In February, we welcomed Tawanda Mutasah as AJWS’s new President and CEO. A veteran human rights leader, he has spent the past three decades advancing rights-based social change around the world. Tawanda joins AJWS at a challenging time for global human rights, with authoritarianism on the rise and freedoms being curtailed. And so, we sat …
Read More
“Endless war.” The phrase has been kicking around in our collective consciousness for decades, evoking helplessness and hopelessness. Painting a world where peace isn’t even a distant dream — it’s an impossibility. We know it’s easy to succumb to this hopelessness, especially in this moment when countries readily wage war without examining the possibility of …
Read More
The last few months have re-invigorated Americans’ ideas about the heroic work of journalists. Linchpins of democracy, reporters who demand the truth work at considerable risk — personal insults, job loss, and the broad brush of “fake news” lobbed at them from politicians with a lot to lose. But systematic attacks on the press, now …
Read More
This year, the United States has assumed the rotating Presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20), a summit championing economic cooperation among the world’s largest economies. On March 5, the House of Representative’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hosted a hearing to explore ways the Trump administration can “elevate human rights issues” during the G20 …
Read More
On the AJWS storytelling team, we like to keep the spotlight on our grantee-partners. Staying true to our model of supporting grassroots leaders who know what needs to change, we share stories of problems and solutions that inspire us and coalesce into movements that make enduring human rights progress. But every once in a while, …
Read More
Hello to AJWS’s community in the United States — My name is Sokhna Djitte. I’m a 22-year-old student and a slam poet from Senegal — I recently performed as a finalist in a national competition held by Y’en a Marre, an AJWS partner organization. I’m writing to tell you how AJWS has profoundly impacted my …
Read More
With Valentine’s Day in just a few days, we’ve got love on our minds. The activists that you support through AJWS perform acts of love and kindness every day — defending human dignity, helping the oppressed, and building strong, tight-knit communities where people truly have each other’s backs. But we wanted to spotlight a story …
Read More
New President, CEO will lead American Jewish World Service (AJWS) into its next chapter, guided by core values and a steadfast commitment to repair the world NEW YORK – The leading global Jewish organization working to end poverty and promote human rights, American Jewish World Service, announced today that Tawanda Mutasah will be its next …
Read More
Welcome to 2026 — a year that will undoubtedly be filled with challenges, challenges we’ll meet together with stronger resolve and greater resistance. Thank you for standing with AJWS and our partners over the past year, and thanks in advance for continuing to support the kind of human rights progress that’s so essential right now. …
Read More
As we enter the season of light, many members of the AJWS community cannot escape feeling mired in darkness. But — taking inspiration from the name of this newsletter — we move forward in hope that our vision of human rights for the most oppressed will prevail. In that spirit, it’s a pleasure to be …
Read More