AJWS Blog

The AJWS community has a lot to say about what's happening in the world. Read our insights about the struggle for justice and human rights around the globe — and meet the activists on the frontlines of the fight to build a better world.

A Jew in India: Orwell Had it Wrong

Originally published in The Berkshire Jewish Voice. “It’s great that you are going to India. But why do you have to travel over there? There is so much to do for your own people here. Or in Israel.” As I boarded the British Air flight lugging my pack overflowing with antibiotics and sunscreen, this question, posed by a family …

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Defending Defenders: Providing Support to Grantees at Risk

Originally posted on the Nonprofit Quarterly blog. In mid-March, following the news that Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a warlord from the DRC, had been convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), activists lauded the long-awaited verdict, calling on the ICC and the Congolese government to implement the arrest warrants of others who are …

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My Alternative Spring Break in Nicaragua

Originally posted on the blog of RJ.org, News and Views of Reform Jews. Last fall, as a junior attending the University of Florida (UF), I was considering all the possibilities for the upcoming spring break. I know that typical UF students spend their spring breaks on cruises and at beaches, drinking and getting awkward tan …

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Strengthening the Global Women’s Movement at AWID 2012

Who needs a larger piece of a poisoned pie? If international development comes at the cost of a toxic environment—corporate theft of indigenous peoples’ land, escalating violence against women and sexual minorities—isn’t the price too high? How can we have justice if the end is profit and the means are human beings?

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