Just in case anyone questions whether Sara Caine Kornfeld’s pupils are normal American teenagers, their fascination with celebrities should dispel any doubt.
When they set out to stop the killing in Darfur, the first people they contacted for help were not the Dalai Lama or Kofi Annan. They were George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey and various professional basketball players.
Bono, after all, was busy.
“When we decided to do this, the kids said, ‘We want this to be big,”‘ Kornfeld said. Instinctively they knew the importance of celebrity endorsements.
But while the kids wait to hear from Hollywood and the NBA, the eighth-graders at the Herzl/RMHA Upper School at the Denver Campus for Jewish Education are not wasting time. They’re discovering that ordinary people have power – as long as they’re willing to work hard.
Kornfeld’s social action class is working with Suad Mansour, a refugee from Darfur, to make contact with the community in the town of Korma to give the children a focus for their activism.
“Suad lives in Philadelphia, and I was going there to visit my parents last summer,” Kornfeld said. She invited Mansour to dinner, and they spent the evening talking about the desperate situation and what could be done.
The children could reach out to other children, Mansour suggested. They could help build a school in Korma. As children, they could cut through the political noise and make a difference.
Kornfeld knew she was right.
For Jewish children reared in the shadow of the Holocaust, the genocide in Darfur is a nightmare come true. They don’t want to stand by idly while crimes against humanity happen every day.
Back in Denver, Kornfeld spoke to her students about Mansour’s idea.
The children figured if everybody just contributed the change from his or her pockets a couple of times a week, once a month, whenever, soon they would have enough money to build a classroom so that the Sudanese children would no longer have to crouch in the shade of a lean-to to learn to read. Soon they would be able to buy some school supplies, pay a teacher, maybe even feed a few children left orphaned by the slaughter.
A campaign with the motto “Change the World: It Just Takes Cents (Sense)” began. The children want to raise funds and – more important, awareness – for the crisis in Darfur.
“My kids know they are very fortunate,” Kornfeld said. “They go to a Jewish private day school. They’ve got all this technology – Game Boys, computers, cellphones. They go out to eat at restaurants; they can buy clothes when they need them.” When they hear the stories of children their age in Korma who don’t know when they will eat again and if someone is waiting to ambush them and their parents, they realize how privileged they are.
The fact that the children of Darfur are Muslims and the children at the Herzl/
RMHA Upper School are Jews is irrelevant, Kornfeld said. The parallel experiences of genocide bring them together. And the reality of the Jewish children as a symbol of enduring hope for survival and security in the face of genocide transcends all religions and cultures.
That, too, is part of the lesson.
But the goal for the moment is to teach the children how to transform their concern for humanity into action. “I teach them how to define the problem, to break it down into digestible chunks and to figure out what they can do,” Kornfeld said.
“These are eighth-graders, not millionaires, but they can make a difference.”
In addition to the fundraising, the class is planning a Change the World Forum on Darfur in Denver on Feb. 7. Mansour will attend, and the students and others will make presentations about the culture of Sudan and the crisis that has overtaken the region. Politicians, athletes and celebrities will be invited, and maybe some will even come.
That would be nice.
But by then, it won’t matter.
By that time, the children will have discovered they really do have the capacity to change the world. All on their own.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com
