D-Day… A turning point for small communities
D-Day is a decisive moment: full of symbolism, it marks the union of many forces that start a journey of connections and support. A turning point. “Dia D…” (D-Day in Portuguese) is also the project developed by UNIVRI, a small, emerging community in Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil, in partnership with CICAPI, another small community in Vitória-ES, also in Brazil, and with UJR-AmLat’s support.
“We needed a new space, using innovative – but not so much! – strategies to mobilise the Jews of the Itajaí Valley region”, says Ethel Scliar Cabral, rabbinical student at the Iberoamerican Reform Rabbinical Institute and the project creator.
The project sought inspiration from the survival strategies of Diaspora Jewry: a guerilla strategy, of small, coordinated actions that, added up, reach a higher goal.
Along with Douglas Miranda, also a rabbinical student from the Institute, thematic cycles were created, approaching the many facets of Judaism. This articulation is the greatest differential of the project, which quickly conquered space in the media and wide audience. “It’s an action model that can be replicated in other communities”, continues Ethel Scliar Cabral, “because the smaller, spread out communities face the risk of disappearing given the avalanche of mediatic demands”. According to the two coordinators, it’s necessary to meet the local, specific demands, without losing sight of the macro scenario – and this was the secret of the “Dia D” project – that can be watched every Tuesday at 8h30 PM (Brasília time) on the channel youtube.com/judaismonow.
