Resources | JVibe

Ruth Messinger got arrested for civil disobedience, but she's a role model for teens around the country.

While getting arrested is the last thing most people want to experience, Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), sees this as just another part of her job.

The social justice activist was arrested on April 28 of last year in front of the Sudanese embassy in an act of civil disobedience when she and others were protesting the genocide in Darfur. Ruth's arrest was just a small part of a larger rally that weekend, a rally in which AJWS played a major role—bringing people, many of them Jews, from across the nation to D.C. to protest the genocide in Darfur.

But unlike the average protester, taking big risks is all part of Ruth's job. And these risks all stem from her strong Jewish belief system. “Jewish values define all the work I do in social justice,” says Ruth.

As a member of the teen philanthropy organization B'nai Tzedek, I couldn't agree more with Ruth's words. Like her, we B'nai Tzedek teens are motivated by a strong set of Jewish ethics . Pirkei Avot, the Jewish code of ethics, states, “It is not your duty to complete the work but neither are you free to desist from it.”

This basic principle dictates the work of B'nai Tzedek teens as well as that of AJWS, an organization that confronts a wide variety of social justice issues. You may think that the president of such a large organization does not personally deal with day-to-day issues. That's 100 percent false! In addition to managing an 80-person staff, planning and managing AJWS's budget, public speaking, and meeting with donors—enough work to wear anyone out—Ruth still manages to stay at the front of her social justice campaigns, whether it concerns war, or the issue she believes to be of the utmost importance: poverty.

In fact, she feels so strongly about youth and what we're doing with philanthropy at B'nai Tzedek that she recently visited us in Northampton, Mass. “Jewish texts teach us that poverty would outweigh all the evils of the world,” she says, and although AJWS is very actively involved in Darfur, Ruth believes poverty to be a more universal issue.

“Genocide is a huge problem we have not dealt with at all and it keeps recurring, [but] poverty is broader than genocide,” she told us. Despite the obviously tragic nature of genocide, genocide doesn't touch the lives of most people in the world, whereas poverty hits hard in all corners of the globe.

Her trips to Darfur's refugee camps and frequent attendance at rallies and protests make Ruth's schedule the definition of busy. Despite heavy demands on her time and the emotionally exhausting nature of her work, she never gives up. Ruth says she has a “value system that says I'm not supposed to give up.”

“I love everything I do,” she says. “I even like raising money, especially when I'm successful.”

This is another sentiment to which B'nai Tzedek teens could relate. We love to do the tikkun olam (repair the world) and tzedakah (charity) work we work so hard on all year. Like Ruth, we are inspired by the world's problems and see it as our job as Jews to try to fix those problems.

Rachel Brazie, a 14-year-old from Northampton, Mass., has been really interested in tikkun olam since she was little. Along with 21 other teens at B’nai Tzedek, she will allocate over $20,000 this year to non-profits. In addition to being an active member of the B 'nai Tzedek Youth Foundation, Rachel also plays the flute in a trio, participates in her school’s plays and musicals, and sings with the school’s chorus and a capella group.

Back

Hosted with Jvillage Network