Earlier this year in Tamil Nadu, India, an LGBTQI+ couple battled homophobia in court—and won—making an important step to bring greater acceptance and equity to their community. At its core, this is a love story: Adheesh and Nidish (their names changed to protect their identities) are a young adult lesbian couple who fell in love …
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When we launched an emergency campaign to respond to India’s unprecedented COVID-19 surge earlier this year, we were deeply moved by how generously and quickly the AJWS community responded. Our campaign this spring allowed us to write emergency grants to dozens of our partner organizations across the country, enabling them to support their communities by …
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There’s a haunting hush hanging all over New Delhi right now, broken only by the sirens of ambulances rushing by. A new variant that’s 15-times more contagious is tearing through our densely populated city, and indeed across the country. Hospitals are filled to capacity with sick people — leaving so many others to fend for …
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On March 25th, India suddenly announced a strict, severe national lockdown—the largest in the world, affecting nearly 1.4 billion people. People were left scrambling to protect themselves and their families—often with little information about the frightening new disease. Countless questions bubbled to the surface: How would people prevent the virus’s spread without proper health and …
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“Men and women are equal!” “Let us read, let us study!” These are some of the slogans shouted by over 200 girls as part of a rally—organized by AJWS grantee Nishtha—in West Bengal, India, to push for women’s safety and equality in late February of this year. The girls, mostly high-school and college aged, proudly …
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Stories from the lives and work of young activists India is home to one-third of the world’s child brides, despite decades-old laws that prohibit marriage for girls younger than 18. Child marriage cuts across many regions and religious communities in India, and it causes lasting harm: research shows that child brides are more likely to …
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Sunita Jaiswal can’t remember a time when she was happier. On a Saturday afternoon in her tiny house—set in a sprawling, crowded Delhi slum—her daughters grin and perch along the narrow stairs, bounding up or down to make way for passing guests. Meanwhile, Sunita pours cold soda into steel cups and passes them around, beaming …
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On a damp Monday morning this past March, we headed out of our Kolkata hotel to find the dark streets still wet with rain that fell throughout the night. The streets were just starting to pulse with life. As we drove through the city to Asia’s busiest train station, the reminders of Kolkata’s colonial past were on display, from the architecture to the traffic police in their white uniforms, waving on the traffic with their batons.
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Zeenat is 17 years old and has already been married and divorced three times. All of these marriages took place against her will, and all three husbands abused her. Unfortunately, Zeenat’s experience is common in her impoverished community in Hyderabad, India. As is the case for many families living in poverty, Zeenat’s parents viewed marriage …
Read MoreDuring his journey to find a wife for his master Avraham’s son, the servant Eliezer[1] turns to God for help: “Let it be that the maiden to whom I will say, ‘Please tip over your jug so I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will even water your camels,’ her will You have …
Read MoreThis week’s portion opens with a friendly, wizened face. Yitro—priest of Midian, father-in-law of Moses—emerges from the wilderness, daughter and grandsons in tow. After hearing of Israel’s liberation, the priest has come to reunite Moses with the family he had previously sent away. Moses’s delight in seeing Yitro is palpable. The text is suffused with …
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 …
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