Activism on international poverty and human rights is bringing British and American Jews back into the community, the head of the American Jewish World Service said in London this week.
Ruth Messinger, the Democratic New York mayoral nominee in 1997, joined AJWS a year later and has spent the past 14 years putting international development on the top of the charitable agenda for many young American Jews. Grants have gone to more than 400 grassroots organisations in 32 countries and 400 volunteers are sent out annually.
She sees the growth of AJWS as an example of engaging more young Jews in charity work on both sides of the Atlantic.
“It is a very popular way of bringing young people back into the community, although, of course, we are doing good work on the ground.”
