15 rabbis have been named as 2018-2019 Global Justice Fellows with American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading Jewish organization working to promote human rights and end poverty in the developing world. AJWS announced the selection today of 15 Jewish leaders from across the United States who will participate in this prestigious program.
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Years ago, while giving a talk at a Jewish high school in New York City, I showed students a video of a Sesame Street skit from 1975 that demonstrated the relationship between “Near” and “Far.” As the #MeToo movement continues to build momentum in the United States and around the world, I am grappling with how we …
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A number of anti-LGBTI organizations participated in a three-day religious freedom conference the State Department held this week in D.C. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Thursday tweeted a picture of Family Research Council President Tony Perkins “welcoming attendees” of a workshop that focused on U.S. government grants.
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Many years ago, when I was in government, Mario Cuomo, then New York’s Governor announced the “Year of the Woman”; we joked that what we needed was not one year but as many years as it would take to realize full gender equality. It did not happen then, and it has not happened yet, despite …
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I’m writing from 7,640 feet above sea level in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Yes, you read correctly. Here’s my hotel. I’m here participating in the American Jewish World Service Global Justice Fellowship. I’m one of 13 rabbis in Guatemala to meet with and support advocates fighting for legal protections for human rights activists at risk of violence; …
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American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading Jewish organization working to realize human rights and end poverty in the developing world, strongly condemns the decision by the United States Supreme Court to uphold the Trump administration’s “travel ban,” which blocks entry to the United States of individuals from five Muslim-majority countries and two others. Over 33 years, AJWS has worked with Muslim partners worldwide to pursue goals we share in common—advancing human rights and ending poverty.
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We are dismayed by the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the UN Human Rights Council—the global body tasked with promoting and protecting human rights across the world. Although the council is imperfect, it has successfully moved the needle towards justice on critical human rights issues, including gender equality, respecting the rights of LGBTI people, preventing destructive mining and resource exploitation, and creating accountability after conflicts and wars.
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In advance of Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Bank, President and CEO of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading Jewish organization working to realize human rights and end poverty in the developing world, issued the following statement.
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“American Jewish World Service is deeply saddened by the loss of Congresswoman Louis Slaughter, age 88. Congresswoman Slaughter served for 30 years in the United States House of Representatives, where she demonstrated powerful leadership through her steadfast commitment to human rights and justice for women, girls and LGBTI people here in the U.S. and around the world. Congresswoman Slaughter’s work to promote and protect programs to advance sexual and reproductive health within U.S. foreign policy and aid programs has played a crucial role in the 19 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean where AJWS works—bringing us closer to achieving gender equality worldwide. May her memory be an inspiration and a call to action until gender equality is a reality worldwide with no exceptions.”
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We applaud the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on its principled decision to rescind its first ever Elie Wiesel Award from Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader of Burma (Myanmar). She has forfeited her right to be honored in the name of the Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate, as well as in the memory of those murdered during the Holocaust and other genocides and atrocities in world history.
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