AJWS has recently awarded more than $3.2 million to 151 grassroots project partners in 28 countries. The new grants are divided into five categories, which include sustainable livelihoods and development, community health, community voice, education for all, and community engagement in conflict and emergencies. They provide funding to organizations in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

AJWS is pleased to announce that Laura Talmus has joined its senior staff as the organization’s western regional executive director. In this role, Talmus will be responsible for overseeing all operations in the western United States, including increasing AJWS’s base of donors and grassroots activists.

AJWS president Ruth W. Messinger has been appointed to serve on the Obama administration’s Task Force on Global Poverty and Development. The task force was created by the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which is working to identify areas in which improved, expanded and innovative partnerships between government and faith-based community organizations will yield results in serving individuals, families and communities.

AJWS, long involved in the fight against the genocide in Darfur, expressed concern today that the Obama administration is sending contradictory signals in recognizing the magnitude of what has taken place and continues to occur on the ground in Darfur.

AJWS President Ruth W. Messinger delivered a riveting commencement address yesterday at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) calling on the graduates — Rabbis, communal workers and Jewish educators — to embrace a 21st Century Judaism that emphasizes global citizenship and the pursuit of social justice for all people.

AJWS has expressed solidarity with the five members of Congress and three anti-genocide activists arrested Monday at the Sudanese embassy in Washington DC.