After Keji lost her parents to the violent, ongoing conflict in South Sudan, she and her siblings fled to Arua, Uganda — a city near the border that has become a major hub for refugees looking for a better life. But Keji and her brothers and sisters needed help rebuilding their lives after losing everything. …
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The World Bank recently released the first-ever World Development Report devoted entirely to education, “Learning to Realize Education’s Promise.” It explains why countries across the globe have succeeded at rapidly increasing the number of children in school, but have not achieved the same level of success when it comes to helping those children learn. Because …
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NEW YORK, NY—American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading Jewish international development and human rights organization, announced today that Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, founder and president of AJWS grantee and long-term partner Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), was awarded the 2013 Opus Prize, which includes $1 million to support her organization’s work. AIL was founded in …
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In his speech entitled, “The Modern Development Enterprise,” delivered at an event hosted by the Center for Global Development, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah praised AJWS’s international development work.
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AJWS is accepting applications from Jewish young adults throughout the U.S. for its 18th Volunteer Summer program. The year-long service-learning program brings participants, between the ages of 16 and 24, to developing countries where they live and work alongside grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for seven weeks to learn about international development principles and the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam.
Read MoreSitting in the dusty courtyard of Challenging Heights, in Sangor, Ghana, surrounded by children rescued from slavery, I realized I was not truly present. It was 2012, and I was on an AJWS rabbinical delegation intended to inspire American clergy to deepen our commitment to global justice by connecting with people in the Global South whom we seek to help.
Read MoreI consider the most beautiful passage in the Torah to be found in Parashat Nitzavim:
Surely, this mitzvah that I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”….No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.
Read MoreI consider the most beautiful passage in the Torah to be found in Parashat Nitzavim:
Surely, this mitzvah that I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?”….No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.
Read MoreThe flour, salt, oil, sugar, yeast, eggs and cinnamon were spread out on the vinyl tablecloth. We had moved the table to the modest cement block porch that jutted out from the doorless entryway to Marta’s house. It was Friday afternoon and this Salvadoran woman had opened her home to our group of American Jews …
Read More…Arami oved avi—my father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt in meager numbers, but there he became a great and populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us, oppressed us, imposed heavy labor upon us… Adonai freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and …
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