Rider University to Host "Darfur Diaries" Film and Lecture Program

            Rider University’s Hillel chapter and the Student Entertainment Council will host “Darfur Diaries,” a lecture and film program, on Tuesday, March 11, at 7 p.m. in the BLC Theatre on the Lawrenceville campus.

            The event will feature the film Darfur Diaries: Message from Home and speaker Jen Marlowe, who was the primary author of the book Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival. Marlowe was part of a team of filmmakers who interviewed refugees, civilians and others affected by the genocide and oppression responsible for more than 400,000 deaths in Sudan. The book and the film give an inside account of the culture, the people and their desire to return to their homes despite the turmoil.

            Matthew Semel, president of Hillel on campus, said he came up with the idea to hold the event after he wrote a paper on the book for class. “I had an immediate interest in it because I wanted to learn more about the crisis in Darfur ever since I learned about it in my senior year of high school,” explained Semel, a junior communications major.

            After seeing Darfur Diaries: Message from Home and the new documentary Darfur Now, Semel said he wanted Hillel to hold an event based on Darfur because of its importance to the Jewish community.  “As Jews, we say ‘never again’ and genocide is happening again,” he said about Darfur. “It is important to raise awareness of this crisis.”

            The event is free and open to students and the community.

Submitted on March 7, 2008