'The silence of the world makes me understand the horror that we as Jews have about how other countries allowed the Holocaust to happen', says Rabbi Adin Rayman, Judaic studies teacher at SAR High School in Riverdale.
As of late, more and more Rabbis and activists are joining the efforts to bring the suffering of the Uyghur people to an end. 'Given the dependence that we have on Chinese goods and Chinese labor, it would take intense public will to pressure our countries to try to force a change'.
These efforts received a large boost last week, as the US State Department announced new sanctions against two Chinese officials it said were directly involved in abuses against the Uyghurs, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he would consider banning Chinese imports made by the Uyghurs with forced labor.
During the Call to Action for Uyghur Freedom rally which took place on March 22nd in front of the UN offices in New York, Ramaz Upper School sent a delegation of seniors to participate in attempt to 'exemplify that "never Again' truly means never again'.
The rally also hosted Rep. Tom Souzzi (NY-3), Rabbi Leead Staller, Rabbi of the Stanton Street Shul and other prominent figures.
Following the event, Rabbi Staller urged activists to write to their congress people and to apply economic and political pressure on the Chinese government. Rep Souzzi stated in a Facebook post following the event that 'the Chinese Communist Party must be held accountable for human rights abuses. The world cannot turn a blind eye to genocide and human rights abuses'.
There are approximately 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in north-western China in the region of Xinjiang, officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The Uyghurs speak their own language, similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.