The Women's Freedom Network Newsletter Sept./Oct. and Nov./Dec., 1999, Vol. 6, Number 5 & 6. NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SEXUAL TRAFFICKING Concluding Remarks Guest Speaker: Rabbi David Saperstein Religious Center of Reform Judaism Rabbi David Saperstein

T here are, as you know, nearly two million women and children who are trafficked every year. That's tens of millions of victims. And if there is one thing that is clear from our religious tradition, it is that every one of these women, every one of these children, is a child of God, every one of them is endowed with the same dignity, the same infinite value, that every human being has, the spark of the divine, a flame within them.

We cannot turn our backs on that. Leviticus is clear. We cannot stand idly by the blood of our neighbor. And yet that is what is happening. Out of indifference, the feeling that there are lots of other important causes we've got to deal with, the feeling we don't know how to make a difference, the feeling that you can't fight city hall, you can't fight the forces that are out there, that gain so much in this, or just apathy and moral indifference. Whatever the justification, we must always resist the temptation to stand idly by the blood of our neighbor.

Blu Greenberg's call to religious leaders to take the forefront of this seems to me to be just right, just what we should be doing, and we're working on that on a number of levels. This year I'm very encouraged by the expansion of the religious community's involvement in this issue.