Former AJWS President Ruth Messinger contributed the essay below to “What I Told My Daughter: Lessons from Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women,” by Nina Tassler with Cynthia Littleton. Ruth Messinger joined a powerful, diverse group of women to reflect on the best advice and counsel they have given their daughters either by example, …
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Thank you to all who attended AJWS’s 30th anniversary gala. It was a powerful night as we honored Sir Michael Moritz and our own indomitable Ruth Messinger. Just as powerful was the haunting tribute expressed by our third honoree, Alejandra Ancheita.
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Ruth Messinger was one of New York City’s most prominent politicians in the 1980s and 1990s before she took the helm of a respected but low-profile nonprofit focused on international development: the American Jewish World Service.
After 17 years, Messinger is giving up the presidency of AJWS, which grew into a major player in the fight against global poverty under her leadership. In 2015, the group gave out nearly $40 million for projects in 19 nations.
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In the coming year we hope to launch “A Taste of AJWS”—a program that pairs delicious food from around the world with an appetite for social justice! During a private cooking class led by an accomplished LA chef, we’ll explore a country’s cuisine and gain insight into AJWS’s work in the region. With options from …
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Yesterday, we received the tragic news that Berta Cáceres, a champion of human and environmental rights in Honduras and longtime AJWS grantee, was murdered in her home. We are devastated by her loss. Berta was a hero to so many of us at AJWS. She was a globally-recognized human rights leader who gave a voice to the indigenous people of Honduras, as she bravely fought for their land and water rights.
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I am delighted to share my first newsletter of 2016 and to take note of the many accomplishments of AJWS in the past year—which I know make you as proud as they make me!
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Last month, 10 rabbis from across the U.S. spent a week in the Dominican Republic as part of a Global Justice Fellowship trip with AJWS. Focusing heavily on the Dominican government’s policies related to the citizenship status of Dominicans of Haitian descent, the delegation met with grantees working to address some of the most pressing human rights issues in the region. Rabbi Elyse Winick, the Jewish chaplain at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, wrote this reflection at the end of the trip.
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Earlier this week, LGBTI and allied activists in India rejoiced over a historic step from the Supreme Court. “Today’s judgment reinstates our hope that another world is possible. A world where everyone’s human rights are affirmed and everyone can live with equal rights and privileges,” declared Geeta Misra, Executive Director of Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), a Delhi-based feminist human rights organization and an AJWS grantee.
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As I write this, we are only six weeks away from AJWS’s 30th Anniversary Gala celebration here in the Bay Area. Our San Francisco gala will celebrate AJWS’s leadership in the world as a Jewish voice for ending poverty and promoting human rights.
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