AJWS Blog

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 — and meet the activists on the frontlines of the fight to build a better world.

Dvar Tzedek: Parshat Vayeshev 5772

Rectifying pervasive social injustice around our world proves an incredibly daunting and complicated challenge. Each case of injustice is caused by not just the obvious perpetrators, but often myriad unintentional secondary offenders and a seemingly intractable web of social, economic and political systems and power brokers. Given these tangled causes, the average person may feel …

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Remembering Sonia and Our Obligations to Haiti

By all rights she should have been a nobody. But instead, Sonia Pierre, the Dominican born daughter of Haitian migrants was, at the time of her premature death this week at the age 48, an internationally respected, award winning advocate for the civil and social rights of Haitian Dominicans and a leading grassroots responder to …

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The Farm Bill and You

Originally posted on Pursue: Action for a Just World. The U.S. Farm Bill is a piece of legislation that is reauthorized every five to seven years. It covers many food-related government programs like SNAP in addition to international food aid programs. With the failure of the Super Committee to sneak the Farm Bill in under the rug, we have an …

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Why Secretary Clinton’s Trip to Burma Signals Cautious Optimism

Hillary Clinton’s visit to Burma—the first from a United States Secretary of State in 50 years—comes to a close today. The trip is a response to what President Obama has referred to as “flickers of hope” in the country and is a significant event in U.S.-Burma relations. How much has actually changed in this repressive …

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