34. The Save Darfur Rally, with Rabbi Joy Levitt, Ruth Messinger, and Sarah-Kay Lacks

On April 28, 2006, a rally in Washington, DC urged the Bush administration to take action against genocidal atrocities in the country of Darfur. Leading the charge were Ruth Messinger and American Jewish World Service. Rabbi Joy Levitt, then chief program officer, and one of Ruth Messinger’s closest friends, had decided the JCC would take the lead in organizing participants from New York, and enlisted the help of Sarah-Kay Lacks to organize buses to travel to DC. In today’s episode of 76West, you’ll hear the story of how a single utterance in temple led to one the JCC’s largest, and most successful advocacy efforts to date. To learn more about the Joseph Stern Center for Social Responsibility at the JCC, visit https://mmjccm.org/adults/social-responsibility-volunteering.