view from central park: tehilla r. goldberg

Acting now to save Christian and Yazidi children

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In every generation, there are those storied lives of people, basically seemingly regular, ordinary people, whose sense of moral clarity, compassion and courage to act in historic moments is so crystal clear that they ultimately come to pierce the definition of ordinary. They become truly extraordinary.

Among us is just such a person. And he needs all of our help.

I want to tell you about Steve Maman. But first, you should mentally cue the hauntingly sad, lyrical and melancholic melodies of “Schindler’s List.” That music is indelible, its evocative power flooding our emotions and thoughts with the drama of 1,200 rescued Jews from the jaws of a Nazi fate.

We are constantly exposed to a news cycle featuring horrific, ever expanding brutalities and atrocities perpetrated by ISIS upon innocents. As the vicious bar of violence keeps being raised we feel helpless. Our hearts squeeze in pain for a fleeting moment as we audibly “tsk tsk” cluck our tongues, overwhelmed by the bad feeling of what can we do? Or the anger of this must be stopped! Yet, human nature presses us forward to our next task, and until the next news story about an atrocity in a faraway world we put it in the back of our minds, and forget.

Not Steve Maman.

As he was watching the news one day, caged girls about to be set aflame by ISIS, he reached his breaking point. Randomly glancing at his wrist to check the time, he realized the money his watch is worth could buy one of these persecuted Yazidi girl’s way out of persecution, torture and death — to freedom.

And so it was.

Steve Maman, a Moroccan Montreal Jewish businessman, began sinking his personal funds into saving Yazidi girls captured by ISIS. As his efforts grew, he enlisted the help of his family, friends and community in trying to bring the release of these Kurdish ethnic victims of Iraqi kidnapping.

Working side by side with huamanitarian Canon Andrew White, he has saved over 100 children.

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