The situation in South Sudan is rapidly deteriorating. While mass atrocities in the form of war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly even genocide have been committed since the civil war first broke out in December 2013, the recent uptick in violence and ethnically charged rhetoric is particularly worrisome. Since July 2016, widespread violence and…
*Brooke Cichosz, a 2016 Schulweis Fellow contributed to this post. Imagine if you were forced to flee your home. What would you bring? What could you bring? Where would you go if you had never been more than 2 miles outside of your hometown your entire life? These are just some of the tough decisions facing…
*JWW’s Consultant in the Congo contributed to this post. Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila has intentionally failed to respect his country’s constitution and the obligation to organize presidential elections. Since President Kabila’s second term is coming to an end and the constitution of the DRC does not allow the president a third…
The Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis Social Justice Fellowship, named to honor JWW’s co-founder, the visionary longtime leader of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, is a year-long internship for college and graduate-school students. Rabbi Schulweis envisioned a network of students, multiplying annually, who would help to carry out JWW’s mission — to not stand idly by…
In October, JWW launched a new initiative aimed at bringing high school students together from schools throughout L.A. County to develop a cohort of educated teen activists: the JWW Teen Ambassador Program, or TAP. The 2016-17 TAP group, comprised of 21 student Ambassadors from 11 public and private high schools, will meet monthly to learn, share…
This week Jews throughout the world will celebrate the holiday of Sukkot, traditionally a time for giving thanks for the bounty of the harvest. Named for the sukkah, the temporary dwelling in which farmers in ancient Israel lived while harvesting their crops, Sukkot also recalls the fragile dwellings in which the Israelites lived during their…
Since 2011, when the Syrian people peacefully rose up to protest decades of dictatorial leadership by the Assad family, Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, responded in the most brutal fashion. The result of that response has been: an international war, the rise of various extremist groups, the deaths of over 400,000 individuals, and the displacement of…
It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. This is the part of Chaos Theory, called the “Butterfly Effect”, that explains that one small change can influence a big change later. The quote has also been used to express…