JOIN for Justice works with many different individuals and organizations:
JOIN’s Jewish Organizing Fellowship (JOF) places young adults aged 21-30 as organizers for social change in organizations throughout the Greater Boston area. To date, 242 Fellows have been placed in more than 60 non-profit organizations. Fellows spend a year working with secular and Jewish social justice organizations, and receive high-level training and mentoring in leadership and community organizing skills. At the same time, JOIN Fellows are engaged in intensive Jewish reflection and study connecting their passion to build a more just world with Jewish values.
The Empower Fellowship is a track within the Jewish Organizing Fellowship for Jews who self-identify as people with disabilities, disabled, or differently-abled*. Empower Fellows participate in the Jewish Organizing Fellowship, engaging in all of the training, community, and mentorship that come with being a Jewish Organizing Fellow. They also participate in additional trainings and other opportunities to support their leadership as Jewish organizers with disabilities.
The Seminary Leadership Project trains and supports seminary students in organizing through multiple programs. To date, more than 600 students from virtually all the seminaries in the country have participated in training through this program. The project’s activities include a cross-seminary course in New York, intensive modules at other seminaries, and ongoing mentoring for alumni working to put their learning into practice.
The 18-month Clergy Fellowship trains cohorts of rabbis in community organizing principles equipping them to build public relationships with leaders from other faiths, races, ethnicities, and incomes and engage their congregations in strategic and effective social justice campaigns in partnership with other communities. In 2015, the inaugural year of this fellowship, we trained 39 rabbis representing 70,000+ congregants in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and the greater Washington, DC area. In 2017, we launched the second round of the Clergy Fellowship, with 18 rabbis in cohorts across North Carolina, northern New Jersey, and Atlanta.
The National Online Institute (which currently focuses on Don’t Kvetch, Organize!) has engaged 700 leaders across the country in online learning, introducing them to the fundamental tenets of organizing and connecting them to opportunities on the ground to meaningfully participate in organizing campaigns. The Clergy Fellowship and National Online Institute work in tandem, and over the next five years we expect to train and deliver thousands of Jewish leaders to critical campaigns for justice.
Our Consulting Practice offers training and mentoring to a range of Jewish organizations, synagogues, and Federations. Through this work, we are playing a critical role in scaling up the field of Jewish and social justice organizers by building a national network of Jews committed to learning and practicing organizing. Our consulting has trained approximately 2400 people.
