Spotlight on CLAL
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CLAL in Rwanda
During the summer of
2008, Rabbi Irwin Kula was invited to Rwanda as part of the Clinton Global
Initiative Commitment. The only religious leader to participate, he joined
experts from the healthcare, film, and business communities to learn about
the challenges facing Rwanda as a developing country. His particular
contribution was to offer wisdom gained from the Jewish experience of
dealing with the devastating trauma of the Holocaust, and to reflect on
Rwanda’s remarkable process of reconciliation, forgiveness, and unity in the
face of its painful recent genocide.
Meeting with several of Rwanda’s top leaders including President Paul Kagame
and Dr. Daphrosa Ghakwa, Minister of Education, the group learned about the
profound progress being made in every area of life – health, education,
women’s rights, conservation, and governance, since the brutal civil war. In
addition to the well-known problems in the African continent, many of which
are the consequence of decades of colonialization that exploited the human
and natural resources of many of these countries, a unique challenge for
Rwanda is the fact that perpetrators and victims of the 1994 genocide still
live side-by-side.
Honoring the victims of the genocide, the group visited the Kigali Memorial
Centre, which chronicles the mass murders of 1994, when close to one million
people were killed in 100 days. Rabbi Kula noted that unlike holocaust
museums around the world, this museum depicted five other genocides the
Namibian, Armenian, Jewish, Cambodian, and Bosnian that took place in the
20th century before telling the story of the genocide in Rwanda.
This decision to place the Rwandan genocide inside a larger story of
genocides that happened to other people is a powerful statement, says Rabbi
Kula. “Genocide is not a unique experience that ought to be at the center of
one’s communal or personal identity, but a far too common human experience
that connects us all as human beings and demands vigilant awareness at how
quickly we human beings can descend to murderers. Placing the story of a
particular genocide in this larger narrative helps insure that people do not
define themselves and each other uniquely, metaphysically, and perpetually
either as victims or perpetrators.”
The group also visited the country’s forest and mountain gorilla protection
projects. The Rwandan government has dedicated itself to a significant
national conservation effort to reforest the lands and preserve the gorilla
population. Since the civil war, extensive de-forestation has occurred. Yet,
with two-thirds of Rwandans living below the poverty line, and
half-illiterate, the government is looking at ways to build the economy,
improve literacy, and create a modern nation. One of the successful examples
of this development is the converting of gorilla poachers into gorilla
trackers who have become central in a budding tourist industry.
“The country is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.” said
Rabbi Kula. “But when you juxtapose the beauty against the dire poverty, it
creates a moral disconnect and challenge to address the economic, social,
and political structures, of which we are all a part as interdependent and
global people, that allow for this level of inequality.” He continued, “In
American spiritual circles we talk about feeling the ‘Oneness,’
‘Interdependence,’ and ‘Seamlessness of all of Life,’ but often this sort of
spiritual seeking actually disconnects us from the more difficult and
painful aspects of life, sending us on an inward escape from real life
problems of fellow human beings.”
Traveling to Rwinkawavu, the group visited a modern medical clinic built by
the Clinton and Gates Foundations and staffed by health professionals who
literally save lives every single day. Kula joined a health care community
worker on a site visit to one of the surrounding local villages. “Sitting in
a mud hut, speaking with a young woman who was HIV positive along with her
three children, redefines what we mean by spiritual. Looking at each other
face to face, gazing into each others eyes, and hearing a mother’s story
forces one to transcend the narrow focus on one’s own self or group and see
the truth of our common humanity. This truth leads to asking the
quintessential moral and spiritual question of Jewish wisdom and practice,
and in fact, of all ancient wisdoms, every day: How does what I do make any
difference to the “woman in that hut?”
The challenge for CLAL, whose mission is to make Jewish wisdom accessible
and usable for anyone seeking greater meaning and purpose in their life, and
the challenge for every religious tradition that wants to contribute
positively in this globalized world, is to insure that whatever we teach and
practice engages and improves this world which we all inhabit and share.
For photos from the visit, click
here.
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