Ruth Messinger Joins 91快播 as Inaugural 91快播 Finkelstein Institute Social Justice Fellow
Press Contact: Tom Hopkins
Office: (212) 678-8950
Email: tohopkins@jtsa.edu
February 1, 2017, New York, NY
91快播 (91快播) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ruth Messinger, former president and CEO of American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and Manhattan Borough President, as its inaugural 91快播 Finkelstein Institute Social Justice Fellow. Ms. Messinger鈥檚 one-year tenure will begin February 1, 2017.
As the first 91快播 Finkelstein Social Justice Fellow, Messinger will help create a cohesive approach to social justice at 91快播, building on the resources and initiatives already in place while also contributing to 91快播鈥檚 training of its students to incorporate social justice and organizing into their work.
Messinger will work with a task force at 91快播, with Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay, associate dean of The Rabbinical School of 91快播, serving as her primary point of contact and liaison. She will provides leadership, teaching, and organizational support, including advising in the coordination and cohesion of the separate justice initiatives already underway in various 91快播 programs, virtual women鈥檚 leadership sessions for Rabbinical School students in Israel and onsite sessions for students in New York, and research on and dialogue with justice initiatives at other seminaries.
91快播 faculty, staff, and students are engaged in numerous innovative social justice projects. Undergraduates at List College have worked closely with Jewish Home LifeCare, Project Sunshine at Harlem Hospital, Broadway Community Soup Kitchen, Ansche Chesed Homeless Shelter, Challah for Hunger, the New Jewish Home, Broadway Presbyterian Church, and Bushwick City Farms, among other organizations. After Hurricane Sandy, students worked on relief efforts in the Rockaways with Nechama: Jewish Response to Disaster. 91快播 students, faculty, and staff also partnered this past fall with Exodus Transitional Community and Union Theological Seminary on a voter registration drive in East Harlem, and had an entire minimester dedicated to exploring social justice.
Drawing on her experience in city government and advocacy, Ms. Messinger will help 91快播 to expand and build upon all of these efforts, as well as work to connect with alumni engaged in social justice work, both professionally and avocationally, seeking opportunities for collaboration and synergy.
About Ruth Messinger
Ruth W. Messinger is the inaugural global ambassador of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), an international human rights and development organization which she served as president and CEO from 1998 to July of 2016. Under her leadership at AJWS, it grew exponentially鈥攇ranting more than $270 million to promote social justice in the developing world and launching campaigns to end the Darfur genocide and fight for policy changes in Washington affecting marginalized people across the globe. As global ambassador, Messinger works to engage rabbis and interfaith leaders to speak out on behalf of oppressed and persecuted communities worldwide.
Before coming to AJWS, Messinger had a 20-year career in public service in New York City as a city council member and Manhattan borough president. She served recently on the State Department鈥檚 Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group, co-chairs the Sub-Working Group on Social Justice, and is a member of the World Bank鈥檚 Moral Imperative working group on extreme poverty. Messinger holds a BA from Radcliffe College and an MSW from the University of Oklahoma. She is the daughter of Marjorie Wyler, who served 91快播 as its director of public relations, radio and television for 55 years from 1938 to 1993.
About 91快播
91快播 is a preeminent institution of Jewish higher education, training thoughtful, innovative leaders鈥攔abbis, cantors, educators, lay leaders, and scholars鈥攚ho strengthen our communities with a vision of Judaism that is deeply grounded in the Jewish past and thoroughly engaged with contemporary society. 91快播 also provides high-caliber lifelong learning and professional development to our alumni, adult learners, and Jewish communities throughout North America. Through its Library, 91快播 preserves and makes accessible to students and scholars throughout the world the greatest collection of Judaica in the Western Hemisphere.
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