Rabbis For Human Rights - North America

Conferences

"Which is greater, study or action? Rabbi Tarfon spoke up and said: Action is greater. Rabbi Akiva spoke up and said: Study is greater. The others then spoke up and said: Study is greater because it leads to action." (Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 40B)

Opening Remarks at Lemkin Awards

Opening Remarks at Lemkin Awards

My name is Rabbi Amy Eilberg and it is a great honor and an enormous personal pleasure for me to welcome you to the Second Annual "To Do What is Just and Right," ceremony, in which Rabbis for Human Rights presents the Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award to pre-eminent leaders in the human rights field.  Like many of you, I have long been an ardent supporter of Rabbis for Human Rights.  Since its inception twenty years ago, Rabbis for Human Rights has served with enormous courage and unflagging devotion as the rabbinic voice of conscience in Israel, expressing both the best of Jewish teachings on k'vod habri'ot, the basic dignity due to all human beings, and the best Zionist ideals of justice and equality, as expressed in Israel's Declaration of Independence, in the troubled reality of contemporary Israel.

RHR has served as a champion of economic justice and an advocate for  minorities in Israel, including the Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians living under Israeli control.  RHR has worked to end sex trafficking and the abuse of foreign workers, promoted the equal status of women, and helped Ethiopian Jews, to name just a few of its areas of work. RHR embodies the highest principles of Jewish tradition, insisting that we may not stand idly by in the face of injustice, and that a truly Jewish society must take exquisite care of the stranger and the vulnerable in its midst. In bringing human rights issues to the attention of the Israeli public and to the world, RHR has rightly earned its reputation as one of Israel's premier human rights organizations.  I treasure the many moments in recent years when RHR made me proud to be a Jew, even when events on the ground inspired pain and shame for thoughtful Jews and lovers of Israel.

RHR-NA, since its creation in 2002, has broadened and deepened support for the mission of RHR in Israel, and has created its own powerful and visionary programs of education and advocacy on human rights issues in North America. RHR-NA already has a remarkable record of promoting discussion of human rights issues in the Jewish community, including its landmark Jewish campaign to end US-sponsored torture, entitled, Honor the Image of God: Stop Torture Now. In 2007, RHR-NA launched K'vod Habriot: A Jewish Human Rights Network, the first Jewish Human Rights network of rabbis, communities and individuals dedicated to human rights for all people.  And if that were not enough, in May of 2008, RHR-NA launched In Pursuit of Justice, a yearlong campaign to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel and the 20th anniversary of RHR and its work to promote justice, freedom and equality for all who live in Israel and under its jurisdiction. Information about this campaign  is included in your packets.  I encourage you to look at it closely - it is inspiring reading, making me thrilled  all over again to be an heir of Jewish tradition.

Tonight we honor three extraordinary figures in the world of human rights activism: Marion Wright Edelman, Peter Edelman, and Gerry Serotta.  Each of them honors us all with their presence, and pays fitting tribute to the human rights activist for whom the award is named, Rafael Lemkin.  As you see in your program, Raphael Lemkin was a Polish Jew born in 1901, who immigrated to the United States, while 49 members of his family died in the Sho'ah.  Yet the human rights work to which he dedicated his life grew out of his outrage about the Armenian Genocide (a word he coined in 1943).

Thus, Lemkin represents the very best of Jewish response to experiences of persecution:  to work indefatigably to prevent others from ever again experiencing what we have suffered.

We stand at a particularly beautiful moment in the annual cycle of Torah readings.  Last week in synagogues around the world, we read in Parshat Vayetsey the story of Jacob's dream of a ladder connecting heaven and earth.  God Godself stands on the ladder and tells Jacob of God's dream for the Jewish people.  Vehaya zar'acha ka'afar ha'aretz . . . you will grow numerous and spread throughout the world . . . venivr'chu v'cha kol mish'p'chot ha'adamah uv'zar'echa - through you and through your seed will the entire human family be blessed.

I'm not sure what I believe about angels of the supernatural kind.  But I know that human beings do the work of the divine when they work for justice and peace. And so when RHR volunteers help Palestinian farmers to harvest their olives or rebuild a demolished home, when rabbis come to offer consolation to a Palestinian family that has suffered a loss, I believe that God's work is being done, and that heaven and earth are connected.  My own very favorite RHR story is that time when Arik placed his body in front of a little Palestinian boy when the army bulldozer approached.  The boy did not know who Arik was, and asked his parents who was that very nice man with the kippah who had helped him when the soldiers came.  In such moments, the human family is blessed by the work of the Jewish people.  And in the coming week's parasha, Vayishlach, two estranged brothers come together after decades of rage, fear, and estrangement.

After another dream, Jacob returns to his homeland limping, sobered and softened by his own terrifying struggle with a being in the night.  Perhaps because Esau sees his trickster brother limping, vulnerable, human, Esau drops his enmity against Jacob, now Israel.  The reconciliation is not complete, but still, Jacob cries out, "Seeing your face as we reconcile is like seeing the face of God."

The work of justice and the work of peace are the holy work of our time.  This evening we celebrate Raphael Lemkin, RHR, and the heroic work of our guests to create a world in which heaven and earth are closer together, in which the Eternal's dream of justice and peace may soon be realized.