WASHINGTON, DC — In a visit to the White House today organized by American Jewish World Service (AJWS), 30 Jewish leaders and rabbis from across the nation met with White House officials to learn about the administration’s strategy to end violence against women, girls and LGBT people. The delegation urged administration officials to continue working …
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Like millions of people around the globe, we are mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela, whose leadership as a peacemaker and human rights activist transformed our world. Our partners in Africa have been writing to us to share their reflections on Mandela’s legacy. Here are a few:
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My daughter was born in Mumbai, India, between the Hindu and Jewish celebrations of lights—Diwali and Chanukah. We have sweet memories of lighting Chanukah candles in the hotel dining room in India, celebrating the transformation that her birth brought into our lives. Both holidays are likely related to the ancient celebration, Saturnalia, a holiday of …
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Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, so I’ve been thinking about the lives of women and girls around the world. Zeenat, a 17 year old girl from the impoverished community of Hyderabad, India, has already been married and divorced three times. All three of her marriages took place against her will, …
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For more than two years, American Jewish World Service has been working to improve the way the United States delivers life-saving food assistance to millions of hungry people worldwide. Thanks in part to the efforts of committed AJWS activists, AJWS and other allies were able to push forward incremental improvements to food aid programs in …
Read MoreJacob dreamed of a ladder filled with clambering angels. For 2,000 years, Jewish commentators have examined every detail of this dream and found within it a series of multi-faceted metaphors for the grand narrative of history.[1] But it is the moment when Jacob wakes to an ordinary day in a bleak desert that I find …
Read MoreThe five-year-old waved a red sports car under my nose and said, proudly, “This is my most favorite car.” I nodded and watched him set the car on the coffee table next to a line of other favorite matchbox cars. The three-year-old, seeing my enthusiastic expression, pointed at the same car. “That’s my favorite car, …
Read MoreIn Parshat Lech Lecha, Abram and Sarai, the first Jews, “go forth” from their old lives into a relationship with the one God, and the Jewish story begins. Embedded within this story is a short interlude, the tale of Hagar, whose very name (ha-ger) means “the stranger,” the “outsider.” Both Hagar’s encounters with God and …
Read MoreParshat Chayei Sarah begins with Sarah’s death and ends with a surprise wedding announcement: at 140 years of age, Abraham remarries and fathers six more sons. Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.[1] A successor to Sarah, a stepmother to Isaac, another kinship line descending directly from Abraham? This is big news, and yet …
Read MoreAmong the several firsts of this week’s parshah are cruelty and violence, introduced into the human story by Cain’s murder of his brother Abel. As depraved as it is, Cain’s sin seems only to grow, to expand from violent rage into genuine cruelty when we hear his response to God’s haunting question, “Where is Abel, …
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