Operation Understanding DC's mission is to build a generation of African American and Jewish community leaders who promote respect, understanding and cooperation while working to eradicate racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.

OUDC students begin our year-long, experiential learning program as curious high school juniors and graduate as committed leaders for social justice.  Throughout the year, they meet in board rooms and church basements around Washington for educational sessions and honest dialogue about slavery, the Holocaust, the Civil Rights movement, current national and international issues, religion and spirituality, and much more.  In July, they travel from New York City to the Deep South to explore their histories and create their blueprints for future activism.  Each day is filled with inspirational speakers, educational tours and life-changing experiences.

Upon returning, OUDC’s students begin the real work of creating change.  They give speeches in synagogues and churches, facilitate workshops about stereotyping and discrimination for individuals from all age groups and find other creative ways of promoting respect and understanding.

Our more than 330 graduates dedicate themselves to continuing the work they began in OUDC in immeasurable ways: founding organizations that will empower the next generation of social entrepreneurs; leading programs that bring together Israeli and Palestinian teens; ensuring the rights of and coordinating out-of-school programs for unprivileged children; advocating for women prisoners and their families; creating healthcare legislation that will benefit all Americans regardless of income; community organizing on issues of affordable housing, voter registration and immigrant rights; and protesting hate crimes and systemic disparities in our criminal justice system.

The African American and Jewish communities, through an enduring relationship made famous in the 1960s, remain at the forefront of the social justice movement. While the struggle may now have a different focus, the core values that inspire it remain the same. OUDC’s participants proudly accept the mantle of this legacy and stand together as vocal allies in creating a society where all members have equal access to opportunity and freedom from discrimination.

OUDC was founded in 1992 by Karen Kalish, owner of Kalish Communications. Karen was inspired by a similar program in Philadelphia started by The Honorable William H. Gray III, then a member of Congress.  

With more than one and a quarter million African Americans and 215,000 Jews in the D.C. metro area, Karen was sure such a program could have an enormous impact on the relationship between Jews and African Americans, and other communities, in the nation's capital. She immediately set out to make the Operation Understanding model a reality in the Washington metro area.