Three years ago this week, I took on what would become one of the greatest challenges of my career. Serving as the Executive Director of Jewish World Watch has allowed me to see the world, and the unending inspiration of our community, through a lens that continues to deliver on our mission of bringing help and healing to survivors of mass atrocities around the globe.
But this work is not about me or any single person. Everyday, our staff, Board of Directors, Generation Justice Board, committees, partners and supporters work within a global village that seek to galvanize people of all faiths and cultures to join the ongoing fight against genocide.
The work we collectively do each day has allowed us to move closer to a world that inspires, educates, trains, and achieves more personal freedom for hundreds of thousands.
In three years, we’ve funded more than $600,000 to a multitude of global humanitarian efforts including:
– Greater access to education for Rohingya children living in the largest refugee camp in the world;
– Negotiating child soldiers and sex slaves out of captivity as well as educating youth, providing scholarships for women to go to law school, and dismantling toxic masculinity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
– Providing emergency response aid in Ukraine and Syria; and
– Staying committed to our foundation by ensuring access to food security for the most vulnerable in Darfuri refugee camps in Chad.
Because of you, we have supported more than 100,000 survivors in five countries in the last three years.
Our programs here at home have never been stronger, partnering with synagogues, churches, mosques, and community-based groups to educate ourselves and turn awareness into action.
From one generation to the next, we are empowering teens to lead, launching our college program, JDubU, to build chapters on ten college campuses across California.
Thanks to you, we’ve passed numerous pieces of legislation including resolutions in the city of West Hollywood, the County of Los Angeles and the California Assembly, to strengthen the Federal Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
We continue to raise voices in allyship with our Armenian cousins to demand an end to the Lachin Corridor Blockade in Artsakh.
Together, we are disrupting the business of genocide. We launched the Uyghur Forced Labor Database to spotlight and foster change among corporations that use forced labor in their supply chain, including, but not at all limited to: BMW, GM, Goodyear, Tesla, Volkswagon, NextEra Energy, Trina Solar, Adidas, Anthropologie, Burberry, Lululemon, Nike, Campbell Soup, Coca Cola, Kraft, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Apple, Dell, GE, Google, and Microsoft.
Our Seeds of Survival campaign continues to fund hundreds of new sustainable gardens (and gardeners trained) every year, supporting thousands of Darfuri survivors.
The need has never been more urgent as more flee Sudan with risk of ethnic cleansing once again a reality.
And we have so much to do.
We previously announced that we are partnering with the Elie Wiesel Foundation, World Uyghur Congress, and the Uyghur Human Rights Project on several events over the coming months, culminating with a New York summit on December 7 and 8. Next week, we’ll alert you to an exciting way to engage.
As achievements continue, so do the needs. And we are more hopeful than ever about the impact Jewish World Watch is creating and will create in the future.
Let’s hold up the world together.
Serena Oberstein
Executive Director