I grew up on the southern tip of South Africa, not far from where the waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. As a child, I spent most of my weekends in my grandparents’ small store, located in a crowded and ethnically diverse marketplace in District Six, a Cape Town neighborhood long ago destroyed.There, …
Read MoreSimone Gbagbo, wife of former Ivorian Head of State Laurent Gbagbo, has been on trial before Ivorian court for the past ten months for crimes against humanity after being sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment in 2016 for undermining state security during the 2010-2011 post-election crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. Since February 2012, she has also been …
Read MoreOver a dozen Jewish groups and congregations are participating in Saturday’s People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C. The People’s Climate Movement, which is organizing the event, advocates for global action against climate change. The march is scheduled to go from the Capitol to the Washington Monument by way of the White House. Jewish partners of the march …
Read MoreOn this Earth Day, a Shabbat, I am deeply focused on our Jewish obligation to repair the world and safeguard the earth and its inhabitants. As Genesis tells it, it took six days to create the complex majesty of the universe. Today, I fear that we are frighteningly close to undermining this majesty. But we …
Read MoreRuth Messinger has a new job — not so different from her old one, but with a new title and a new focus. After 18 years heading the American Jewish World Service — she served as its president from 1998 until July 2016 — she has passed the baton to Robert Bank, AJWS’s executive vice-president. But …
Read MoreAs Jews in South Jersey and worldwide do without chametz to celebrate Passover, the plight of modern refugees is on the minds of many Passover, after all, is the ultimate refugee holiday. Every year we retell the ancient story of our flight from oppression, reciting the words “Arami Oved Avi,” sometimes translated as “My father …
Read MoreThey lit candles, praying that those suffering around the world find light in the darkness. Dipping karpas into salt water, they saw the tears of all who suffer injustice. Abdul Jalal Hashimi then watched the congregants of Temple Beth-El in Richmond break the matzah, the bread of affliction, symbolizing the deep brokenness in the world …
Read MoreRabbi Elie spitz of Congregation B’nai Israel in Tustin, was selected by the American Jewish World Service as one of fourteen rabbis and cantors from across the United States as the 2017 class of Global Justice Fellows. This program educates and trains American Jewish leaders to advocate effectively as Jews in support of international polices …
Read MoreNext week, between 150 and 200 people will gather for a Passover seder at Temple Beth-El in Richmond, Va. When the traditional Passover question is posed — “Why is this night different from all other nights?” — there’s a new answer. Guests at the Seder, co-sponsored by the refugee aid agency ReEstablish Richmond, will include …
Read MoreShould New York be the first city in the United States to decriminalize prostitution? The blue-ribbon panel that just issued a forceful argument for closing the jails on Rikers Island within ten years thinks so. Led by the Honorable Jonathan Lippman, the former chief judge of New York, the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal …
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