What can American Jews in Durham do about this?

A. There are opportunities for individuals and institutions to divest funds from oil companies fueling passage of Chinese money to Sudan, opportunities to shine a spotlight of shame On China as not deserving to host the Olympics if she continues to be the enabler of this genocide.

There are opportunities to raise funds to support the relief work we're doing on the ground with health care clinics and maternity services in camps, to clean water, education and recreation.

We've raised and spent over $4 million on direct services in the camps.

And there are lots of different ways to do activities in their schools and their congregations to stand loud and clear against this genocide and to involve others who are not in the Jewish community.

Q. Is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, a time to make commitments toward becoming global citizens?

A. Most of the holidays lend themselves to a time for reflection, and Rosh Hashana, in particular, lends itself to thinking about how we have an ongoing role in creating and re-creating the universe to be a better and better place.