Who We Are

We are the New York Jewish left. Wherever you are from and whatever being Jewish means to you, if you share our values, you are welcome here.

Who We Are:

Jews for Racial & Economic Justice is the home for Jewish New Yorkers organizing with our neighbors and allies to transform New York from a playground for the wealthy few into a real democracy for all of us.

For over 30 years, JFREJ members have worked to make the city we love a more caring place, free from all forms of racist violence, where everyone has the opportunity, and resources they need to thrive. A grassroots organization with over 6,000 members and a powerful electoral arm, JFREJ is the home of the New York Jewish Left.

Photo of a march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Marchers are carrying a banner that reads "Jews for Black Lives"Photo by Gili Getz
Jews for Black Lives, 2020. Photo by Gili Getz.
An illustration captioned "how we organize." It lists three different methods: 1) We contest for power. 2) We elect candidates to enact our transformative agenda. 3) We create the world as it should be

How We Organize:

  • We contest for power for the people
  • We contest for state power by electing the candidates we need to enact our transformational agenda
  • We create the world as it should be

What We Believe:

Drawing from our Jewish values, our diverse histories, our skills, and with a lot of hard work, we will dismantle the systems and institutions that perpetuate racism, inequity, and injustice, and grow something new and beautiful in their place.

JFREJ Purim, 2022. Photo by Gili Getz.

New Yorkers are facing multiple crises: enormous inequality, sky-high rents, failing mass transit, unaffordable healthcare, an ugly and discriminatory policing and incarceration system, disappearing small businesses, segregated schools, and the climate crisis. While poor and working class New Yorkers, older and disabled people, and communities of color are most impacted, all of us who call this city home deserve more.

Occupy City Hall, 2020

JFREJ is rooted in our home, New York City, because we believe that cities like New York can be centers of radical progress. We want to live in a city that meets our needs and reflects our values. But we don't — and we can't as long as everyday people have to compete with the massive corporations, powerful real estate tycoons, and corrupt political machines shaping the future of our city. JFREJ exists to fight tooth and nail to demolish this status quo. We work side-by-side with other communities to contest for the power to govern ourselves and end the injustices and violence that serve the interests of the 1% and hurt everyone else. And we work to elect progressive candidates who share our bold vision and are committed to supporting the leadership of the diverse communities that call New York home.

Seder in the Streets, 2016

We come together as Jews out of a deep commitment to a more just society. In every borough, we are your congregants, your friends, your neighbors, your bubbes and habibis. We are Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi, Black, Brown, white and Arab, Latino/a/x and Asian, immigrant and US-born. We are old and young, rich and poor; teachers and students; parents and children; righteous rabbis and secular socialists.

Rallying for Fair Pay For Home Care, 2021

Our diverse, multiracial, multi-ethnic, intergenerational community builds solidarity and trust by listening to each other and to our partners and allies, and by showing up, taking risks and making mistakes together. We know that capitalism, antisemitism, xenophobia, racism, and Islamophobia are interconnected, and that we can’t address one of them without addressing all of them.

Photo of Muslims praying in the street with JFREJ standing watch
Iftar in the Streets, 2018

Our collective experience has taught us that retreating behind walls has not led to Jewish safety anywhere in the world, and that organizing with others is the only way to confront the broken world as we find it and bring about the world we imagine. We organize in New York City as inheritors of the Bundist philosophy of “doykait” (hereness) that reminds us that where we live is our home — and our home is where we seek kinship and fight for justice.

We are the New York Jewish Left. Wherever you are from and whatever being Jewish means to you, if you share our values, you are welcome here.

JFREJ Action ("JFREJ") is a 501c4 non-profit organization building the Jewish left in New York and beyond. For information about our 501c3 sister organization, JFREJ Community, click here.