“Before doing the Fellowship, I really enjoyed working as an organizer outside of my Jewish and queer communities, but my Fellowship really opened up an incredibly valuable opportunity for me to organize within communities that have always been so important, yet inaccessible for me as a genderqueer and trans Jew.”
–Asher Bruskin, ’10-11
“The most important thing I got out of JOIN was the relationships with my cohort — I made some really great friends who will probably be my friends for life. And I also learned a lot from my cohort, particularly around some issues I hadn’t thought about like disability rights. I learned a lot about unions and the labor movement because of my colleagues who were working in that space, even though I wasn’t, they were, and they shared their wisdom. And then relationships with alumni, with staff, with speakers that came in — one of those speakers has become a mentor to me. So the relationships have been the biggest thing that I’ve gotten.”
–Emilia Diamant, ’12-13
“JOIN’S training on how to share our stories, it was a deeply transformative experience for me. I think, first and foremost, because it really made my story into something that was important, something that ought to be developed. I’d come into social justice work not really thinking that my story was worthwhile or legitimate or important, and it was just really empowering for me to center myself and my story, and then to learn the craft of developing a story and sharing a story in a one on one meeting, that was a really powerful experience. And that still absolutely sticks with me, ten years later, as I continue to do one on ones for my current project, how am I sharing my story and how am I getting people to relate to me. That was really meaningful.”
–Dan Gelbtuch, ’07-08
“I credit the Jewish Organizing Fellowship as helping me realize that becoming a rabbi and creating Jewish communities that act together for a more just world is exactly what I want to be doing.”
–Joanna Lubkin, ’08-09
“JOIN was absolutely life-changing for me. My participation in the fellowship has most certainly changed the trajectory of my life as both activist and a Jew. It has developed me as an organizer, a leader, and communicator, a storyteller, a listener, and, without doubt, as a human being. JOIN activated an important part of me and gave me the tools to develop into the type of organizer and young Jewish person I aim to be.”
–Dani Moscovitch, ’13-14
