We Cannot Stand Idly By

We Cannot Stand Idly By
April 28, 2006
Rabbi David Jay Kaufman

This week is Cover the Uninsured Week. As a leader in the Jewish community, I was asked to help bring the Jewish perspective to the interfaith religious organizational programming events. I attended the press conference on Wednesday at which our Lt. Governor Sally Pederson announced that Governor Vilsack had proclaimed this week to be Cover the Uninsured Week in Iowa. At the press conference, I was joined by two members of Temple B’nai Jeshurun, Josh Mandelbaum, who was there as a policy advisor to Governor Vilsack and Dr. Steve Eckstat, who is a leader in seeking ways to provide insurance for lower income adults and is a leader of Hawk-I, the health insurance program seeking to insure children across Iowa. We heard about the tremendous need to improve our outreach to the uninsured nationally, even as we were told about the marvelous programs that are already available in our state.

Nationally, the problem of the uninsured is growing worse. The federal government estimates that nearly 46 million Americans lack coverage of any kind for an entire year. Other research shows that tens of millions more Americans go without health coverage for shorter periods of time.
Recent Census Bureau data demonstrates that the problem of the uninsured continues to worsen. According to figures released in August 2005, 45.8 million people—15.7 percent of the total U.S. population—were uninsured in 2004, up slightly from 15.6 percent in the previous year.

The percentage of the non-elderly population, those under 65 who are eligible for Medicare, that is uninsured has climbed steadily from 15.9 percent in 1994 to 17.8 percent in 2004.

Yesterday, I spoke at the luncheon sponsored by Cover the Uninsured. Along with me were Imam Dremali, Rev. Keith Ratliff, Rev. Mark Stringer and Rev. Bill Stuart. All of us recognize the profound problems created by rising healthcare costs, skyrocketing insurance costs, pre-existing condition riders, high deductibles and the fact that for many adults in our society, all of these make health insurance either impossible to afford at all or impossible to use if they have it. Many people do not seek the medical care that they need because they do not have insurance or because they cannot afford the deductible if they do have it.

Sometimes, it is easy for us to separate the workings of our faith from the struggles of society. It is easy for us to put blinders by our eyes so that we only see what lies directly before us and if problems should happen to not lie in our path, well… we have problems of our own.

Yet, removing our blinders allows us to see that all of the things around us are part of our path. We cannot act as if we may never need to turn or that our path will never intersect with others. We must be aware.

When we turn our heads and even our bodies, looking not only ahead of us, but to the sides and even behind us, we may see that others do not move so easily along the path. Obstacles that are easy for us to overcome may even be impossible for them to overcome on their own. It is incumbent upon us help them.

In Jewish Scriptures we find directives to act:

"Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."

"Thou shalt not remain idle while thy neighbor bleeds."

So many are bleeding. So many struggling without help.

Our tradition teaches us that the world is not perfect, it is not as it should be, it is like my car yesterday, which had to be towed to the car dealer, broken. Our job as Jews and as righteous human beings is to labor to repair it bit by bit.

We are told by the rabbis of old some advice which applies not only to the problem of the uninsured in our nation, but to many other problems facing our world, “It is not up to us as individuals to finish the work, but neither can we desist from it.” We must do our part, even if it is but a little bit, to help.

As many of you know, I have also been involved in working to find ways to save lives of those suffering in Sudan and in refugee camps outside of its borders. This weekend, Sunday, is national Save Darfur Day and there is a major demonstration and march planned in Washington D.C.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is a national partner in the effort to end the crisis in Sudan and bring Shalom to those who are suffering. One of my rabbinical school classmates, Rabbi Michael Namath, is the Program Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Just this morning, he joined a group of people including leaders of other national organizations and even several members of Congress in a peaceful demonstration in front of the Sudanese Embassy and was arrested.

Michael and other leaders were calling for increased action to stop the genocidal violence and man-made humanitarian disaster occurring in the western region of Darfur. In a statement issued after his arrest, Rabbi Namath said, "I participated in this act of civil disobedience because my Jewish values teach me that I cannot stand idly by and watch as the blood of my neighbor is spilt." It is unfortunate that there are so many things in our world for which that statement is appropriate, so many people who are suffering and need our help.

My classmate quoted, in a statement issued by the Religious Action Center after his arrest and subsequent release, from the words of Dr. Arthur Hertzberg, a great scholar of Judaism who has recently passed away, and whose thoughts are very appropriate.

Dr. Hertzberg taught that in the Talmud, the rabbis concluded that Jews could not be secure and live happy lives unless the rest of the world had risen beyond its wars and hungers. To this train of thought the rabbis added that the true woes of the world are those which affect everyone.

The problems of the world are our problems. We must work to bring healthcare to the nearly 46 million people in this country without it and we must continue to raise awareness of this humanitarian crisis that has left as many as 400,000 innocent civilians dead and over 2 million others homeless.

I join and even help to lead organizations working to solve these problems because my Jewish values teach me that I cannot stand idly by and watch as the blood of my neighbor is spilt. Why? Because the true woes of the world are those which affect everyone and because while “It is not up to us as individuals to finish the work, neither can we desist from it.” We must do our part, even if it is but a little bit, to help.

This Shabbat, as we consider the suffering caused by the crisis in Sudan and the suffering caused by a lack of health insurance for millions in this country, may we think of ways in which we can help to raise awareness and even, perhaps, to help to relieve a bit of the suffering, repairing a bit of our all too broken world.

Shabbat Shalom.