American Jewish World Service

American Jewish World Service (AJWS) "is an international development organization motivated by Judaism’s imperative to pursue justice. AJWS is dedicated to alleviating poverty, hunger and disease among the people of the developing world regardless of race, religion or nationality. Through grants to grassroots organizations, volunteer service, advocacy and education, AJWS fosters civil society, sustainable development and human rights for all people, while promoting the values and responsibilities of global citizenship within the Jewish community."

Sudan

An article written in May 2005 in Ascribe News notes that

"American Jewish World Service (AJWS) launched a Sudan humanitarian aid and advocacy campaign within the Jewish community and spearheaded the interfaith Save Darfur Coalition. Since that time there has been a grassroots swelling of activity in synagogues, college campuses, and communities across America. Teenagers are leading major fundraising initiatives; college students are organizing rallies; synagogues are hosting topical Sabbath services and educational programs; and many individuals and groups are sending letters to United States and United Nations officials.

""As I had hoped, the more the Jewish community is becoming aware of these atrocities, the more it is acting to stop them, living out the collective vow we made after the Holocaust: 'Never again!'" said AJWS Executive Director Ruth Messinger, a former Manhattan borough president...

"In April 2004, AJWS began providing humanitarian relief in the camps, helping to develop water sources, construct sanitation facilities, and provide emergency health care, therapeutic feeding centers for malnourished children, and educational, recreational, and counseling programs for orphans and other young people. Recognizing that humanitarian aid is crucial but will not stop the genocide, AJWS launched a simultaneous education and advocacy campaign to put pressure on United States and world leaders to end the crisis...

"AJWS also helped motivate the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, a body of some 45 North American Jewish organizations, of which AJWS is an Executive Committee member, to create the Jewish Coalition for Sudan Relief, and encouraged 20 Jewish organizations to join the Save Darfur Coalition, a broadly diverse group of 100 national faith-based and humanitarian organizations co-founded last June by AJWS and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience."

People

Accessed October 2007:

Board of Trustees

• Jim Meier, Chair
• Linda Heller Kamm, Vice Chair
• Mark W. Bernstein, Treasurer
• Nancy Schwartz Sternoff, Secretary
• Ruth W. Messinger, President

• Don Abramson
• Marc Baum
• William P. Becker
• Joyanne Bloom
• Marion Blumenthal
• Jonathan Cohen
• James Dubey
• David Elcott
• Carolyn Everett
• Marty Friedman
• Sally Gottesman
• Addie Guttag
• Ellen A. Harnick
• Rabbi Richard Jacobs
• Peter Joseph
• Steve Kantor
• Kathleen Levin
• Sara Moore Litt
• Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon
• Leo Nevas
• Lawrence S. Phillips
• David Rabin
• Allan Rosenfield
• Michael C. Rothman
• Norman Traeger
• Diane Troderman
• William Wardlaw
• David Ilan Weis
• Herbert M. Weiss
• Laurence Wiener

Board of Advisors

• Georgette Bennett
• Hyman Bookbinder
• Lawrence Buttenwieser
• Rabbi Harvey J. Fields
• Abe Foxman
• Arnold Glimcher
• Rabbi Irving Greenberg
• Richard Gunther
• Madeleine May Kunin
• Joel Lamstein
• Laura Heller Lauder
• Gerard Leeds and Lilo Leeds
• Ruth Morgenthau
• Cynthia Ozick
• Michael A. Pucker
• John Ruskay
• Jeffrey D. Sachs
• Albert Vorspan
• Elie Wiesel

Contact

Web: http://www.ajws.org

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch

• Afghan Institute of Learning
• InterAction
• American Near East Refugee Aid
• International Human Rights Funders Group
• International Human Rights Funders Group: Funders Directory
• Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation
• EarthRights International
• Lambi Fund of Haiti
• Julia Greenberg
• Margaret L. Hempel - former vice president and former Acting Director