“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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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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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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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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Robert Bank, currently the executive vice president of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), will be the next president of AJWS, starting on July 1, 2016. As the organization’s Executive Vice President for the past six-and-a half years, Robert has focused on the organization’s strategic growth and on deepening its impact. Robert is an experienced leader and manager of local, national and international organizations, and prior to joining AJWS in 2009 he served in New York’s municipal government and in the leadership of GMHC—one of the leading organizations in the world engaged in combatting HIV/AIDS. In 2008, he played an instrumental role in the campaign to overturn the ban on HIV-positive people entering the United States and becoming U.S. citizens.
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Jacqueline Hart, Ph.D., joined American Jewish World Service in 2012 to lead the organization’s efforts to strategically learn and measure its impact in the developing world. Since then, she’s created research and evaluation initiatives that aim to deepen AJWS’s understanding of our work and to strengthen our impact. Under Jacqueline’s direction, AJWS uses these findings …
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AJWS and the human rights organizations that we support around the world are mourning the lives lost in the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando.
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AJWS is proud to support activists fighting to protect the environment in countries around the world. We aid communities and movements organizing to protect the land, water and natural resources that people depend on for their survival.
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This spring, I have been reminded of just how courageous our AJWS partners can be, and just how dangerous so much of their work actually is. In March, two Honduran human rights defenders, Berta Cáceras and Nelson García, were murdered, presumably in an attempt to silence them and end their work.
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As Jewish American Heritage Month comes to a close, we’re reflecting on the achievements of American Jews throughout history, and on what it means to be Jewish in America today. We’re also celebrating our own supporters, many of them American Jews, who are joining together to build a better future for millions around the globe. A …
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