BY MARY ANNE ROSS
Correspondent
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Members of the Degutz family, including (from left) Rachel, 8, mom Audrey, dad Allen, and Danielle, 10, joined the candlelight vigil “Shine a Light for Darfur” last Thursday night at the East Brunswick municipal complex. EAST BRUNSWICK – Genocide and ethnic cleansing may be terms that most Americans associate with events of long, long ago.
Perhaps it’s easy not to notice when they occur in a remote, little-known country on the other side of the world. But three East Brunswick residents have taken notice, and they are working hard to make sure other people will too.
Leslie Klein, Stephanie Stern and Debbie Schlossberg are all busy, working moms brought together by their concern for the people of Darfur, a section of the Sudan that has been the scene of a violent civil war.
The woman support the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 170 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. According to the coalition, the Sudanese government has targeted three tribal groups for ethnic cleansing, and this has resulted in at least 400,000 people being killed and more than 2
million innocent civilians being displaced.
Klein, Stern and Schlossberg decided the best way to highlight the plight of the people of Darfur was to start a chapter of the Committee on Conscience here in New Jersey. Their organization is part of the larger United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience, whose goal is to halt acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The group’s first public event was a candlelight vigil held outside the East Brunswick municipal complex last Thursday night. The ceremony included the recitation of a United Nations prayer, readings of poetry and a message from an Armenian anti-genocide group.
Schlossberg was happy with the turnout.
“There were students from the high school and a real mix of people from the community,” she said. “Our goal was to raise awareness of the situation in Darfur and I think we did that.”
More events are planned. On Oct. 16, Mayor William Neary is expected to sign and read a proclamation on the issue during a Township Council meeting.
“We are hoping people from the community will attend to show support,” Klein said.
This Sunday, they will participate in the “New York City Save Darfur Now: Voices to Stop Genocide Rally.” The rally, which is part of a global event, will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. in the East Meadow of Central Park.
“We want to put pressure on the U.N. to put a peace-keeping force in the area to prevent further acts of genocide,” Schlossberg said. “We also want President Bush to assign a special envoy to the area. That position has been vacant since the last envoy left, and there are still funds available for the spot.”
Schlossberg, who works full time and has two children, Yoav, 20, and Noa, 16, has been actively involved in activities to help stop the genocide in Darfur through local synagogues for the past few years. Last year, she coordinated the area Freedom Walk, an event designed to highlight the genocide. She decided to help start the Committee on Conscience to spread the word outside of the local temples.
“I wanted to reach out to the broader community,” she said.
Klein had never been involved in any kind of activism prior to co-founding the chapter of the Committee on Conscience. She works full time as an engineer and has two sons, David and Robert Kolchmeyer, ages 14 and 11, respectively.
“I started reading about what was happening in the papers and there was just something about innocent people being slaughtered with no place to hide. I felt I needed to do something,” she said.
Klein pointed out that the Committee on Conscience is not just focused on Darfur.
“We want to deal with the things that can lead to genocide before it happens,” she said. Klein has been researching material that can be used in schools to teach students of all ages about genocide and racism. She also said the group will be networking with religious organizations and community groups, such as Stop Hatred and Amnesty International.
Stern is a psychiatrist with three boys – Jacob, 4, David, 8, and Jonah, 10. She became involved through her synagogue, and last year housed a former Sudanese slave who participated in the Freedom Walk and also gave a talk at her temple.
“People are not uncaring; they are just busy,” Stern said. “We want to be a conduit for information.”
She also feels it’s important to be a role model for her children.
“You can’t teach this by talking. You have to be a model,” she said.
Local residents attending the upcoming rally in New York City should be able to connect with members of the N.J. Committee on Conscience. Klein said the group will have a person with a banner at the entrance to the rally who can direct people to their location in the park.
For more information about the rally and other upcoming events, visit the N.J. Committee on Conscience Web site at http://CoC-NJ.home.comcast.net. The Save Darfur Coalition can be found at www.savedarfur.org.