The Anti-Defamation League and 27 other Jewish social justice organizations penned a forceful open letter imploring political candidates to put an end to the racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia they say has emerged in this year’s campaign. Although the letter released Thursday does not mention a candidate by name, it comes during a week in which Donald Trump …
Read MoreIt will be a new era for the American Jewish World Service when Robert Bank, a gay man, takes over at the global Jewish organization starting July 1. Bank, 56, succeeds Ruth Messinger as president and CEO of the progressive organization and he plans to continue Messinger’s legacy as well as make his own imprint …
Read MoreOne of the giants of faith-based relief and development, Ruth Messinger, is retiring at the end of June. As the President of American Jewish World Service, it is hard to overstate Ruth’s contribution to the fight for lives of dignity and prosperity around the world. Her powerful voice will be sorely missed. Her witness and …
Read MoreIn the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, Americans from many religious traditions responded with strong condemnations of the violence that claimed 49 innocent lives. They donated money, donated blood, and prayed at vigils across the country. But some people of faith pointed out that professing support for the LGBT community while …
Read MoreHuman rights advocates from major Western nations and organizations are protesting against a United Nations decision to bar 22 LGBT-affiliated groups from taking part in a high-level U.N. AIDS conference next month. Because the 193-member U.N. General Assembly operates by consensus, the countries calling for the ban – Russia, Tanzania and 52 countries in the …
Read MoreThailand is among the world’s most dangerous countries in which to oppose powerful interests that profit from coal plants, toxic waste dumping, land grabs or illegal logging. Some 60 people who spoke out on these issues have been killed over the past 20 years, although few perpetrators have been prosecuted in a culture in which …
Read MoreImagine that you were evicted from your home because your government decided to dig beneath it. And imagine that, if you spoke up to protest, you would face threats — even death. I don’t have to imagine this scenario because I have witnessed it. Yet while I am alive to write about it, many of my colleagues …
Read MoreWhy is this Passover different from any other? Because the story that the Jewish holiday commemorates — the exodus of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt to freedom — resonates more strongly than ever in a world embroiled in a refugee crisis that encompasses approximately 60 million people, the highest number ever recorded, according …
Read MoreAs someone who has spent the past four years reporting in Southeast Asia, I want to make a suggestion: this Passover, put down the Haggadah for a few minutes and read aloud from an essay by actor Mandy Patinkin about his trip to Cambodia. On the Showtime series “Homeland,” Patinkin plays Saul Berenson, a senior …
Read MoreSeveral months ago, I felt the power of the thousands-year-old Passover story as palpably as I ever have, when I travelled with American Jewish World Service (AJWS) to Cambodia. My sense of what it means for a people to go from slavery to freedom deepened when I spent time listening to the modern-day narratives of …
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