NISCHE

blindness, hookworm and many
more can be brought under control
with proven technologies. Internet
and cell phone connectivity can
connect rural areas that have been
chronically and devastatingly
isolated from the international
economy.
The U.N. Millennium Project
has shown how investments on the
order of $110 per person_ per year
can make the difference of life and
death, and poverty trap versus eco-
nomic development, for hundreds
of millions of the world's poorest
people.
Here is where we, as Jews, come
in. Tzedakah can be effectively
mobilized for these impoverished
communities. For example, it is
time for Israel to resume its large-
scale aid to Africa. African leaders
would be grateful for the support
of Israeli science and know-how in
agriculture, water management and
communications.technology.
Affluent Jewish communities
could be doing much more as well.
Many charities have tended to pri-
marily focus on local and parochial
concerns, but it is urgent to recast
such activities in a global effort,
bringing support to the poorest
of the poor throughout the world
and enabling communities to lift
themselves out of chronic hunger
and poverty.
The truth of our time is both
stark and compelling. Given today's
wealth, scientific expertise and
global reach, we are the first gen-
eration that can end extreme pov-
erty. This is both opportunity and
existential fate.
If we turn our backs on the
world's poor, we, too, will suffer
the brutal fate of shortsightedness
and neglect. If we act, as we can
and should, we can help usher in
an era of widening prosperity and
peace. 111

Jeffrey D. Sachs, a former Detroiter,

is director of the Earth Institute at

For generations ; Manischewitz Wine has been part..

of the Seder as the Haggadah story is shared.

This Passover, let Manischewitz make the wine;

you make the memories'.

Kippot By The Dozen

.

Columbia University and the U.N.

Millennium Project of Secretary-

General Kofi Annan. He also is author

of "The End of Poverty." Reprinted

with permission from Sh'ma: A Journal

of Jewish Responsibility; online at

www.shma.com .

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March 30 • 2006

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