Wrong chains unbroken - BostonHerald.com

By Geoffrey J. Haber / As You Were Saying...
Friday, January 1, 2010 - Added 1d 2h ago

We may look upon slavery as something our ancient ancestors experienced, but irrelevant to our lives. But, truth be known, today the slave trade is larger than ever before.

New Year’s Day marks the anniversary of a seminal date in American history. On that day in 1863, many slaves were set free under the terms of the Emancipation Proclamation. Over the next two years, millions of slaves would experience freedom for the first time in their lives.

Yet while slavery was abolished in the 19th century in the United States, it lives on across the globe. Its continued existence abroad is every bit the threat to our society that slavery in America was, as it runs counter to the principles of a democratic society. In essence, it limits our very own freedom.

And just as we as a nation will not stop in our quest to end terrorism wherever it may live, nor should we stop short of committing ourselves to doing what we can to stop slavery in foreign countries.

Slaves live as servants in the Sudan. In India, children are forced to work without rest spinning fabric on looms. In Asia and Eastern Europe, teenage girls are enslaved, sent overseas in inhumane conditions and forced into prostitution.

According to Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organization, millions of people throughout the world are in bondage. Some are simply born into it. Others are forced into it for economic survival or to get medical care for an ailing loved one. And yet others are victims of trafficking, where they are sent away from their homelands to be exploited either for labor or for sex.

Members of the Jewish community understand what slavery is. The Haggadah read at Passover proclaims: “Now we are slaves/Next year we will be free.” We tend, however, to look upon slavery as something our ancient ancestors experienced, but irrelevant to our lives. It is a quaint memory that we recall when telling the Passover story. But, in truth, today the slave trade is larger than ever before.

Benjamin Skinner, author of “A Crime so Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery,” exposes one of the great evils of our time: That there are more slaves in the world today than at any time in history. Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, also writing about modern slavery, reports that “At this moment, millions of men, women, and children - roughly twice the population of Rhode Island - are being held against their will as modern-day slaves.”

To many, modern slavery is perceived as workers in low-wage jobs or inhumane working conditions, which of course is deplorable in and of itself. But modern-day slaves differ from the lowest wage workers in developing countries because they are actually held in physical bondage - shackled and held at gunpoint.

Let’s remember today’s historical relevance in the United States. Moreover, let us resolve to take action to free the millions of people who are enslaved across the globe.

Action can be as simple as writing your congressman and senators and asking that they work to help people abroad be freed from the bonds of slavery. Or it may mean taking steps to get educated about the issue of slavery, such as going to anti-slavery Web sites, and then educating others and advocating for change.

Eliminating slavery in all its forms will not come easily. It will require hard work and activism on the part of many Americans to demand change. We will need to use our economic power and bully pulpit to fight for freedom so that those enslaved can rightfully say, just as Jews do when reading the Haggadah every Passover, “Now we are free.”

Geoffrey J. Haber is the rabbi at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Chestnut Hill.


Wrong chains unbroken - BostonHerald.com