 | |
| Founded | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Headquarters | New York City, NY, U.S. |
Executive Director | Audrey Sasson |
Volunteers | 6,000+ |
| Website | www |
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) is an American left-wing non-profit grassroots Jewish organization. JFREJ describes itself as a "movement to dismantle racism and economic exploitation" and is based in New York City. It operates both a 501(c)(3), also known as JFREJ Community and a 501(c)(4) known as JFREJ Action. [1] [2]
JFREJ was founded in New York City in 1990. Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz served as the organization's first director. [3] Although it was founded as a local organization to work on local issues, JFREJ's first event was a Shabbat to honor Nelson Mandela. During Mandela's 1990 visit to New York City, during which many local Jewish groups and leaders, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, requested that Mandela clarify his views on Israel following a recent embrace of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi. [4] [5] [6] Some members of New York City's Jewish community protested Mandela during his visit. [7] To counter to this response, JFREJ's first event, held on June 15, 1990, honored Nelson Mandela and raised $50,000 for the anti-apartheid cause. [8]
After the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo by four NYPD officers, JFREJ began organizing its members in response to police violence and to advocate for police accountability. [9] The New York Times reported that 126 JFREJ members were among the 212 New Yorkers arrested on March 24 protesting Diallo's death. [10]
From the early 2000s to 2010, JFREJ participated in the successful campaign led by Domestic Workers United (DWU) to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York State. [11] [12] JFREJ began working with DWU in 2002, and in 2003–2004, JFREJ helped pass a New York City Council resolution for domestic workers rights. JFREJ organized Jewish employers of domestic workers to improve their own employment practices, and advocate alongside domestic workers for the legislation to codify these workers' rights into state law. [13] After the successful passage of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York State, Ai-jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and JFREJ members who had been organizing domestic employers founded a new organization, Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network. [14] [15]
In October 2012, JFREJ began working with Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) to oppose Stop & Frisk in New York City. [16]
From its founding through the mid-2010s, JFREJ membership was composed primarily of white Jews, and the organization allied with communities of color through partnerships with non-Jewish organizations. Leo Ferguson joined JFREJ in 2014 intending to change this, bringing a greater focus on incorporating the diversity within the Jewish community. By 2020, this led to greater diversity in membership, a Jews of color caucus initiated by Ferguson, and a third of staff members coming from racially-diverse Jewish backgrounds. [17]
During the Trump administration, JFREJ was active in protests against the Muslim Ban and as part of the movement to Abolish ICE. [18] [19] [20]
In 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke at a JFREJ event where she discussed her Puerto Rican ancestors' distant Sephardi Jewish heritage. [21]
Following the Monsey Hanukkah stabbing in 2019, calls came from Jewish community organizations, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to increase security and investigate the incident. Audrey Sasson, JFREJ executive director, opposed increased police presence as a means to counter the growth of violent antisemitism in the United States, citing the concerns that Black Jews and other Jews of color would feel unsafe. [22]
In June 2022, the Anti-Defamation League condemned JFREJ as "out of touch" with mainstream Jewish-American opinion. The ADL's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt retweeted a Twitter thread singling out JFREJ and the Jewish Vote as a "far-left scam". An ADL spokesperson later confirmed the organization's agreement with the sentiment that JFREJ isn't representative of Jewish opinion or Jewish values. Sophie Ellman-Golan, communications director for JFREJ, criticized the ADL for attacking the Jewish identity of JFREJ members. [23]
The Jewish Vote is the electoral arm of JFREJ. Their goal is to endorse and help elect a new generation of "reformers and radicals" who will fight for Medicare for All, universal rent control, a Green New Deal, publicly funded elections, fair wages and working conditions for all, and an end to mass incarceration and criminalization of people of color. [24] [25] [26]
The Jewish Vote played a key role in Congressman Jamaal Bowman's insurgent primary win in NY-16 against 16-term incumbent, Congressman Eliot Engel. [26] Before announcing his candidacy, Bowman met with JFREJ members to learn more about Jewish history and antisemitism, and 100 JFREJ members volunteered under the banner #JewsForJamaal in support of his primary campaign. [27]
As part of the NY Caring Majority Coalition, JFREJ advocates for improved pay for pay for home health care workers. [28] This advocacy focuses on efforts to pass the Fair Pay for Home Care Act in New York State, which would increase home care workers' salaries to 150% of minimum wage. [29] While ultimately wage increases did not meet the target of 150% in the year 2022, the new budget did include the biggest investment in the state's home care workforce in history with $8 billion over four years dedicated to raise wages for home care workers. [30]
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice has advised the White House on fighting antisemitism. [31] They have also developed workshops to help combat antisemitism that have been deployed across the country. These workshops "are specifically designed for non-Jewish social justice activists and leaders, authored and facility by a diverse group of leaders, including Jewish People of Color, Mizrahi & Sephardi Jews, and Jews from different class backgrounds. [32] "
The paper Understanding Antisemitism was written to bolster the political left's understanding of anti-Jewish ideology. A companion poster was also developed, called Unraveling Antisemitism.
