AJWS Los Angeles: What’s Happening
In a moment overshadowed by fear and hate, I am grateful to be part of American Jewish World Service, a community fully committed to the dignity and rights of every person everywhere.
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AJWS Staff
Let’s Talk About Sex: Overcoming Barriers to Discussing Sexuality and Empowering Adolescent Girls
It can be difficult to offer sexuality education to adolescents anywhere—but it’s especially difficult in deeply conservative communities around the world, where sexuality remains a taboo topic.
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What I am Learning about Climate Justice from Activists in Burma, Guatemala and Mexico
Earlier this year, we heard that our long-time grantee Berta Cáceres, an indigenous Honduran environmental activist, was gunned down and killed in her home, simply because she organized her community to protest a multi-million project to build dozens of hydroelectric dams that will destroy the local eco-system and put their survival at risk. At devastating moments like this, the many obstacles to pursuing climate justice feel overwhelming.
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AJWS Los Angeles: What’s Happening
Even though we may not see the leaves change here in Southern California, we know fall is a time for transition. As you may have heard, after eight accomplished years at AJWS, Allison Lee has started a new role as the Vice President of External Affairs at Bet Tzedek.
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AJWS Bay Area: What’s Happening
“What can I do to help beyond the annual gift I make to AJWS?” This is a question I often field from Bay Area donors. There are numerous responses, including advocacy and ambassadorship. But, in my opinion, the best answer is “travel on an AJWS Study Tour.”
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AJWS Chicago: What’s Happening
These days, it often feels like we live in a broken and breaking world. Devastating stories continue to top the headlines: terrorism, racism, war, violence and economic injustice. And we know that there are countless other brutalities that never even make it into the news.
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Reflections on the Legacy and Teachings of the Late Elie Wiesel
“Anyone who listens to a witness becomes one.”
More than a week after the passing of Elie Wiesel, I, a proud son of a Holocaust survivor, remain deeply saddened by his death.
I met Elie Wiesel 40 years ago when he began a four-decade teaching career at Boston University, where I was entering my senior year.
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AJWS founder Laurence Simon Remembers Elie Wiesel
I was becoming discouraged in 1984 talking with leaders of American Jewish organizations about my dream to found an American Jewish organization that would make a professional and visibly Jewish contribution to the end of poverty in developing nations. They were not unsympathetic, but “we have other problems” was the phrase I heard over and over. Congregational and Hillel rabbis were more supportive and eventually encouraged me to talk with Elie Wiesel—“He will understand.”
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AJWS Bay Area: What’s Happening
Last month, the Bay Area celebrated Pride with unshakeable spirit. For LGBTI people who have worked to express their rights in the U.S., it was an opportunity to look back on and take pride in all that has been accomplished.
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Mazel Tov to our new President and CEO, Robert Bank!
We are wishing a special Mazel Tov to Robert Bank, who officially assumed the role of AJWS President and CEO today! Robert, who was AJWS’s Executive Vice President for seven-and-a-half years, is a skilled leader with a proven record of managing successful local, national and international organizations, bringing passion and dedication to public service and the pursuit of justice. Robert succeeds Ruth Messinger after her remarkable 18-year presidency of AJWS.
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