Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism, is calling for urgent action in response to “our forgotten refugee crisis”. Since the war in Eastern Ukraine began in 2014, 1.8m people have been forced from their homes by the fighting, including thousands of Jews from Donetsk and Lugansk.
Our hearts are with our Reform communities in Houston, who are still recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey. For ways you and your congregations can help, visit Five Jewish Ways to Help After Hurricane Harvey via the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) in North America.
The Areal Community, in the district of Linhares in the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil, was one of the communities affected by the mineral residues from the rupture of the dam of the Samarco mining company in 2015. Located in the mouth of the Rio Doce river, the community, made up of 250 indigenous inhabitants, was deprived of the only leisure activity that the population had: swimming in the river and lakes. The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) together with the Unidos Pela Vida (UPV) (United for Life) Institute visited the region in December 2016 during the 1st Tamar Tikkun Olam Seminar. Now, participants returned with additional resources to build a soccer field and more for the community and its children.
“The month of July 2017 marked 20 months of the day when the mud from Samarco reached the ocean. Twenty months of mud and struggle. Today we get together to remember, we get together to feel, we get together to pray, we get together to act for the regeneration of the Rio Doce river. We […]
South African Center for Religious Equality and Diversity (SACRED) notes the abandonment of the January 2016 agreement to create a new egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel with intense disappointment. It is painful to us that some of our Jewish brothers and sisters cannot find it in their hearts to ensure that all Jews can […]