As Jews, we  often discuss the act of Tikkun Olam, our social and moral obligation to repair, heal and improve the world and right its wrongs. This is an underlying theme for many of our most revered holidays and part of our core beliefs of what it means to be Jewish.

When we remember our exodus from Egypt on Passover, when we atone for our sins of omission on Yom Kippur, when we celebrate victory against genocide and religious persecution on Chanukkah and Purim, when we say “Never Again” on Yom HaShoah, we are reaffirming our commitment to each other and the world against these atrocities.

Once again, we find ourselves called to action to speak out against genocide, religious persecution, and human rights offenses.

The plight of the Uyghur Muslims in China is one of the most abominable crises affecting our world today. For the last several years, the Chinese government has been imprisoning the Uyghur people in concentration camps, subjecting them to forced labor, and taking away their children and putting them in orphanages or high-security boarding schools. The Chinese government has destroyed at least 9,000 mosques and damaged thousands more. It has also taken draconian steps to limit Uyghur population growth by forcibly sterilizing the women, implanting unwanted IUDs, and performing other traumatic procedures on them. These measures have worked. Since the Chinese government started its mass detention program in 2017, the Uyghur birthrate has plummeted by more than 60%.

The Rabbis of Haver ask you to stand with us in fighting for justice and righting these wrongs. Reach out to your local elected officials, your U.S. representatives and your U.S. senators and urge them to support Uyghur human rights legislation.

“Never again” is now, and you have the power to repair the world.

Read the Rabbinical Assembly’s resolution here.

Read the statement from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism here.

Read the International Jewish Movement for Uyghur Freedom here.

Read the Jewish World Watch Campaign to Protect the Uyghur people here.

L’Shalom,
Haver, the Rabbinic Council of Boulder

Rabbi Deborah Bronstein, Rabbi Emerita Congregation Har HaShem
Rabbi Ori Har DiGenarro, Conscious Learning Community
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Rabbi Emerita Congregation Nevei Kodesh
Morah Yehudis Fishman, Community Educator
Rabbi Ruth Gelfarb, Congregation Har HaShem
Rabbi Sarah Bracha Gershuny, Community Rabbi
Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith, Adventure Judaism
Rabbi Fred Greene, Congregation Har HaShem
Rabbi Nadya Gross, Pardes Levavot
Rabbi Victor Gross, Pardes Levavot
Rabbi Jamie Korngold, Adventure Judaism
Charna Rosenholtz, Reb Zalman Scholar in Residence at Congregation Nevei Kodesh
Rabbi Alan Shavit-Lonstein, Adventure Judaism
Rabbi Marc Soloway, Congregation Bonai Shalom
Rabbi Diane Tiferet Lakein, Community Rabbi