JEWS UNITED FOR JUSTICE INC

Everyone in our region should have what they need to live and thrive, and a real voice in democracy, no matter the color of their skin, where they are from, or how much money they have. We work with partners of all colors, faiths, and backgrounds to move our government to focus on equity and justice, and to respond to the needs of poor and working people, whether Black, brown, or white. We seek to build our Jewish community so that it is a proud and valued partner in bringing about a more just future through multiracial, multifaith, cross-class movements working for social, racial, and economic justice.

Our staff, board, volunteers, and key partners have developed four key strategies:

Making systemic change in our region: Advance economic, social and racial equity in our region by winning policy change that makes a real, immediate, and concrete improvement in people’s lives.

Develop Our Leaders and Engage Our Community: Create a cadre of Jewish leaders who will advance transformational social change and use community organizing to mobilize the broader Jewish community in creating a more just and equitable region.

Build the Power of Our Field: Invest our time, voice and relationships to help strengthen the social change field in our region and the Jewish social justice field nationally, and to bring additional resources and visibility to our partners.
Strengthen Our Institution: Build JUFJ’s institutional capacity so we can support and sustain this work over the long term.

We use an anti-racist/racial equity analysis in everything we do.

Since 1998, JUFJ has developed a strong track record for successfully accomplishing our goals. We win campaigns through our proven strategies--training and empowering volunteer leaders, teaching our community how to be effectively engaged in local government, and building a rich, sustaining, Jewish community. We work successfully with coalitions and trusted partners throughout our region, and have long-term relationships with key elected officials. We have over 13,000 people in our community, and we organize them successfully to work for change in our region. Our progress isn’t always immediate, but we’ve shown that our techniques bring many victories - Paid Sick Days in DC, Montgomery County, and Maryland, Paid Family Leave in DC, a higher minimum wage in Montgomery County and DC, rental licensing and more police accountability in Baltimore, and many others.

JUFJ is proud of our work. We have built a strong, sustaining, powerful community of thousands of people in DC, Montgomery County, Baltimore, and throughout Maryland, that together works to change our region based on our shared vision of a more just society.
We don’t just build community, we also have won substantive policy victories. Together with our partners, our recent policy wins include:
-A progressive Paid Family Leave program for hundreds of thousands of DC employees that will allow people to care for themselves, ill family members, or new babies. In addition, the bill has progressive wage replacement, with low wage workers able to receive 90% of their wages while on leave.
-Paid Family Leave for most Marylanders!
-Increased compensation for DC’s early childhood educators. The DC Council passed legislation to send childcare providers checks for at least $10,000 for their work in FY22. For many early childhood educators, that is a pay raise of about 25%.
-JUFJ is working for the implementation of the Right to Counsel program in Baltimore City. Thanks to the advocacy of JUFJ and its partners, Right to Counsel has now been funded on a state level; and, the program will start to be implemented this year. On this and other renter’s rights issues in Baltimore, JUFJ works closely with Baltimore Renter’s United (BRU), a coalition it helps lead, that seeks to center directly impacted tenants.
-Paid Sick Days for most people in Maryland and in DC.
-A $15 minimum wage in Maryland and DC.
This is just a sample of some of our successes. Today, we are working with partners in multiracial, multifaith coalitions to transform our region. Specific campaigns include our efforts to ensure Paid Family Leave in DC is implemented successfully, an effort to work with partners to transform the lives of children ages 0-3 throughout the District of Columbia, renter's rights, affordable housing, and more.