Temple Shalom of Newton Rabbi Laura J. Abrasley was selected to be a fellow of American Jewish World Services Global Fellowship program for 2017-18 by the highly respected non-profit organization dedicated to helping those in the developing world.

Rabbi Abrasley, who has been at Temple Shalom since 2015, was one of only 14 fellows from the around the U.S. picked for the Fellowship.

“Being a Global Justice Fellow was a natural step in my evolution as a rabbi who deeply believes in the Jewish imperative to rodef tzedek—pursue justice,” she said. “I am honored to have been chosen for this prestigious fellowship and learn more about AJWS’s inspirational work to promote human rights and dignity in the developing world. I have long admired the work of AJWS and, in particular, its former president and current global ambassador, Ruth Messinger. I first became acquainted with Messinger’s work when researching a class about inspirational Jewish women. Messinger stood out to me as an amazing advocate for justice and real social change. I frankly wanted to be a part of any justice work she helped to organize.

“I look forward to bringing back the lessons I learn about how we can join these amazing efforts to pursue justice and ultimately advance the advocacy work already in action to some of the most vulnerable communities in our world. I see this as not simply a foundational value of my rabbinate, but my work as a human being living out her Jewish values in the world.”

The AJWS Global Justice Fellowship is a selective program designed to inspire, educate and train key opinion leaders in the American Jewish community to become advocates in support of U.S. policies that will help improve the lives of people in the developing world.
The Fellowship includes travel to an AJWS country in Mesoamerica, during which participants will learn from grassroots activists working to overcome poverty and injustice. The travel experience will be preceded by innovative trainings that will prepare rabbis to galvanize their communities and networks to advance AJWS’s work. Fellows will also convene in Washington, D.C., to serve as key advocates to impact AJWS’s priority policy areas.

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