
Activism Through the Artist’s Lens: Lanceurs d’Eveil
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“We can’t wait for change”: Congolese activists are fighting to ensure a free and fair election
Many young people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) can’t recall a memory of living in peace — because there simply hasn’t been one. “I’ve only seen peace in films. But I’ve never seen it myself. It’s complicated in our country, but peace is something I dream of,” says Parfait Muhani, an activist living …
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Women’s Rights Activists Outraged by Insufficient Sentence for Singer
Women’s rights activists are enraged that a popular African rumba musician Koffi Olomide has spent recent weeks posting music videos to the web and playing gigs in his native Democratic Republic of Congo—despite the fact that earlier in the summer, a cell phone camera captured him allegedly assaulting one of his dancers.
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On World Refugee Day, the Displaced People You’re Not Hearing About
The world has watched in horror as migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa have embarked on treacherous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. On this World Refugee Day, the international spotlight, rightly, shines on this vast crisis—and American Jewish World Service stands in solidarity with human rights organizations working in Europe to mitigate the devastation. But we also hope the world will remember the scores of people from other parts of the globe forced to flee their homes.
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From the Congo to the UN: ‘Hear the Cries of Women and Girls’
In the developed world, women fought and struggled to gain their rights and eventually created a space in which these rights could be expressed. Violence does indeed occur in the developed world, but it cannot be compared to what is happening in countries that are plagued with persistent, systematic conflict. Women in the developed world …
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Julienne Lusenge
Raising a voice for women amid the horrors of war
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Meet Jeanette
Twenty-three-year-old Jeanette and her two children live in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—a country rife with ethnic conflict and known by U.N. officials as “the rape capital of the world.” Since 1993, the DRC has suffered waves of political and sexual violence, and women and children have paid the …
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Meet Grace
Grace is the mother of seven children. She lives in Democratic Republic of Congo, a country rife with ethnic conflict that has been called “the rape capital of the world” by U.N. officials. In addition to the vulnerability of being a woman in a war-torn region, Grace and her family are Pygmy, an ethnic minority …
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Dvar Tzedek
Pinchas
A shocking and inspiring episode in Parashat Pinchas occurs when the five daughters of Zelophechad stand up to Moses, Aaron and Elazar and demand to inherit their father’s property, in the absence of any sons. This courageous act, which challenges the assumption that tribal land can be passed on only from fathers to sons, seems to leave Moses speechless and moved, and he takes their claim to God.
Read MoreKorach
Parashat Korach tells of the mayhem and violence that often accompany political strife. After Korach the Levite challenged Moses’s leadership and Aaron’s priestly authority, a test was devised: God’s choice for priestly service would become known after Korach and Aaron each offered sacrificial incense. The divine response was unmistakable. The earth “opened her mouth and swallowed” alive Korach and his household. The rebel’s followers, in turn, were immolated in a fire “sent forth from God.”
Read MoreShmini
Parashat Shmini begins as the week of inaugural worship in the Mishkan, the desert temple that enabled God to dwell among the Israelites, is coming to a close. But tragedy strikes when two young priestly acolytes, Nadav and Avihu, die at the altar. It is a brief and puzzling story: we are simply told that each brought his incense pan and offered incense on “strange fire,” even though God had not commanded it of them. And the next thing we know, they are consumed by God’s fire.
Read MoreKi Tisa
This week’s Dvar Tzedek was originally published in 2009. Parashat Ki Tisa introduces the taboo against quantifying persons, enjoining the Israelites from giving themselves numbers. The sum of the people, it seems, is a dangerous thing—inviting evil, tempting fate, summoning the evil eye. Thus, God here commands that when Israel is to be counted the …
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