We spent our semesters abroad studying and immersing ourselves in the legacies of two different genocides. Lauren lived in Prague, a city with one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe before the Holocaust, studying its Jewish history through the Holocaust and the revival of the Jewish community today. Annie lived in Rwanda with a Rwandan family studying the aftermath and reconciliation process following the genocide. These transformative experiences inspired us to see the realities of genocide and its relevance to all of mankind, specifically to us college students.
After spending hours smelling the stench of the mass graves of massacred Rwandans and touching the rusted iron of crematoriums that once burned millions of Jewish bodies, we returned to Tufts. Now we are sitting in the Tower Café, drinking our hot teas in the comfort of oversized armchairs. We are overhearing students stressing about papers and their plans for the weekend.
We know that the paper you are working on is stressful, and we know that college is the time to be social and live in the present. We know that everyone has his or her own "cause," be it education, poverty, renewable energy or cancer prevention. But right now, we just want you to stop what you are doing and think.
This is your call to action. Please think beyond your group of friends, beyond your family, your school, your religion, your race, your ethnicity and your country. We want you to think about humanity as a whole. The power to help all of humanity may seem out of your reach, but really it is in your hands. There is a movement starting at Tufts, in America and across the world. We want to end genocide. We mean it this time.
It is not just the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide; we are talking about all genocides of the 20th and 21st century. Trustee Emeritus Bill Cummings (A '58) and his wife Joyce Cummings have committed to a gift of $1 million to endow a new program in Holocaust and Genocide Education program through Tufts Hillel, provided the same amount can be raised from other friends.
We want to show the Cummings, other alumni and the Tufts administration that Tufts students care about this and want to take a stand. We want the ability to have impactful programming on campus, including bringing in survivors who will deliver their personal stories with messages that will resonate with students, as well as eventually offering classes on genocide history and prevention. We want students to have the tools to go out into the world and become the benevolent police force for genocide prevention. Whether you become an environmental engineer in the Congo, a human rights worker in Geneva or an investment banker on Wall Street, we want genocide prevention on your mind.
But we cannot do this alone. It takes conversation, inspiration and action. Soon you will be seeing students on campus bringing attention to the genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries. A group of students will be in the Mayer Campus Center and in the Carmichael and Dewick−MacPhie Dining Halls tabling about genocide education. We will be collecting small donations (as in $1) towards the Cummings' grant challenge to show that students realize the relevance of genocide education and want to bring more to Tufts. We are aiming for 100 percent participation in order to deliver this message, so please be sure to participate. Be on the look out for facts around campus about current and past genocides such as the Holocaust and those in Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Start talking and asking questions, and look forward to some motivational programming in the spring. Feel free to contact us if you want to get more involved. We can be reached at Lauren.Levine@tufts.edu and Annie.Lobel@tufts.edu.
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