When Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, there were many different groups living on its land: Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Mexicans descended from enslaved Africans, Spanish descendants, and Spaniards. To form a cohesive nation, they all became unified as Mexicans. But not all Mexicans have been treated equally. Under Spanish colonial rule, native peoples were expected …
Read More
In the verdant, mountainous Omkoi district of Thailand, the Indigenous Karen community is gripped in a battle over the land they have lived on for generations. The 4,258 people living in the village of Kaboe Din trace their lineage far before the existence of modern land deeds—and even the Thai nation itself. The villagers are …
Read More
Last month, high in the mountains of Guatemala and surrounded by fellow rabbis and human rights defenders, I was given an opportunity to witness what it means to stand up for justice that I will never forget. We were there as part of American Jewish World Service’s Global Justice Fellowship — a program designed to inspire, …
Read More
These days, whenever Daniel Koskei walks into the Logoman Forest and finds a mound of soil, he prepares to take action – particularly if the wind is strong and the sun blazing hot. Such mounds can be a sign of illegal charcoal production, an activity that can lead to fire outbreaks in this eastern region …
Read More
Defending the land with his life
Read More
Prosecuting powerful adversaries of indigenous rights
Read More
Hundreds of Maya Achi people were murdered to make way for a dam in Guatemala. Decades later, their families finally find justice. Back in 1982, Carlos Chen Osorio was a young man with a family: his wife, Paulina, and their toddler children, Enriqueta and Antonio. Paulina carried their third child inside her, and expected to …
Read More
Grace is the mother of seven children. She lives in Democratic Republic of Congo, a country rife with ethnic conflict that has been called “the rape capital of the world” by U.N. officials. In addition to the vulnerability of being a woman in a war-torn region, Grace and her family are Pygmy, an ethnic minority …
Read More In 2012, Bernardo was shot and killed. Locals allege that he was assassinated by supporters of the mining project in an attempt to silence the opposition. While his murderers remain at large, the people he left behind have refused to give in to fear and intimidation. With support from Colectivo Oaxaqueño and other AJWS grantees …
Read MoreWasteland, jungle, impoverished, malnourished, unhygienic, militant and crowded. Those were some of the words I had associated with Africa before I visited for the first time. The images were etched in my mind from the media, from documentaries and from the atrocities that we all read about daily in the newspaper.
Read MoreWhile the Israelites are still wandering in the desert, God instructs them in the laws of the shmita year, which will take effect once they enter the Promised Land. Once every seven years, instead of farming, they are to let the land lie fallow. The people of Israel will forage communally from the trees and the fields, eating the fruits that grow naturally in the land. The shmita year, we learn in Parashat Behar, parallels Shabbat—the seventh day of rest—on a grander scale: a year of rest for the land, once every seven years.
Read MoreAs an activist, learning about the work of previous generations can be inspiring—and terrifying. I begin to wonder if I will ever be able to accomplish what the leaders of eras past did, or be willing to take the same risks. For example, when I was in elementary and middle school, the fight to end South African apartheid was often in the news and many of the young activists were not much older than I was. I remember thinking: “What would I be able to do to show such strong moral leadership and live up to their example?”
Read MoreIn Parashat Chukkat, we read about the Israelites in a moment of desperation. Forty years into their journey through the desert, they once again find themselves in a new place without any water.[1] The people are distraught, but rather than voicing their fears in a calm, rational manner, the Israelites pick a fight. They approach …
Read More