Written by Deborah Levine, Editor of the American Diversity Report

Shocked by revelations of mass killings in Darfur, Sudan, Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue challenged the Jewish people to honor the promise made following the Holocaust -- that "Never Again" would the Jewish people be silent in the face of genocide. With that challenge, Jewish World Watch (JWW) was established in October, 2004 as a Jewish response to horrors perpetrated by human beings against others. The new and powerful collaboration of Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform synagogues throughout Southern California is dedicated to the mandate to never again stand idly by and merely observe acts of inhumanity. Rather, JWW has taken responsibility to educate, activate and mobilize the community to rise up against inhuman abuses and help care for the victims. The isolated, hungry and battered people of Darfur have become the immediate business of Jewish World Watch.

The founding president of Jewish World Watch is Janice Kamenir-Reznik, a former partner in the law firm, Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP. Kamenir-Reznik, a native of Los Angeles, is 56 years old and a graduate from UCLA. She has a Masters degree from University of Southern California (USC) in Social Work focusing on community organizing, and Masters degree in Jewish Communal Services from Hebrew Union College, a joint program between the two colleges. When Janice completed her degree in 1975, she began working to assist Soviet Jewry. As the LA director of the Commission on Soviet Jewry, she was involved in helping Jews get permission to leave the Soviet Union. More than a million Jews were liberated from the USSR. Her life changed dramatically when she went to law school at UCLA and had 3 children in a 4 year period. She and her husband, Ben, who is also a lawyer, became partners in their own law firm which continued for twenty-two years. During her law career, she continued her involvement in advocacy organizations for women as President of the Board of the Californian Women’s Law Center and with the Jewish community. However, about 5 years ago, she retired from the law firm and returned to her roots as a full-time community organizer.

Janice talked about getting a call from Rabbi Schulweis, who she calls a great rabbi and visionary. He asked if she would organize a Jewish genocide watch. “Rabbi Schulweis was concerned that we are too insular and self-concerned. Judaism is truly a world religion, and has something to say about the world.” The focus was to be Darfur, an area unfamiliar to Janice. “I didn’t know where Darfur was, but what I did know was that if he was asking me to do something, it must be important.” She started researching Darfur and learned about the genocide, the brutal rape of Darfuri women and the families pushed out of their villages because they were African Blacks with no power. Janice describes the situation in Darfur as a genocide in slow motion. She became an immediate activist on the issue. “Jews need to see that it is part of their responsibility in the world. Our responsibility is to the world, not just to the Jewish community.”

She got started by involving others, “I realized all the synagogues could be involved and so we created a coalition of about 12 synagogues.” At the end of the 4^th year, there are 57 synagogues in the coalition. “They have to agree to the 3-part mission to become part of the coalition.” Janice described the three parts, “First, they must become educated and informed. Second, they must agree to activate by becoming part of our political advocacy campaign. And third, they must help with relief projects ranging from medical clinics and water wells to entrepreneurial programs, particularly for women. There is also a women’s committee because of the disproportionate impact on women when rape is so common. “We helped underwrite the conversion of a refugee camp to solar cooking to reduce the risk of women being raped when they left the camp to get firewood. We expanded the project to a second camp and have just begun work in a third camp. We also have a proposal in front of the UN to expand to more camps.” When the JWW went to inspect the camps, there was an 86% reduction in trips out of the camps to find firewood and the women felt safer. The JWW maintains a communication network for the solar cooking project headed by Rachel Andres, who recently was awarded the Bronfman prize, a prestigious competition judged by prominent international figures. (JWW staff photo: Janice Kaminer-Reznik, Rachel Andres Tzivia Schwartz Getzug)

JWW emphasizes youth activism and has developed a youth curriculum that includes activist certification training ("ACT”) for high school students, at public, private, secular and sectarian schools. The ACT project has a year-long curriculum that teaches high school students how to be activists based on the JWW 3-part model: 1.) Education: where they educate themselves and others by creating a presentation or organizing an event, 2.) Advocacy: where they learn how to lobby and develop a successful advocacy project and 3.) Fundraising: where they learn how to raise money and use fundraising as a tool to educate people and get them involved. The young people resonate deeply with the project because they want to have something to say about these important issues: Darfur, refugees, women in Africa. JWW collaborates with local high schools, Hillels (Jewish organizations on campus), summer camps and other youth organizations. Some of the youth are now on the JWW speakers bureau; some were involved with the ‘Walk for Darfur’ which drew almost 1,500 people this year.

Janice reports that the JWW recently raised ½ million dollars for the distribution of back packs with basic school and health supplies in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC). “We wanted to do a kids project after the women’s project. Both are ongoing and expanding and we’ll also continue to build medical clinics as needed. We currently have about 10 different projects going on.” Janice expects more expansion of the mission while continuing to be engaged with Darfur refugees. “We need to expand to embrace other genocidal situations in the world. This year, we’ll look at other crises in the world that will demand our response, the Congo, Myanmar, and elsewhere. That will be new, how to move forward with other issues while maintaining the momentum on Darfur. One of our challenges was to build attention span, avoid compassion fatigue, and have people learn that these situations are not solved overnight. It is a challenge to move to the rape and victimization of the women in the Congo without abandoning the women in Darfur. We hope to pull together an international conference on rape as a weapon of genocide in the near future.”

The JWW organization has grown along with its mission. Janice describes how, “For the first 2 years, I ran the organization out of my garage and my bedroom. I did everything. We started hiring staff about a year and half ago. The organization has grown from a volunteer operation to having six full-time staff people. There are 50-60 organizations that help raise funds and distribute videos, a newsletter and educational materials that support their efforts. There are 25,000-30,000 donors, half of whom are outside of California. Janice credits the programs for the growth, “Our projects have given people an entrée where they can give direct relief to a refugee family. Once we educate and inspire people, they see that we can empower and push our government to do more to save these people.”

Janice talks about broad involvement in genocide issues, “This is an issue that should appeal to diverse communities with everyone having an equal connection to Darfur, regardless of faith, race and ethnicity. We shouldn’t dump the problem of Africa on African Americans. Every American should care when people are slaughtered because of they are part of an ethnic group. Jews care because of our Holocaust legacy and a tradition of tikkun olam [repair of the world] but every American should care.”

If you would like to learn more about Jewish World Watch or become involved, there are advocacy actions and many different opportunities for engagement on the JWW website at www.JewishWorldWatch.org.