Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

Rabbi Brant Rosen in RwandaRabbi Brant Rosen of JRF's Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, IL is currently in Africa. And he's blogging from there. Here is an excerpt:

We talked about the ways the Rwandan experience is both similar and markedly different than the Jewish one. Obviously the wounds here are very fresh; and unlike the Jews of Europe, the goverment is committed to bringing all aspects of Rwandan society back together in one extremely small country.

Whether this will succeed over the long term or not is an open question. One woman who joined our conversation expressed her doubts - saying that while the political reconciliation is important, much of the underlying pain and hatred continues to simmer under the surface. How many generations does it take for this kind of pain to dissipate in a community? The Jewish people hav been learning this for some time - Rwanda is struggling with the tragic question as well.

Our final visit was a heartbreaking tour of Kigali’s Public Hospital. More on this in my next post…

Read more on Brant's blog.

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