Darfur Refugees In Israel – NY Times Reports

The New York Times has a moving piece on Sudanese refugees in Israel. It notes these people were so badly treated in Egypt that they fled to Israel, preferring an Israeli jail to life in Egypt, where security forces have killed many Sudanese refugees.

The refugees are now being released from prison and sent to kibbutzim and moshavim (collective farms and industrial settlements) to live until a country can be found to take them in.

The Israelis helping the Sudanese are overwhelmingly secular. Silent in this tragedy is Israeli Orthodox Judaism of all stripes. Orthodox Jewish leadership lacks a moral message – it can tell you how to tie your shoes, when to pray, and what to eat and not eat, but wider morality is foreign to it. What a shame.

[Hat Tip: Dr. Gershon Mendel.]

Comments

[Seraphya]

If you want to help out check out this website:

http://www.haedarfur.org/index.html

At a rally that HAeD held
http://haedarfur.org/rally.html
many people commented that this is the first time that they have been people with kippot stand up for human rights, it was a big kiddush hashem

[Treifalicious]

It's not that simple. The Israeli authorities had to have their arms twisted to let the refugees in in the first place.