In January, AJWS’s Global Justice Fellows traveled to Guatemala for an immersive lesson in moral courage and activism. This cohort of 15 rabbis passionate about social justice met with many AJWS grantees—from journalists and midwives, to attorneys and human rights defenders—who are leading movements to curb corruption, create a free press, advance women’s rights, and …Read More
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The liberal Jewish community has been part of the so-called Trump resistance for two years now, especially on the immigration issue. Delegations of like-minded rabbis have traveled to the southern border to protest the administration’s policy of separating families and connect with activists there.
Read MoreThe treatment of children on our southern border has many Americans asking why so many are being separated from their families, kept in detention and how 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo and 7-year-old Jakelin Caal, both from Guatemala, died in our custody on our watch.
Read MoreWhen you want to help the victims of injustice, it is not enough to hear about their suffering secondhand and then decide what they need, Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster of Teaneck said. Instead, it’s more effective to speak directly with people who already are addressing these problems on the ground, and to find out what they are …Read More
Read MoreThere’s a Jewish proverb that says “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when? Temple Beth-El Rabbi Michael Knopf takes the adage to heart and recently returned from an international trip that examined and embraced this concept of …Read More
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“We are telling the truth. We want to be heard, and we want justice,” said a petite, elderly woman to a room full of journalists and human rights activists in Guatemala City on February 13, 2016. A survivor of sexual slavery during Guatemala’s decades-long civil war, the woman’s face was obscured by a Mayan scarf to protect her identity.
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Seeking justice for bloodshed in the name of development
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Hundreds of Maya Achi people were murdered to make way for a dam in Guatemala. Decades later, their families finally find justice. Back in 1982, Carlos Chen Osorio was a young man with a family: his wife, Paulina, and their toddler children, Enriqueta and Antonio. Paulina carried their third child inside her, and expected to …Read More
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Indigenous communities work together to defend their land and way of life. In Guatemala, indigenous people whose families have lived and farmed in one place for generations are now facing rapid encroachment on their land and way of life. Many Mayan communities lack official land titles, despite obvious historic and cultural ties to their land. …Read More
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This week, we are pleased to welcome guest writer Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek. Everybody wants something. There are very few of us who have reached the level of equanimity that we are happy with what we have; the rest of us want things that are still out of our reach. For oppressed peoples, the most …Read More
Read MoreThis week, we are pleased to welcome guest writer, Dvar Tzedek alumnus Guy Austrian. Rock by rock, stone by stone, each one passed hand to hand along a human chain of young Jews and indigenous Guatemalans: our energy was high on this beautiful day during our AJWS delegation to rural Guatemala. We cleared a riverbed …Read More
Read MoreHundreds of young Mayan students gathered with their teachers and a small group of New York Jews, standing in a wide circle as we observed an astonishing spectacle. Rivulets of bubbling candle wax streamed onto the ground. Flowers withered and crumpled in smoke and flames. A priest of the Maya Achi tradition presided over the …Read More
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