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Home Tag Mexico: Civil Society does not endorse NAP on Business & Human Rights due to lack of standards, among other issues

Mexico: Civil Society does not endorse NAP on Business & Human Rights due to lack of standards, among other issues

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September 12, 2018

American Jewish World Service Urges Action on Guatemala

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales recently announced that he will not renew the mandate of a powerful UN-backed commission set up to combat corruption in the country, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) – a body that is currently investigating President Morales for alleged illegal campaign financing. In response, American Jewish World Service (AJWS) President and CEO Robert Bank issued the following statement:

August 17, 2018

AJWS Responds to New U.S. Sanctions on Burmese Military

“As the leading global Jewish human rights organization, which has been supporting advocates for the human rights of ethnic minorities in Burma since 2002, AJWS welcomes the U.S. Government’s announcement today that it is imposing sanctions and visa restrictions on Burmese military leaders and divisions responsible for horrific violence against the Rohingya people in Burma,” said Robert Bank, President and CEO of AJWS.

August 2, 2018

Reconciling Local and Global Responsibilities in the #MeToo Movement

Years ago, while giving a talk at a Jewish high school in New York City, I showed students a video of a Sesame Street skit from 1975 that demonstrated the relationship between “Near” and “Far.” As the #MeToo movement continues to build momentum in the United States and around the world, I am grappling with how we …

July 28, 2018

Anti-LGBTI groups participate in State Dept. religious freedom conference

A number of anti-LGBTI organizations participated in a three-day religious freedom conference the State Department held this week in D.C. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Thursday tweeted a picture of Family Research Council President Tony Perkins “welcoming attendees” of a workshop that focused on U.S. government grants.

July 19, 2018

Ruth Messinger: Jewish Organizations Are Way Behind On Gender Equity

Many years ago, when I was in government, Mario Cuomo, then New York’s Governor announced the “Year of the Woman”; we joked that what we needed was not one year but as many years as it would take to realize full gender equality. It did not happen then, and it has not happened yet, despite …

Dvar Tzedek

April 21, 2014 | 5774

Kedoshim

One afternoon during an Introduction to Jewish Philosophy class, my professor posed the following question: If you are walking by a swimming pool, and you see someone drowning, what is your obligation to intervene? Must you dive in? Call for help? Throw her a line?

March 24, 2014 | 5774

Tazria

Parashat Tazria opens with a passage that makes many contemporary readers bristle at its seemingly obvious gender discrimination. Describing a woman who has just given birth, the text relates that not only is she impure, but the length of her impurity doubles for a daughter in contrast to a son. While the gender-based distinctions in the text may arouse anger or confusion, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the topic of gender and they may also offer insights into how gender plays a role in our own lives and in the lives of people around the world.

March 17, 2014 | 5774

Shmini

Parashat Shmini begins as the week of inaugural worship in the Mishkan, the desert temple that enabled God to dwell among the Israelites, is coming to a close. But tragedy strikes when two young priestly acolytes, Nadav and Avihu, die at the altar. It is a brief and puzzling story: we are simply told that each brought his incense pan and offered incense on “strange fire,” even though God had not commanded it of them. And the next thing we know, they are consumed by God’s fire.

February 17, 2014 | 5774

Vayakhel

When I visited some of the poorest neighborhoods in Cancun with AJWS in 2010, my greatest fear was not what I would see, but what I might feel. I worried that I would feel—as so many people do—that I needed to fight for justice so that I could save the people I met there, providing for them what they could not provide themselves. This sentiment is common, but dangerous and demeaning, because a belief that the privileged must save the poor assumes that people in need lack the ability to shape their own destinies; that it is a lack of aptitude or ability that lies at the core of their misfortune.

February 10, 2014 | 5774

Ki Tisa

What does it mean to “count”? To count can mean to tally items to determine the total—as in, the teacher counted her students. To count can also mean to have merit, importance or value—as in, every little bit of help counts. In Parashat Ki Tisa, God instructs Moshe to count the Jewish people. Men over the age of twenty are included in this census, and each is commanded to donate a half-shekel, which is used for the construction and upkeep of the Tabernacle.