As the JLF team was discussing what, if anything, we would like to offer to our community in response to the escalation of the conflict in Israel / Palestine, we spent some time discussing what JLF’s role as a funder is in a time like this. We believe that one role we can play is to facilitate connections between progressive Jews and the wider Jewish left; to help people feel connected to a strong movement of progressive Jews in the struggle for collective justice and liberation. Particularly in this moment, when many Jews in the US may be feeling isolation or disconnection from one or more of their communities– many Jewish institutional responses and non-Jewish left responses to this moment have felt lacking to our community in different ways– and as that disconnection amid grief and pain threatens to divide us, it feels more important than ever to remind people of the breadth and strength of the Jewish left.
Thus, we’d like to invite you to watch our recording of what was JLF’s outward-facing offering, a conversation between leaders at our four grantee partners whose primary work consists of organizing to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories: Center for Jewish Nonviolence, Achvat Amim, IfNotNow, and Jewish Voice for Peace. This is a difficult moment for all of us. Exercising leadership amidst profound uncertainty, grief, and trauma is an enormous challenge. It is a testament to the leaders at these organizations - and how important the work they’re doing is - that they continue to do it. In this session, you’ll hear from these leaders about what they’ve seen from their communities in the United States and in Israel / Palestine since October 7th, how their strategies intersect, what it means for the broader Jewish left movement today, and how you can take action, not just as a member of one of these organizations or JLF, but as a member of a strong, resilient, Jewish left.