Apr 7, 2016

Greater Miami Jewish Federation Advocacy Seder on April 13 to Decry Human Trafficking as Modern-Day Slavery

Cantor Ronit Rubin of Bet Breira Samu-El Or Olom and Rabbi Cheryl Weiner, Rabbinic Chair of the Advocacy Seder Planning Committee, leading the seder in 2015.

Two generations of local residents will decry the evils of modern-day slavery, as the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Human Trafficking Task Force – an initiative of Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council and its Women’s Philanthropy – present its Third Annual Advocacy Seder on Wednesday, April 13 from 4 to 6 p.m. The event will be held at Federation’s Stanley C. Myers Building, 4200 Biscayne Boulevard.  The Human Trafficking Task Force is chaired by Nancy Zaretsky.

Civic and criminal justice activists will join representatives from the Jewish and Christian communities to spread awareness of the societal problem of domestic human trafficking. Joining them will be teenagers from the Junior Board of the Women’s Fund Miami-Dade and the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center chapter of B’nai B’rith Youth Organization. 

Community leaders and residents – including representation from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the State Attorney’s office, local law enforcement and local universities – will attend and shed maximum light on modern-day slavery. Additionally, they will discuss new state legislation aimed at curtailing human trafficking.

The Advocacy Seder also will present highlights from the television investigative series Web of Lies, which recently focused on actual cases of human trafficking in Dallas.

The International Labor Organization estimates that forced labor in the global private economy generates $150 billion in illegal profits per year. Federal statistics also suggest that between 14,000 and 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the U.S. alone each year, and tens of thousands of youth born in America are at risk of sexual endangerment or exploitation. The average age of entry for domestic commercially sexually exploited children is 12-13 years.  Miami is considered to be a major transit center for persons illegally trafficked into the United States.
           
The Jewish Community Relations Council was established in 1973 as the public affairs and advocacy arm of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.  It is composed of members-at-large selected from the community, as well as representatives from constituent Jewish community-relations organizations, Federation partner agencies and various entities within Federation.  For further information about JCRC, email [email protected] or call 786.866.8486.