Ruth Messinger
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
At 71, after a lifetime of public service, Ruth Messinger is still pushing to awaken our collective conscious to the needs and challenges of the developing world. As president and chief executive officer of the American Jewish World Service, she has elevated the organization into a service and advocacy titan, with programs in 32 countries, a $50 million annual budget and the kind of chic reputation that drew superstars to appear in a 2010 promotional video that went viral on the Internet.
And she hasn’t stopped. Her latest initiative is a major global food justice campaign called “Reverse Hunger,” aimed at arousing public opinion to help shape U.S. food aid policy. Developing countries facing natural and man-made disasters depend on the American government for food aid, Messinger points out, but that help comes with strings attached that too often work against the very people it aims to assist. Messinger is especially critical of the requirement that food aid be purchased, processed and transported by American companies, which delays delivery and undercuts indigenous efforts to strengthen local agriculture.
Messinger’s relentless, blunt style can make her sometimes sound like the Jeremiah of Jewish advocacy — she tries to go without food once a week, to remind herself what hungry people experience every day. But she is constantly suggesting creative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems, all through a Jewish prism that commands respect.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
