WATCH: Torah in Action
Last Tuesday, our President and CEO Robert Bank discussed living Jewish values; that social justice values are Torah values on the Torah in Action podcast with Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz of Uri L’Tzedek.
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Posts
Pompeo’s Commission is Purely Political and Endangers Human Rights Protections Worldwide, According to Leading Jewish Global Human Rights Group
American Jewish World Service (AJWS) decries report from Commission on Unalienable Rights Late last night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights issued the final version of its report on the role of human rights and U.S. foreign policy. Rori Kramer, Director of U.S. Advocacy at American Jewish World Service (AJWS), issued the …
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Statement by American Jewish World Service on The Commission on Unalienable Rights
“As a faith-based organization fully committed to the human rights and dignity of every person, we are deeply concerned that the Commission on Unalienable Rights may be yet another method by which the Trump administration aims to inject dangerous religious beliefs into American foreign policy. This is a way to further undermine the human rights of vulnerable individuals and communities around the world, including women and girls, LGBTQI people, indigenous people and ethnic minorities.
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Trump’s Latest Budget Cuts Would Harm the World’s Most Vulnerable People
American Jewish World Service decries new proposed curbs on foreign aid and State Department human rights programs American Jewish World Service (AJWS) Director of Government Affairs Rori Kramer issued this statement following the introduction of the President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget: “As the leading global Jewish organization that supports advocates for human rights and …
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RABBIS FROM 21 STATES GO TO WASHINGTON, D.C. TO URGE SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Social justice advocates meet with leaders of Congress and the State Department to lobby for three pressing issues in the developing world Twenty-eight American rabbis travel to Washington, D.C. next week as part of a human rights lobbying day organized by American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading Jewish organization supporting advocates for human rights and …
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Yitro
After the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, Parashat Yitro tells of the dramatic reunion between Moses and his father-in-law, Yitro, who is a Midianite priest. The parashah opens with the simple words “vayeshama Yitro—and Yitro heard.” We are not told what he heard, but we see that Moses’s father-in-law is quickly moved to action in support of Moses and the Israelite people. He gathers his daughter Tziporah (Moses’s wife) and her two children, and together they travel to meet Moses in the wilderness.
Read MoreNitzavim-Vayelech
I 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 MoreNitzavim-Vayelech
I 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 MoreKi Tetze
Parashat Ki Tetze contains 74 interesting and illuminating commandments—including one that, at first glance, gets my hackles up: “A man’s apparel should not be on a woman, and a man should not wear a woman’s clothing, for whoever does these things is an abomination before Adonai your God.” For many of us—and especially for those of us who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming—this apparent prohibition against cross-dressing feels problematic. Why should wearing clothes that are not “gender-appropriate” earn the harsh title of abomination?
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