A rally to raise local awareness about the genocide in Darfur will take place on Monday in Jerusalem, the Anglo students organizing the event announced this week. Hatzilu et Amei Darfur, (Save the Nations of Darfur), or Ha'ed, is a new group comprising mainly yeshiva and seminary students who say that they wanted to bring Darfur advocacy to Israel.

"After the Holocaust, it's important that we don't stand by and let another group of people become victims of genocide," group co-founder Seraphya Berrin, a student at the Har Etzion Yeshiva in Gush Etzion said . "We never understood how the world was silent during the Holocaust and so it is particularly important for Jews and the State of Israel to be active in this issue."

Ha'ed organized a small rally last month that drew about 150 people. Organizers hope for a much larger turnout on Monday, and toward that end have been cooperating with various study programs.

	Advertisement

"American Jewry understands that it is the Jewish thing to help people escape genocide, but unfortunately Israelis' understanding of what is going on in Darfur is the closest thing above zero," said Eytan Schwartz, spokesperson for the Committee for the Advancement of the Refugees of Darfur. The coalition represents several organizations, including the Hotline for Migrant workers and the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University, that aid Sudanese refugees in Israel.

Schwartz, the winner of Channel Two's hit reality series "The Ambassador," is scheduled to speak at Monday's event. The rally, with speeches in both Hebrew and English, will be held at 8 P.M. in Zion Square in downtown Jerusalem.