The AJWS community has a lot to say about what's happening in the world. Read our insights about the struggle for justice and human rights around the globe.
Low, multicolored buildings line the streets of La Union, a small coastal city on the southwestern gulf of El Salvador. A rural town of approximately 30,000 residents, La Union is not exactly a bustling metropolis—and not the first place one would expect to find a thriving queer community. And yet, this sleepy town is home …Read More
The Torah teaches: “If you see a donkey of someone you hate struggling with its burden, and you are hesitant to help that person—you must help that person.”
Since April, Nicaragua’s citizens have been waging a fierce uprising against the repressive, authoritarian government of President Daniel Ortega.
As a teenager in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Los Angeles, I didn’t feel safe coming out as gay — even to my liberal Jewish family. Although strides were being made by the LGBT community, rampant homophobia kept me in the closet. When I finally came out as a young adult, I was …Read More
The plight of refugees is undeniable. Little attention is paid, however, to the host communities—in places like northern Uganda and Bangladesh—where a sudden influx of refugees can bring new challenges to already poor and struggling communities.
Since the Rohingya refugee crisis erupted in Burma last summer, forcing over 700,000 people to flee into Bangladesh to escape ethnic cleansing, the AJWS crisis response team has been hard at work. We’ve been facilitating humanitarian aid in Burma and Bangladesh, supporting our partners to document human rights abuses, and deploying both our advocacy team …Read More