World
ON THE COVER
Rally To Stop Genocide took place April 30
Detroiters add their voices to national
rally protesting the genocide in Darfur.
Harry Kirsbaum
I Staff Writer
Armando Rios
Staff Photographer
Washington, D.C.
•
hey suffered through.
a 24-hour round-trip
bus and train trip, little
sleep, hurried meals and no
time for sightseeing, but the 112
Detroit2Darfur rally members
took away memories of being
part of something bigger than
themselves: a rally to stop .the
genocide of another innocent
people.
Brandon Vieder, a sophomore
from the Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit, joined 55
classmates and staff on one of
20
May 4 • 2006
two buses that left Detroit at
10:30 p.m. April 29 to attend the
"Rally to Stop Genocide" Sunday
afternoon on the National Mall
in Washington, D.C.
"My grandmother was in the
Holocaust, so I felt a bit of an
obligation because nobody stood
up for them:' said Vieder, 15, of
West Bloomfield. "So I have to
stand up for Darftir."
•
Fighting between civilians
and Arab militias, backed by the
Sudanese government, has killed
up to 400,000 and left up to 2
million homeless in the Darfur
region of western Sudan in the
past three years.
The rally was organized by a
coalition of religious and secular
social action organizations from
around the country as a way of
bringing awareness of the geno-
cide to the American people.
Crowd estimates no longer are
given by the U.S. Park Police, but
15,000 rally-goers were expected,
and the crowd exceeded these
expectations.
The Detroit2Darfur coalition
included members of syna-
gogues, the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit,
the Michigan Board of Rabbis,
Hadassah and others, but the
true stars were the JAMD stu-
dents.
Rabbi Lee Buckman, head of
school, praised the efforts of
sophomore Elizabeth Traison,
"who educated and mobilized
the entire Academy commu-
nity to take this on as a serious
cause."
"People often say that kids in
a Jewish day high school lead
on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
a very sheltered existence, are
a friend of mine, but I decided
not very socially conscious and
that it was something that I
don't really have much expo-
thought my entire school could
sure to the outside world:' said
get involved in," said Traison,
Rabbi Buckman. "Events like
15, of West Bloomfield. "So I
this, where our students are not
startecitalking, I did a Power
only participating, but taking a
Point presentation, and now 60
leadership role and mobilizing a
[students] are here."
community, it really shows that
She said the rally will force
the deeper our commitments
action.
are to Judaism, the wider our
"There are so many people
scope is and the universalist
here, and what they're looking
causes that need to
for are the numbers, and
be addressed in the
everybody here was so
world today"
interested in the cause
Traison said she
that they are going to do
heard about Darfur
something about it now,"
two summers ago
she said.
when she attended
JCCouncil President
Camp Ramah in
Wendy Wagenheim
Canada.
called the Darfur situa-
"I was going to
tion "a crucial issue that
Wendy Wa genheim
come to the rally with
we as Jews probably