Despite promises to overhaul the way American Jews direct their contributions for causes in Israel and overseas, the Jewish Federations of North America is struggling to change the system. An ambitious reform plan approved last year recently suffered a setback with the resignation of Joanne Moore, the top professional in charge of its implementation. With…
Perverse as it sounds, during the eight days I spent in Liberia on a study trip with American Jewish World Service a few weeks ago, I thought a lot about Israel. And not just because of the seismic role that Liberia played in Jewish history when, in May 1948, it cast the tie-breaking vote in…
In mid-March, a group of Jewish leaders locked hands with human rights activists and with Hollywood star George Clooney in a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy. Some were arrested, as they called on the United States to increase pressure on Sudan to stop what they and many others charge is a policy of ethnic cleansing…
Two Jewish non-profits will soon close a popular social justice program aimed at Jews in their 20s and 30s. American Jewish World Service and Avodah announced on June 11th that they will discontinue their Pursue: Action for a Just World partnership at the end of 2012. The organizations said they are taking the move in…
This is the seventh entry in an ongoing series exploring Jewish feminism. As a child in the 1940s and ’50s, I unknowingly experienced Jewish feminism before it really existed. Beginning in 1938 my mother, Marjorie Wyler, worked full-time as the Jewish Theological Seminary’s director of public relations, radio and television; it was a position she…
During the winter of 1996, I told a Smith College admissions officer that I didn’t believe in single-sex education. At the time, I was telling the truth. I could not imagine any merits to not going to school with boys. I had always attended coed schools, and had never thought about how having boys in…
Bending to protests, two Jewish anti-poverty groups will include a visit to the West Bank and meetings with anti-occupation activists to an upcoming service trip to Israel. Avodah and American Jewish World Service reworked plans for the controversial trip after coming under fire from participants and from program alumni, all of whom vigorously opposed what…
Remember that little cardboard or plastic (and if you are even older, metal) tzedakah box that you used to drop coins into at home or at Hebrew school? Well, so does the American Jewish World Service, which is using it as the inspiration for a new design competition to be launched in January. “Where Do…
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