I'm attending the American Jewish Committee's Global Forum this year, which is a gathering of advocates, community leaders, journalists diplomats and thought-influencers on a range of issues relating to the Jewish world and global Jewish advocacy. As you can imagine, that covers a range of issues that impact policy on the local, national and global level, which means that I have been nurturing my Jewish policy-wonk side pretty hard. And loving it. I'm going to aim to do a series of smaller posts sharing some of the experiences that I find to be particularly profound, including this one.
Tonight I had the opportunity to hear The Honorable Vian Dakhil, the sole Yazidi member of the Iraqi Parliament, speak about her experience raising awareness of the plight of Iraq's Yazidis at the hands of ISIS. When ISIS began its catastrophic takeover of much of Iraq, they systematically targeted the Yazidi minority for persecution and extinction. The situation became so dire that Ms. Dakhil made a singular plea to her fellow Members of Parliament to send badly needed assistance to the Yazidis and save them from near certain annihilation.
Thanks to her efforts, thousands of Yazidis have been saved, but thousands of Yazidi men have been murdered and thousands of Yazidi women and girls have been sold by ISIS into sexual slavery. Dakhil spoke tonight to the Global Forum about her efforts and the plight of her people as she accepted the AJC's Moral Courage award.
I haven't yet come across a clip of her remarks from tonight, but here is the introduction video:
Here also is her plea to the Iraqi Parliament. If you don't know her name, or know the story of the Yazidis, you should.
Her words were so powerful, the story she tells so devastating, that I was moved to tears by the enormity of what was being presented to us. After the Holocaust, the world vowed "Never Again," and yet we have seen time and again that genocide continues. It is not often that we have the opportunity to be in the presence of someone who puts action to the vow of "Never Again," and who reminds us that courage in the face of the most irascible evil is possible.
I want my blog to be a vessel through which I explore deeply Jewish issues that resonate with me. I cannot think of more Jewish values than those of pursuing life over death, of exhibiting courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, and of standing on the side of the persecuted. This may have been one of the most poignant (and poignantly Jewish) moments I have ever experienced.
That's all for tonight. A lot of to think about.
