When the state Legislature last year declared April as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month — making California the first and only state to do so — it was an emotional moment for activists and educators.
For local poet, author and San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition member Stewart Florsheim, it also was deeply personal. The son of refugees from Nazi Germany, Florsheim grew up in Manhattan’s Washington Heights, a heavily Jewish immigrant neighborhood where “the Holocaust was omnipresent,” he said.
The environment affected him so powerfully, he’s spent much of his adult life raising awareness about genocide. On April 10, Florsheim will see his work come to fruition at the first Bay Area Walk Against Genocide. Hosted by the SFBADC, the event will bring together genocide survivors, community leaders, students and educators for a day of reflection, speeches and advocacy training and a walk around Oakland’s Lake Merritt.
“Sadly, genocide is still going on today,” said Florsheim, a member of Temple Sinai, who for three years has organized a similar but smaller walk for the Oakland synagogue’s annual mitzvah day. “People might not feel like it affects them, but here in the Bay Area, we have a lot of survivors of genocide — people who have come here as refugees from Darfur and Bosnia. This walk will hopefully educate people about what’s happening in other parts of the world.”
Martina Knee, director and secretary of the SFBADC, shares Florsheim’s personal connection to the Holocaust. Several of her mother’s relatives committed suicide during the Holocaust; Knee’s mother was a survivor.
“Growing up with [my mother’s] trauma, the effect of it on her entire life, sensitized me to the long-lasting intergenerational effects of genocide and mass atrocities,” she said. “So when I first heard about the genocide in Darfur in 2004, I was shocked that I didn’t know about it — I couldn’t believe it wasn’t in the news every single day.”
Knee has since devoted herself to the cause. “I thought, if I can do anything to save one person from the effects of genocide, I have to do it,” she said. “And the longer I’ve been doing this work, the more I firmly believe it just isn’t enough to commemorate past genocides or mourn the Holocaust … while in Sudan, people are continuing to die by active killing, starvation, malnutrition, lack of hygiene, lack of medical care. It’s a humanitarian crisis.”
A lack of consistent coverage in the press is one challenge facing organizations that work to raise awareness about genocide, Knee said.
“The mainstream media doesn’t report well on international issues unless it’s an immediate crisis,” she said. “Haiti is a striking example of that — it was in the news every day around the earthquake, and now you almost never hear about what’s going on there except in sound bites.”
Knee acknowledged that many people might feel overwhelmed by the news of atrocities in Sudan and other countries, but she said it’s possible to help even by doing just a little. “We want to show that you don’t need to feel powerless,” she said.
More than 20 NGOs — groups focused on education, advocacy and humanitarian aid — will be represented at the walk, offering examples of “what every individual can do even if they only have a few minutes.”
“I’m not naive, I don’t think a walk is going to ‘end genocide,’ ” she said. “But I do think that if every person does their part and we continue to educate young people about it, that over time we can minimize and then eventually prevent future genocides.”
While the Darfur coalition focuses its efforts on Sudan, the April 10 walk will include participation by representatives or refugees from Armenia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Myanmar and other conflict zones.
Proceeds will benefit American Jewish World Service and Catholic Relief Service as well as the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition. A number of Bay Area Jewish organizations, including the Bureau of Jewish Education and the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, are listed as partners.
“We wanted to try to bridge our faith communities,” said Florsheim of the diverse partnership. “And so far, the response has been positive.”
Laura Talmus, the Western region director of AJWS, said it was an honor and a privilege for the organization to be a beneficiary of the walk.
“AJWS works in a number of post-conflict countries, so promoting the rights of refugees and displaced persons is very natural for us,” Talmus said.
“Whether the atrocities are in Sudan, or if others come to the table with leanings toward healing the aftermath of the Holocaust,” she said, all such humanitarian efforts reflect Jewish values.
If the walk helps the reality of genocide to hit home for participants, it will be a success, Knee said. “There are many survivors and descendants of victims, people who have been traumatized by genocide, all over the Bay Area. We want people to see that this isn’t something that only happens far away.”
The Bay Area Walk Against Genocide will take place at 12 p.m. April 10 at Lake Merritt in Oakland. Meet at the band shell at Lakeshore and Lake Park avenues. Suggested donations: $20 families, $10 individuals, $7 students, $5 children. Information: www.walkagainstgenocide.org.