This election, the Jewish commitment to human rights is on the ballot

Robert Bank
October 21, 2024

During this election cycle, candidates and voters have focused on the tragedies  unfolding in the Middle East and Ukraine. The rest of the planet’s fraught human rights landscape has barely rated a mention. 

But as Jews, we have a shared responsibility to address the many human rights crises impacting the world’s most vulnerable.  

Across Asia, Africa and Latin America, profound tragedies persist, from rampant gang violence in Haiti to genocidal threats against the Rohingya of Myanmar, to the millions of adolescent girls forced into early marriages in India. Even during an election season — especially during an election season — we cannot forget our obligation as Jews to defend dignity, justice, and autonomy for all people. 

While domestic issues like reproductive choice, immigration, and the economy have remained central to this White House run, Jewish values tell us that looking outside of ourselves to examine our treatment of others is a philosophy aligned with our core beliefs. 

At American Jewish World Service, which supports activists across the Global South to defend democracy, advance sexual health, and combat climate change, we recognize that, like it or not, the outcome of this election will affect millions far beyond places where war generates a steady stream of headlines.   

Through its imperfect example, its international aid funding, and its capacity to document progress in areas like contraception, child marriage, Indigenous land rights, and LGBTQI+ safety, the U.S. plays an outsized role among nations. With the tide of authoritarianism rising everywhere, the actions of the next American president can help or harm people most vulnerable to despotism, poverty and sexism. Our legacy support of democracy and the rule of law is a model for other nations; the reversal of American influence and celebration of dictators could erode—or even upend—decades of progress.     

In Kenya, for example, a vocal community of LGBTQI+ activists knows that the outcome of the U.S. election could paralyze essential human rights overnight. A draconian anti-homosexuality bill, a copycat of legislation signed into law across the border in Uganda, may soon appear before President William Ruto. It remains only a draft in part because of U.S. government pressure and diplomacy. If the Kenyan government doubts that a new president will take any action, this bill will become law, jeopardizing safety for tens of thousands. With one stroke of a pen, LGBTQI+ Kenyans’ existence would be immediately criminalized.    

One of the most successful international aid programs of all time, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is credited with saving the lives of more than 20 million people worldwide. Beginning in 2003, PEPFAR has provided antiretroviral treatment in countries struggling against massive HIV burdens. 

When PEPFAR reauthorization is debated next March, anti-choice members of Congress, armed with falsehoods about an imagined connection to abortion and buoyed by a sympathetic president, would likely thwart a new era of lifesaving support, endangering the health of adults and children HIV in more than 50 countries.   

The new administration will also influence far more women and girls overseas than those facing post-Roe restrictions in the US. The Mexico City Policy, colloquially known as the Global Gag Rule, chokes off aid to organizations that provide abortion services — even if they use their own money and even in countries where the procedure is legal. By curtailing access, Global Gag increases the likelihood of underground abortions, inhibits maternal health and contraception, and even restricts the flow of information, referrals and counseling. The last four Republican presidents supported it; the last three Democratic leaders rescinded it. Project 2025 proposes extending Global Gag, applying its restrictions to all international aid, a threat to basic decency that should terrify each one of us. 

Everyone says this is the most important election of our lifetime. Everyone is right. We cannot underestimate the magnitude of this country’s influence over the safety, health, and freedom of billions of people living outside of the spotlight. 

As American Jews, our obligation to repairing the world compels us to think of those who are vulnerable beyond U.S. borders. Supporting an administration bent on dismantling U.S. leadership on global human rights issues will leave us with a daunting amount to repair. 

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