The Grace Paley Organizing Fellowship

 

The Grace Paley z”l Organizing Fellowship, will train 12-18 JFREJ leaders to develop organizing skills, deepen political analysis, strengthen knowledge of Jewish culture and history and develop leadership capacity. 

 

Named in honor of Grace Paley z”l (1923-2007) a political writer, activist, organizer and teacher whose life-long activism focused on feminist, anti-nuclear, and anti-war efforts. She was a founding member of the Greenwich Village Peace Center, participated in the Women's Pentagon Action and was the first official New York State Author. Paley mentored generations of students, writers and activists through her career as a teacher at Columbia, CUNY and Sarah Lawrence and through her participation in local, national  and international organizing and activism. The Fellowship is an opportunity for JFREJ to  invest deeply in developing the next generation of leaders, young and old, who will grow  JFREJ into our next phase.

 

The program will take place over six months starting in September 2008 and concluding in February of 2009.  The Fellowship will begin and end with weekend retreat sessions and include monthly training sessions on a wide range of topics including concrete organizing skills, from recruitment to leadership development, coalition building and grassroots fundraising, to political analysis including dismantling racism and other forms of oppression, to strengthen knowledge of Jewish culture and history, and to encourage personal exploration and leadership development through mindfulness meditation and hevruta (paired) study.  During the six months of the Fellowship, each fellow will work 16 hours a month on either the Shalom Bayit: Justice for Domestic Workers or Housing Justice campaigns putting their learning from the Fellowship directly into action.  Fellows will be matched with mentors who will meet with them throughout the program to reflect on their learning and think through key challenges and questions.  

 

To read Frequently Asked Questions about the Fellowship, click here. 

The Fellowship launched in September of 2008.  Click here, to meet the Fellows.