In partnership with other Jewish organizations JFREJ sponsored the Jews Against White Nationalism project whose call was to fight antisemitism and white nationalism in the far-right, and to uncover its ties to the GOP. [33] [34]
In 2019, JFREJ convened the NYC Against Hate, a coalition of community-based organizations working across identities to make New York safer for minority communities. The program received over $1 million in funding from the New York City Council in the city's 2020 budget, but this funding was cut entirely from the 2021 budget. [35] With coalition partners, JFREJ leads community safety canvasses and bystander intervention trainings in response to incidents of antisemitism. [36]
In 2014, JFREJ was active in the Black Lives Matter protests in New York City following the killing of Eric Garner. [37] [38]
In 2016, JFREJ organized a month of action for #JewsForBlackLives, culminating in a march of 400 people, the largest-ever mobilization of Jews for Black Lives Matter at the time. [39]
In 2018, Black Jews in JFREJ's Jews of Color caucus organized a Juneteenth Seder. The Seder used traditions from the Passover Seder to celebrate the emancipation holiday, demand justice for Black New Yorkers killed by the NYPD, and call for reparations. [40]
In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, JFREJ participated in the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests in New York City, joined advocacy efforts to defund the NYPD, [41] and organized a Shabbat service at the Occupy City Hall encampment. [42]
Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. This sentiment is a form of racism, and a person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Though antisemitism is overwhelmingly perpetrated by non-Jews, it may occasionally be perpetrated by Jews in a phenomenon known as auto-antisemitism. Primarily, antisemitic tendencies may be motivated by negative sentiment towards Jews as a people or by negative sentiment towards Jews with regard to Judaism. In the former case, usually presented as racial antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by the belief that Jews constitute a distinct race with inherent traits or characteristics that are repulsive or inferior to the preferred traits or characteristics within that person's society. In the latter case, known as religious antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by their religion's perception of Jews and Judaism, typically encompassing doctrines of supersession that expect or demand Jews to turn away from Judaism and submit to the religion presenting itself as Judaism's successor faith—this is a common theme within the other Abrahamic religions. The development of racial and religious antisemitism has historically been encouraged by anti-Judaism, though the concept itself is distinct from antisemitism.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) is an American Jewish nonprofit organization that deals with community relations. It is a coordinating round table organization of 15 other national Jewish organizations, including the Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox congregational movements, as well as 125 local Jewish federations and community relations councils. The JCPA describes itself as "the representative voice of the organized American Jewish community."
The Religious Action Center (RAC) is the political and legislative outreach arm of Reform Judaism in the United States. The Religious Action Center is operated under the auspices of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, a joint body of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism. It was founded in 1961.
The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) is an American secular Jewish labor organization dedicated to promoting labor union interests in Jewish communities, and Jewish interests within unions. The organization is headquartered in New York City, with local/regional offices in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles, and volunteer-led affiliated groups in other U.S. communities. It was founded in 1934 in response to the rise of Nazism in Europe. Today, it works to maintain and strengthen the historically strong relationship between the American Jewish community and the trade union movement, and to promote what they see as the shared social justice agenda of both communities. The JLC was also active in Canada from 1936 until the 1970s.
Antisemitism in universities has taken place in many countries at various times. Antisemitism has been manifested in various policies and practices, such as restricting the admission of Jewish students by a Jewish quota, or ostracism, intimidation or violence against Jewish students, as well as in the hiring, retention and treatment of Jewish staff. In some instances, universities have supported antisemitic government or social policies and condoned the development of antisemitic cultures on campus. In many jurisdictions, especially since World War II, discriminatory practices, including within the context of a university, are in breach of anti-discrimination laws, though antisemitic cultural values still persists on many campuses.
The Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ) was an American charity based in New York. In 2005, Simon Greer became its President and CEO. In 2011, Progressive Jewish Alliance merged with Jewish Funds for Justice and became a new organization, Bend the Arc.
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz was an American essayist, poet, academic, and political activist against racism and for economic and social justice.
Antisemitism has existed for centuries in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents. FBI data shows that in every year since 1991, Jews were the most frequent victims of religiously motivated hate crimes, according to a report which was published by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019. Evidence suggests that the true number of hate crimes against Jews is underreported, as is the case for many other targeted groups. In an attempt to combat anti-Semitism, the Biden administration launched the United States’ first-ever comprehensive U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism on May 25, 2023.
James Petras is a retired Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who has published on political issues with particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East, imperialism, globalization, and leftist social movements.
Antisemitism in Canada is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the Canadian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since Canada's Jewish community was established in the 18th century.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is a New York-based international Jewish non-governmental organization and advocacy group that specializes in civil rights law and combats antisemitism and extremism.
African Americans and Jewish Americans have interacted throughout much of the history of the United States. This relationship has included widely publicized cooperation and conflict, and—since the 1970s—it has been an area of significant academic research. Cooperation during the Civil Rights Movement was strategic and significant, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that mobilizes the Jewish community of the region to advance racial and economic justice. JCUA partners with diverse community groups across the city and state to combat racism, antisemitism, poverty and other forms of systemic oppression, through grassroots community organizing, youth education programs, and community development.
Shmuly Yanklowitz is an Orthodox rabbi. In March 2012 and March 2013, Newsweek and The Daily Beast listed Yanklowitz as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in America.
Beyond the Pale is a weekly radio program broadcast on WBAI New York every Friday at 9 am EST. The show "explores cutting edge Jewish culture and offers local, national, and international political debate and analysis from a Jewish perspective". It is sponsored by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
The Jewish left consists of Jews who identify with, or support, left-wing or left-liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the Jewish left, however. Jews have been major forces in the history of the labor movement, the settlement house movement, the women's rights movement, anti-racist and anti-colonialist work, and anti-fascist and anti-capitalist organizations of many forms in Europe, the United States, Australia, Algeria, Iraq, Ethiopia, South Africa, and modern-day Israel. Jews have a history of involvement in anarchism, socialism, Marxism, and Western liberalism. Although the expression "on the left" covers a range of politics, many well-known figures "on the left" have been of Jews who were born into Jewish families and have various degrees of connection to Jewish communities, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, or the Jewish religion in its many variants.
Antisemitism is a growing problem in 21st-century Germany.
Jews for Urban Justice (JUJ) was a Jewish-American left-wing activist organization based in Washington, D.C., and its suburbs. The organization was founded to oppose anti-black racism within the predominantly white Jewish community of Washington, D.C.
Racism in Jewish communities is a source of concern for people of color, particularly for Jews of color. Black Jews, Indigenous Jews, and other Jews of color report that they experience racism from white Jews in many countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Kenya, South Africa, and New Zealand. Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews also report experiences with racism by Ashkenazi Jews. The centering of Ashkenazi Jews is sometimes known as Ashkenormativity. In historically white-dominated countries with a legacy of anti-Black racism, such as the United States and South Africa, racism within the Jewish community often manifests itself as anti-Blackness. In Israel, racism among Israeli Jews often manifests itself as discrimination and prejudice against Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, Ethiopian Jews, African immigrants, and Palestinians. Controversially, some critics describe Zionism as racist or settler colonial in nature.
Zionist antisemitism is the phenomenon in which individuals, groups, or governments support the Zionist movement and the State of Israel while simultaneously holding antisemitic views about Jews. In some cases, Zionism may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. The prevalence of antisemitism has been widely noted within the Christian Zionist movement, whose adherents may hold antisemitic beliefs about Jews while also supporting Zionism for eschatological reasons. Antisemitic right-wing nationalists, particularly in Europe and the United States, sometimes support the Zionist movement because they wish for Jews to be expelled, or for Jews to emigrate to Israel, or because they view Israel as a supremacist ethno-state to be admired and held up as a model for their own countries.