The following blog was written by Jake Phillips, who interned with JWW this past summer and is now joining the 2015-2016 Cohort of Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis University Fellows.
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I had the great fortune of being able to intern at Jewish World Watch this summer. Not only has the entire experience been educational, enjoyable, and inspiring, but it has awakened in me a passion for nonprofit and advocacy work.
I had the opportunity to work on a number of different projects, each one unique and valuable. Never did I think that in one summer I would get to learn as much as I did about genocide prevention, advocacy and policy work, or the greater geopolitical situation in central and eastern Africa. The work I was doing in the office sparked my curiosity and I found myself sitting on the couch at home after work reading scholarly journal articles and Enough reports. This education, both formal and informal, has proved invaluable in my work here this summer and will certainly continue to be of use to me throughout my career and my life.
During my time at JWW, I felt honestly appreciated as an integral member of the Jewish World Watch team. I was kept constantly engaged on serious issues, doing work that will have a serious impact. It has truly been a unique opportunity to both improve my leadership skills and engage in a positive way with my local community, my Jewish faith, and the world.
One of the most rewarding aspects of my summer at Jewish World Watch was the opportunity that I had to engage with local and national leaders. It is not very often that one has the opportunity to sit down and have a discussion with people who have the ability to implement real, lasting change. In recent weeks, I got to meet both with a representative from the office of Congressman Brad Sherman’s office and personally with Congressman Ed Royce, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It was incredibly rewarding to not only have spent this summer educating myself, but also to get to put that education to good use. It was extremely satisfying to see the projects that I worked on become realities and even more gratifying to know that the work I did here, this summer, will have real, tangible benefits for those that we seek to help.
At Jewish World Watch, I was forced to think globally about what impact I would have on the world. It’s easy to become blind to suffering, to close your eyes to trouble and indignity and pain. On my first day here, I read the words of Rabbi Harold Schulweis’s founding sermon and today, as my time at the Jewish World Watch comes to a close, I am reminded of them. As he called upon his congregation to join his new Jewish World Watch, he quotes the influential rabbi and activist AJ Heschel, “Few are guilty, but all are responsible.” Schulweis asks of his congregation “do I dare shut my eyes and my ears so as not to see, not to hear what is going on in God’s world?” So yes, my work this summer educated me on important world issues, but it also educated me on my responsibilities as a Jew and as a global citizen. I am through shutting my eyes and done closing my ears. I’ve accepted my duty and obligation to my global community. I’ve learned it is an obligation that connects us, an obligation that we all share. Too great for one person, nation or religion to bear, I’ve learned that together, we can and will make a difference.