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Don’t forget to check our website at www.hobartsynagogue.org
9
TIME FOR A NEW EXODUS?
At Pesach we reenact the Exodus story as though we ourselves had been slaves (“in every generation…”). I
read an essay recently entitled ‘Self-liberation” by Lesli Koppelman Ross (see
Koppelman Ross argued that we should all “free” ourselves from our own individual “mitzrayim” or "narrow
straits.” She was talking about “narrowness” we place upon ourselves: prejudices, fears, insecurities, etc.
My mind has been “broadened” lately by the disturbing fact that in today’s world there are still people who are
literally enslaved. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has been writing about modern slavery for several
years, and what he has to say belies the notion that slavery ended with the Mid-19th-Century U.S. Civil war (see
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/helping-trafficking-victims/ for information and possible action).
Slavery is alive and pervasive, says Kristof. 21st Century slavery is not above building pyramids or picking
cotton. Today’s slavers are forced into prostitution or warfare, or both. And today’s slavery often victimises the
most vulnerable: children and young women.
According to NGO website http://www.humantrafficking.org slavery is occurring even in Australia and the USA.
Some of the NGOs mentioned by Kristof estimate that 700,000 people are “trafficked” each year worldwide.
These same estimates suggest today’s slave trade may be more significant in economic terms than the trans-
Atlantic trade of African slaves that ended with the US Civil War. Ethan B. Kapstein, writing in the
November/December issue of Foreign Affairs Magazine
(http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20061101faessay85609/ethan-b-kapstein/the-new-global-slave-trade.html), notes
that many of the “same factors that contribute to economic globalization have given rise to a booming
international traffic in human beings,” often abetted by the complicity of national governments.
This year at Pesach, for too many people, “this night” will not be “different from all other nights.” So this
Passover, it may be worth asking ourselves: is it time for a new Exodus?
Will Howard
WEEKLY BLITZ – A ZIONIST NEWSPAPER IN BANGLADESH
This letter was received by the Hobart Hebrew Congregation:
Dear Sir/Madam: Shalom Uvracha!
May we avail the opportunity of introducing Weekly Blitz, the only Zionist newspaper published in a Muslim
country which very unfortunately till date does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. We would like to
welcome the esteemed members of your organization to kindly read the internet edition of Weekly Blitz on
Weekly Blitz is the largest tabloid newspaper in Bangladesh with an average circulation of 7,500 copies of
print edition. More than 39,000 readers are kindly hitting our internet edition each day making us as one of the
most influential newspapers in Bangladesh and in many countries. But, just because of our secular and Zionist
editorial policy, Bangladeshi business entrepreneurs are not supporting this newspaper with advertisements.
But, despite such adversity, we are continuing the publication since 2003.
The newspaper is edited and published by award winning journalist Mr. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who
faces sedition, treason and blasphemy charges in Bangladesh for advocating inter faith dialogue, confronting
religious hatred and Islamofascism as well demanding establishment of relations between Bangladesh and
Israel. Kindly visit www.interfaithstrength.com website to know more about his mission.
Hope, you will kindly extend your valued and precious cooperation to Weekly Blitz.
With Profound Regards
Sohail Choudhury
Executive Editor Weekly Blitz
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