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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