Blogroll | Congregation Darchei Noam

Danny Richmond is this year’s Social Justice Scholar in Residence. The Scholar-in-Residence Program was set up to bring to Darchei Noam persons who have thought about social justice and worked in practical ways to bring it about. All of the recipients have been activists, whose social action is rooted in Jewish principles of tikkun olam, healing the world: Debbie Field from FoodShare, Avrum Rosenzweig from Ve’ahavta, Rabbi Shalom Schachter, a rabbi and lawyer long active in social action, and Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, Director of the Equality Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association . The Social Justice Scholar-in-Residence is expected to do two divrei Torah during the year, to meet at least once with youth and teens, and consult with Darchei Noam committees on social justice issues. In recent years, the Social Justice Advocacy Committee has been particularly concerned with issues of poverty and homelessness, and their selection of Scholar-in-Residence has reflected this.         

Danny is the second person to come to our program from Ve’ahavta, where he is Director of Community Engagement. In this role, he oversees the organization’s strategy to mobilize the Jewish community to repair the world on issues of poverty at home and abroad. Ve’ahavta is a non-profit Jewish humanitarian organization, which is “dedicated to promoting positive change in the lives of people of all faiths marginalized by poverty.” He is the youngest person so far to be our Social Justice Scholar-in-Residence, but he brings extensive experience to the task. Like his predecessors, he acts in the larger world, but is rooted in his experience as a Jew and his knowledge of Jewish thought.

Danny comes from a family of Jewish Holocaust survivors, but his social awakening came when he read about the Rwandan genocide in his grade twelve history course. The awareness that another people had experienced both genocide and the degrading insults that preceded it took him out of what he calls his bubble. He spent the subsequent years seeking to understand that larger world and shaking other young people out of their bubbles. He first got involved with Darfur.  He then went to Guyana with Youth Challenge International, where he worked on AIDS and confronted the complexity of the world. On his return, enrolled at the University of Toronto, where he majored in religion.  He never graduated, but that did not mean that he stopped his education. He worked at Camp Biluim, the National Leadership camp of Canadian Young Judea (CYJ) then helped lead the national movement for six years.  It was at CYJ that he founded a group called Va’ad Tikkun Olam, which sought to involve teenagers in community initiatives. He started the group by sending an email to 80 young people, who he had known through Camp Biluim. 60 responded favorably. They were encouraged to define and develop their own projects, which were as diverse as contributing to a women’s shelter, landmine reduction or Wikipedia. He also encouraged them to collaborate and support each other.  His career has always balanced work within the Jewish community and engagement with the larger world.

 In 2006, he was one of ten people invited to accompany Governor-General Michaëlle Jean’s State Visits to five African nations. This State Visit intensified his awareness of injustice in the world. He visited the castles in Ghana, from which several million Africans were shipped off to a harsh slavery in the Americas and the cell on Robben Island in South Africa where Nelson Mandela spent a large part of his harsh 27 year imprisonment.

From 2010 to 2012, Danny was with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, where he was responsible for overseeing the global campaign which engaged 35 000 people across more than 40 countries to building ties between different faith communities while halting deaths from malaria.

There are a number of themes in Danny’s work. The most important is Tikkun Olan, “repairing the world” and making it a better place. Core to that theme is empowering young people and everyday community members to engage in acts to repair the world. Another major theme is a celebration of diversity and inclusiveness. He encourages compassion, understanding and the value of people knowing each other. He is fascinated by how religion shapes our lives and encourages inter-faith collaboration. He is thus concerned with both action and with people understanding each other. He believes his encounters with other traditions have enriched his Jewish identity and tries to make a similar contribution to them.

We are pleased to welcome Danny back to Darchei Noam on June 11th for his final d'var Torah and post-Kiddush discussion. We hope to see you there!