A month ago, I stood outside Cambodia’s National Assembly with hundreds of Buddhist monks. They chanted in Sanskrit and tossed lotus petals into a crowd of protesters, blessing them. Many of them had walked from rural villages to Phnom Penh over 10 days. They rallied at the palatial seat of the country’s parliament, to mark …
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This guest post from the Grassroots Girls Initiative tells the story of Mohammad Bazar Backward Class Development Society (MBBCDS) and their efforts to end child marriage and empower marginalized women and girls. MBBCDS is an nonprofit organization that AJWS supports in West Bengal, India. The Situation for Girls West Bengal is one of the poorest states in …
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As we get ready for the New Year, we’re also taking a moment to celebrate the joys and victories in human rights that took place in 2013—an exciting and tumultuous year for human rights around the globe. Read on for 10 human rights happenings that AJWS celebrated in 2013, listed in chronological order. Let’s celebrate …
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On Wednesday, I had the privilege to join a group of 30 rabbis and Jewish leaders from 13 states for a day of meetings at the White House to learn about the Obama administration’s strategy to end violence against women, girls and LGBT people worldwide.
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WASHINGTON, DC — In a visit to the White House today organized by American Jewish World Service (AJWS), 30 Jewish leaders and rabbis from across the nation met with White House officials to learn about the administration’s strategy to end violence against women, girls and LGBT people. The delegation urged administration officials to continue working …
Read MoreIn Parshat Lech Lecha we encounter the first of what will become a common refrain in the book of Genesis, the lament of the barren woman. The opening verse of Chapter 16 informs us that “Sarai, the wife of Abram, had borne him no child.”[1] This theme of infertility is repeated with each matriarchal generation …
Read MoreI consider the most beautiful passage in the Torah to be found in Parshat Nitzavim: Surely, this mitzvah that I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens …
Read MoreI consider the most beautiful passage in the Torah to be found in Parshat Nitzavim: Surely, this mitzvah that I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens …
Read MoreParshat Ki Tetze opens with a chilling portrait of the inevitability of man’s brutality. When—not if—you go to war against your enemies and take as captives those whom you do not slay: Then, you will see among the conquered “a woman of beautiful form” whom you will desire and take for your “wife.”[1] That is …
Read MoreAfter decades of the Israelites’ wanderings, God’s decree upon the willful generation of the Exodus—”In this very wilderness shall your carcasses drop”—is nearly fulfilled.[1] To take stock of the new generation born in the desert, a census is ordered. Lineages are recorded; tribes’ sums inscribed; fresh tallies of the war-ready men collected. And from among …
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