The Jews United for Justice Campaign Fund advances economic, racial, and social justice in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia by organizing and mobilizing our local Jewish communities to action. We organize our community to lobby elected officials to advance policies that make real improvements in people’s lives and to support candidates and elected officials who will champion these policies.

One day, everyone in our region will have dei machsoro (the resources they need to thrive) and will live full lives with dignity and respect. Each of us will have a real voice in our democracy, and our government will respond to our voices, no matter the color of our skin, where we are from, or how much money we have. Jews will work as proud and valued partners in the multiracial, multifaith, cross-class movements that bring about social, racial, and economic justice.

Think Jewishly, Act Locally

Jewish tradition teaches that it is not on us to complete the work, but we can’t quit either. Although this work will not be completed in our lifetime, we must find steps to take today, here where we live.

We find strength, focus, and resilience to take these steps in the myriad religious, cultural, ethical, historical, community, family, and other experiences that ground and connect us to each other and to our Jewish traditions.

Each of the communities in which we work has its own history, politics, strengths, and challenges. We prioritize campaigns and strategies that are best suited for each individual jurisdiction to move closer to achieving our goals of economic, racial and social justice.

Impact that advances equity

We are deeply committed to addressing the social, racial, and economic inequity in our region. That commitment drives our strategy and our campaigns to make real, immediate, and concrete improvements in people’s lives and to help our democracy live up to its highest aspirations.

Relationship

Relationships – among staff, volunteer leaders, coalition partners, elected officials – are at the center of our work. We focus time and attention on building relationships, based on mutual trust, respect, and understanding. These relationships are the foundation for the teamwork, partnerships, and community that power and sustain our work. They also help us learn and grow, providing a space for us to receive and share important feedback when something isn’t going as well as it could.

Integrity

We are committed to the integrity – honesty, humility, reliability, responsibility, and respect – that is central to building the trusting relationships that drive our work. Every action we take is an opportunity to act with integrity and deepen the trust we’ve built, and trust can also be damaged in a careless moment when we act without integrity. We commit ourselves to integrity while knowing that we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world that requires compromises, and that we will continue to learn and grow.

Balancing the Prophetic with the Pragmatic

Hope is a Jewish value. Organizing out of hope invites our communities into this work and offers us the strength and resilience we need to continue fighting for the world as it should be. We are also clear-eyed about the political and strategic realities around us. We make strategic and sometimes difficult choices to focus our work on efforts that have a real chance to succeed, and in areas where we can shift the boundaries of what is possible.

The JUFJ Campaign Fund’s mission is to advance economic, racial, and social justice in Washington, DC; Maryland; and Virginia by educating and mobilizing our local Jewish communities to action. People come to the JUFJ Campaign Fund for this local work, where Jewish communities and allies can come together to build power and win real, immediate, and concrete improvements in people’s lives in this region. Because of the local scope of our work, the JUFJ Campaign Fund does not take any position or work on Israel and Palestine, or any other foreign policy or international issue. 

While the JUFJ Campaign Fund does not work on Israel and Palestine, within the JUFJ Campaign Fund community you will find people who hold a wide variety of beliefs, perspectives, and experiences related to Israel and Palestine. You will also find people who have no formed opinion or perspective. It is our strong belief that, in organizing and coalition building, we do not need to agree with each other, or with our allies, on all issues — including this one — in order to make the changes needed in this region. We value everyone’s participation in our local work for justice, and we do not exclude people from our organization based on their perspective or ideology on this issue. 

We know that many people in the JUFJ Campaign Fund community feel called to work on Israel and Palestine. There are many organizations in our region and nationally whose organizational missions are focused on peace, justice, equality, and safety for Palestinians and Israelis, and many JUFJ Campaign Fund community members and staff are involved with these groups.