New York, NY – Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading Jewish international development and human rights organization, issued the following statement in advance of First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to Cambodia: “I commend First Lady Michelle Obama for her historic trip to Cambodia this week to promote the Administration’s ’Let …
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The headlines from almost every corner of the globe in the past few weeks have been endlessly depressing. February may be New York’s coldest month since 1934. And yet, I’m feeling rather elated because something spectacular just happened. On Friday, February 27th, AJWS President Ruth Messinger and I traveled to Washington, D.C. to represent AJWS at Secretary …
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David Lieberman is formerly a member of AJWS’s Los Angeles Global Justice Fellowship cohort. The Global Justice Fellowship is a year-long program designed to inspire, educate and train key opinion leaders in the American Jewish community to become activist leaders in support of global justice. David wrote this reflection at the end of his trip …
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New York, NY – American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading international Jewish human rights organization and a funder of 26 human rights organizations in Mexico, today issued a strong demand for Mexican authorities to resume their investigation into the disappearance and possible murder of 43 student activists, who went missing in Iguala, Guerrero State, in September 2014 on their way to a protest against government violence.
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This week, my AJWS Los Angeles Global Justice Fellowship cohort and I are preparing to depart for India to meet with local human rights activists working to overcome poverty and injustice in their own communities. I have been reminded these past few days (especially in the countdown to our departure from LAX) that I am experiencing a …
Read MoreSometimes the best of intentions can lead to tragic outcomes. In Parshat Vayigash, Joseph has his hands full managing the seven years of catastrophic famine that have followed seven years of prosperity.[1] The Egyptian people are starving while Pharaoh has food, having stored much of the harvest during years of plenty. But the people’s ability …
Read MoreParshat Vayeshev recounts the cover-up of Joseph’s sale into slavery. The brothers present their father with Joseph’s coat and Jacob dutifully reads their script: “It is the coat of my son. An evil beast has devoured him; Joseph is without a doubt torn in pieces.”[1] There is, however, another more discerning witness to the brothers’ …
Read MoreIn Parshat Vayishlach, Dinah is captured and raped by Shechem, a local prince. Her father Jacob’s reaction is both puzzling and disturbing; he does nothing. Silent, he sits and waits for his sons to return from the pasture, where they are tending the family flocks.[1] We can conceive of reasonable ways to explain Jacob’s behavior. …
Read MoreWhat is a complete human lifetime, and what does it mean to live a full life? Parshat Chayei Sarah takes on these deeply difficult questions by beginning and ending with death—two deaths that are as unequal as they are momentous in the history of the Jewish people. The parshah begins: “Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s …
Read MoreIn Parshat Noach God destroys all of humanity, save for Noach and his family, in a great flood. The text provides us with a reason for God’s wrath—va’timale ha’aretz chamas,[1] —that the earth was filled with violence. A simple reading may bring to mind a brutish anarchic existence, in which people fight, steal and destroy …
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