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, …
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Often when a group of American rabbis visit a foreign country, they spend most of their time with the local Jewish community. But the 13 Jewish leaders — including two from New Jersey — who were selected as Global Justice Fellows by the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) didn’t even step near a synagogue during …
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The Book of Genesis proclaims that every human being is created in the image of God, that every human life is infinitely precious. Every religious person and every humanist understands that we are all diminished by needless loss of life. My heart breaks when I hear about people dying of starvation, of AIDS and other …
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Rabbi Ariella Rosen of Temple Adath Israel in Merion Station was named one of 14 2017-18 Global Justice Fellows by American Jewish World Service (AJWS). The fellowship program trains American Jewish leaders “to advocate effectively in support of international policies that advance the human rights and well-being of the world’s poorest and most oppressed communities,” …
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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 …
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