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WANAQUE - Jewish center shows film that portrays modern genocide
(by Teresa Edmond - Staff Writer - May 29, 2008)
WANAQUE - Although many echoed the vow never to allow the horrors of genocide to repeat themselves, genocide still reared their ugly heads in countries like Kosovo, Cambodia and East Timor throughout the last end of the 20th century.
Now with genocide exploding in blood throughout Darfur, a western region in the African nation of Sudan, locals hope to drill meaning into that vow by showing a film that chronicles the African region’s brutalities. The film screening was also a way to commemorate Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, which honors the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust.
The Lakeland Hills Jewish Center (LHJC) screened the film “Sand and Sorrow” at Lakeland Regional High School on May 20. The LHJC is Conservative Jewish congregation in Wanaque that serves the Ringwood, Wanaque, West Milford, Riverdale, Butler, Haskell, and Franklin Lakes communities.
Locals flocked to the high school’s lecture room to watch “Sand and Sorrow,” a documentary that chronicles the bloody destruction the Arab-dominated Sudanese government wreaked upon non-Arab Africans in Darfur. Hollywood A-lister George Clooney, an activist for the Darfur tragedy, narrated the HBO documentary.
Before “Sand and Sorrow”’s screening, the LHJC members explained how the film’s brutal content mirrors the tragedy Jewish people suffered at the Nazis’ hands during the Holocaust. Former LHJC president Marilyn Gurtman-Oppenheimer discussed her parents’ experiences as Holocaust survivors who came to the United States after World War II. Although they were never imprisoned in concentration camps, Gurtman-Oppenheimer said that their lives weren’t “a bed of roses” either.
Gurtman-Oppenheimer said that ignorance was an acceptable excuse in the past when telecommunication technologies like the Internet didn’t exist. However, she said, times are different in the 21st century thanks to readily accessible information in an age packed with such tools.
“We don’t have the excuse of not knowing anymore,” she said. “It’ll make you sit up and take notice. Maybe instead of saying, “We don’t know what to do because it’s all the way there,” we can say, “What can we do?”
In an election year that could put many new faces in Washington D.C., LHJC member Jason Okin reminded listeners to contact electoral candidates and push them to help bury the Darfur genocide before it could bury any more victims.
“Do some kind of commitment to pressure,” he said.
Lakeland Regional High School students were also learning about the Darfur brutalities. High school history teachers like Joe Placenti spoke with their students about human rights violations before a showing a different Darfur documentary. The number of students who were ignorant about the Sudanese region floored him.
“I asked the kids the first five minutes before show the film to write down anything they know on paper about Darfur,” he said. “I got back many papers that were blank. They weren’t being facetious.”
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