Remarks delivered by Nancy Kaufman
Executive Director, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston

Last Saturday, December 10, was International Human Rights Day. With it, we in Boston reflected upon the years that have passed since the Nuremberg trials exposed the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis from 1939-1945. The “Final Solution” envisioned by Hitler was not fully realized, but it came dangerously close to becoming a reality and destroying all the Jews of Europe and beyond. We will never know the books not written, the symphonies not composed, the cures for diseases never found, nor the generations never to be born.

When the pictures, the statistics, the witnesses, and the survivors first began to emerge from Nazi Germany 60 years ago, we promised that we would “never again” bear witness to such evil committed by human beings. We pledged to take action to ensure that the words “never again” were not uttered in vain. But, as survivor Sonia Weitz told us last Friday at a Human Rights Conference held at the Kennedy Library, she no longer utters those words because it has happened again. It has happened in Rwanda, in Bosnia, in Cambodia and is happening on our watch, right now in Darfur.

As I speak here, tonight, 400 people are dying every day in refugee camps and villages in Sudan. Women are being raped and children are starving to death. Over 300,000 Sudanese have been killed and 2 million have been forced out of their homes in Darfur and are now living in refugee camps where many do not have enough water, food, or medical care. President Bush and Congress have officially declared the attacks in Darfur a “genocide.” According to Article IIc of the Genocide Convention: “Genocide can be committed by intentionally creating conditions that make life unsustainable, if those conditions were created with the intention of destroying a group in whole or in part.”

As Jews, we know what it meant to be a group intentionally targeted for destruction. We know what we must do to ensure the words “never again” are not hollow echoes.

In the years since the Nuremburg Trials clearly documented the atrocities of the Holocaust, we have repeatedly asked ourselves and others, “How could the world have stood by? How could so many people have known and done nothing?” Thank God there were some who did not stand by. The two people we honor tonight are among those “righteous gentiles” that did take a stand and tried to make a difference by saving the lives they could.

As we bear witness in our own time to genocide in Rwanda, in Bosnia, in Darfur, we must ask: what have we done? It is not enough for a witness to hear the evidence. It is not enough to be bystanders to the events that unfold in front of our eyes. Rather, we should be the “upstanders”, that author Samantha Powers so eloquently challenges us to be in her book: “A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide”.

Tonight we honor the legacy of Martha and Waitstill Sharp, two people who refused to be bystanders, who personify the definition of what it means to be an “upstander.” We gather here tonight as Yad Vashem bestows upon them the title Righteous Among the Nations. They are two out of only three Americans ever to be awarded this honor. While there were others who we have yet to honor and should, this number is far too small.

Elie Wiesel has made it his mission to bear witness, to tell his story. He tells us that “All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”  Professor Wiesel, himself a victim of the idleness and indifference of those who stood by during the Holocaust, today protests against the world’s indifference to Darfur and has asked the question “How can a citizen of a free country not pay attention? How can anyone, anywhere not feel outraged? How can a person, whether religious or secular, not be moved by compassion? And above all, how can anyone who remembers remain silent?”

We must all reflect on these questions as we are all witnesses to the story of Rosemarie Feigl and to the heroic story of the Sharps, and as witnesses, we have an obligation. Not just to learn the story, but to learn the lesson. To be righteous gentiles, Jews, Christians and Muslims, and in so doing to be active citizens of the world.

Let the lesson that we unfortunately learned by hindsight be the lesson of foresight. Let us not have to ask ourselves what we could have done to stop it. Let us stop it. The legacy of Martha and Waitstill Sharp is one of people who saw the need to act and did so. They did not rely on their government to act on their behalf, but saw people in pain, suffering, and danger, and took action. This is not a story of presidents or dignitaries or superheroes. This is a legacy of normal everyday people who became heroes by choosing to not stand idly by.

And tonight, each of you can also take action. On your way out of the sanctuary, in the back of the room, please take one of these cards and take five minutes to do five things to save Darfur. Send a letter to your legislator. Call President George Bush; we have even provided his phone number. Educate yourself. Educate others.

While it is important to recognize the legacy of Martha and Waitstill Sharp as righteous among gentiles, we must also remember them by our actions. As Elie Wiesel reminded us “We know that for the dead it is too late… but it is not too late for today’s children, ours and yours.”

Thank you for the honor of addressing you tonight on behalf of the Jewish Community of Greater Boston and thank you for the action each of you will take to stop the genocide that is happening on our watch in Darfur.