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Foreign Aid: 7 Practical Ways to Reconsider our Inter-Connected Existence

[additional-authors]
February 24, 2015

I was asked to join with other voices from the Abrahamic faith traditions to think about the ways we all share comfort, energy and prayer, especially with the world beyond our borders. How can each of these attributes, in turn, help people lead a more faithful, fruitful life? Seven ideas were shared, and I am pleased to share my Jewish perspective.

Judaism has long held a commitment to pursue justice and the notion of tikkun olam – “repairing the world.” The Jewish people believe that history teaches us to respect and fight for the rights of others. Our sacred texts demand this: “And what does the Lord require of you?” We are asked, “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” [Micah 6:8]  But sometimes we find ourselves asking, “How do I actually live a more faithful life? What are some of the paths to a greater fulfillment of my faith?”

By spending  only several moments each day thinking about the ways to participate in our world over the next seven days, I believe by week’s end you will be moved to action and in it find a richer, more faithful life.

1. Spread optimism, not gloom

Cynicism is anti-Jewish. Maimonides teaches that we should very our next action as if it will lead the world toward redemption or destruction (Hilkhot Teshuvah).

There is great suffering in our world, but behind the headlines is a story of hope that needs to be told. Currently, we are witnessing the healthiest generation of children the world has ever known. According to UNICEF, 6.3 million fewer children under the age of five will die from illness and disease this year than in 1990. Infant mortality is declining and disparities between rich and poor are closing faster than ever.  Diseases are being eradicated at the greatest rate in all of human history:  smallpox is gone, and the scourges of polio and Guinea worm are on the verge of disappearing forever. More families have safe water to drink, more girls are getting an education, vaccines are preventing millions of deaths, and farmers are growing better harvests.

Yet, we all know that much remains to be done, but our work is clearly moving in the right direction. And the Jewish community all over the world has been a part of this success. We have faith in progress and remain active in bringing a brighter tomorrow.

2. Understand our global commitment

Faith communities play a crucial role alongside civic groups, corporations, philanthropic groups, governments, non-governmental organizations, and local communities. Faith-based development organizations, like the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), are often on the front lines of the global battle to turn vulnerable families and at-risk communities into strong, self-reliant villages with a hope…. and a future.

AJWS is the leading Jewish human rights and development organization, committed to the notion of tzedakah: empowering people throughout the world to achieve justice and self-sufficiency through the promotion of human rights, education, economic development, healthcare and sustainable agriculture.

AJWS supports more than five hundred grassroots organizations in Africa, Asia and the Americas that promote the rights of women, girls and LGBT people; rebuild societies torn apart by war and natural disasters; and seek to secure access to food, land and water. In the U.S., we advocate for policies that help create a just and equitable world.

You can become a part of this investment. Whether you contribute financially or in person, you are a part of furthering good work and righteous success. Consider joining a service-learning trip — there is no better way to truly understand what others face than to see and serve.  Those experiences in developing villages with AJWS changed my perspective and my moral commitments forever.

Cultivating a unified powerful voice, for all God’s children is a theological imperative, for Jews and other traditions, because, “By the breath of children, God sustains the world,” (Talmud Shabbat 119b).

3. Understand how the U.S. government fits into our work

Successes would be few without government’s funding and influence. Leadership in the upper echelons of governmental power does what we can’t:  it launches global initiatives to eradicate diseases, underwrites global health innovations, coordinates international strategies, and provides critical levels of funding directed to the most penurious nations and peoples.

Some 55 percent of American foreign aid goes, not to overseas governments, but to American non-profit organizations working around the globe. Many well-established faith-based organizations implement these foreign aid dollars. It’s important to understand that supporting U.S. government funding for foreign aid also supports our international efforts that save and improve lives.

The ancient Jewish sages taught that people have a responsibility, not just to “our own” as it were, but to all people of the world to foster peace (mipnei darkhei shalom).

4. Challenge the myths that hold back greater success

American foreign aid is one of America’s great-untold success stories, but success gets hidden under a blanket of myths – “It’s a playground for corruption” some say;  “we send missiles to dictators”; “the US spends a bloated 25 percent of the federal budget on foreign aid” and on and on it goes.

We have to fight back and respond with the facts: American foreign aid is less than one percent of the entire federal budget. It works to alleviate poverty, disease and hunger for the long term; creates self-sufficiency; and provides humanitarian aid during pressing crises. American foreign aid is vaccinations, it’s safe water, it’s the dignity of sanitation; schools, nutrition, farming education; it lifts up women and whole families and villages; it gives desperate people hope.

The mighty prophet Isaiah might well have agreed that when we better understand the facts rather than the worn-out myths, “then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday” [Isaiah 58:10].

5. Respond to the neediest, not just the nearest

Foreign aid is never a choice between us and them. Domestic issues may need to take priority, but the modest amount of funding that goes overseas reaches the neediest, not only the nearest.

The Aruch HaShulchan, the great 19th century Jewish legal authority, taught: “the actual ruling is that every homeowner or rich person who gives tzedakah is obligated to give a portion to the poor who are not his relatives,” (Yoreh Deah 251:4). We can’t merely take care of our “own” (family, friends, local, Jews, etc.); rather we must also reach those with the greatest needs (Responsa Hatam Sofer, YD, 234).

In Exodus 12:49, there is a biblical mandate that there be laws for the native and the treatment of the stranger. These laws not only spell out the rights of the poor, the orphan, the widow and the stranger. Indeed, they enumerate that these people are positive elements in society. They are distinct beings, not refuse.  And this protection is backed up the greatest guarantor: God.

6. Strengthen American Well-being

American investment in global health is also an investment in American health. Pandemics as rapid and devastating as the recent Ebola outbreak, or the recent spreading of measles, although rare, serve as an important reminder of the critical security and humanitarian work the United States does – not with drones and air bases – but with medical tents and syringes. Pathogens do not recognize political boundaries; fear doesn’t save lives. It is impossible to close off a border to a disease. If we want to prevent epidemiological devastation from crossing American borders, the way to do that in today’s global economy is to stop them where they begin.

Investment in development also helps our economy. 43 of the top 50 consumer nations of American agricultural products were once American foreign aid recipients. This is why balancing Defense, Diplomacy and Development has been a bipartisan-supported national security foreign policy since World War II. The Mishnah, an ancient Jewish text supports this notion: “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world” (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a). If we really believe that every human being has infinite dignity, what are we willing to sacrifice to honor this truth?

7. Share you moral voice with Congress

Our voices must not be silent because our work is not done. 17,000 children around the world continue to die every day mostly from preventable causes. That is a daily pandemic. “You are not required to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it” Pirkei Avot [2:21].

Congress needs our support. Congress needs your voice, especially at pressing budget time. Members of Congress who support U.S. foreign aid do so as quietly as possible because, too often, they come under fire politically by opponents who exploit ignorance about foreign aid. Reach out to your Representatives and Senators (call or e-mail) and let them know your thoughts about the value of global health and development programs. If you’ve been on a mission, share your personal story, both about the needs and the successful results of our good work.

 

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Executive Director of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute and the author of seven books on Jewish ethics.  Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America.”

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