On a recent trip to Uganda with American Jewish World Service — the organization I am privileged to lead — I was honored to meet Paul, an openly gay man who is working to stop bigotry, violence, and discrimination against Uganda’s LGBT community. I’ve changed his name here to protect his identity. The evening after …
Read More
Two weeks ago, I was in Haiti visiting AJWS’s grantee partner Kouraj, which is the Creole word for “courage.” What an apt name for an organization led by courageous activists who are fighting for a very simple human right that still eludes people in more than 70 countries around the world. That right is the …
Read More
The Jewish coming-of-age ceremony known as a bar mitzvah is always challenging. It happens at the awkward age of the early teen years, and requires the child to chant, before family, friends and congregation, from the archaic Hebrew of the Torah. For Amichai Lau-Lavie, the Israeli-born scion of an Eastern European rabbinical dynasty, it was …
Read More
In recent years, they helped create constitutional protections for LGBT people, launched a film festival at a prestigious national venue, and inspired the country’s first openly gay candidate to run for political office. But progress wasn’t always so close at hand for RevASA, a Dominican LGBT rights organization supported by AJWS and its parent organization, …
Read More
In such a tumultuous political time, it’s a gift to be reminded of kindness and social justice in our community. This is why I love the fact that the American Jewish World Service recently made this video about how the popular Passover song “Dayenu” can be used to promote equality. In the video, different people from the Jewish …
Read More