BUILDING BRIDGES & PROMOTING INCLUSION

ADVOCATING FOR
A BETTER WORLD

More voices are more powerful. That’s why we’re strengthening relationships between the Jewish community and our neighbors to impact causes that affect us all. Taking action and raising our voices around issues of common cause is in our DNA.

You’ll find us at City Hall, in Albany, and in Washington D.C. speaking up for needs specific to UJA’s network of nonprofits, the Jewish community, and the social service sector, such as standing up to antisemitism and protecting our institutions, advocating for services for vulnerable populations, including for Holocaust survivors, older adults, children, people with disabilities, and combating food insecurity.

OUR IMPACT

Holocaust Survivors

Our advocacy at the state and city level helped secure $7 million in funding to support social services for Holocaust survivors.

Security Projects

We are dedicated to helping ensure our partners can provide critical services and support to their clients and the larger Jewish community. We are actively advocating in Albany to increase funding for the Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes program, which supports JCCs, synagogues, day schools, and camps.

  • We also mobilized our community to petition Members of Congress to protect vulnerable institutions. Thanks to our advocacy, we helped secure $305 million in funding for day care centers, JCCs, nonpublic schools, and houses of worship. through the Federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

Climate Justice

We’re supporting greater awareness and advocacy for green policies that work toward a more sustainable and healthy environment through our funding of Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Justice and Hazon.
 

We’re also fighting for:
  • Just Pay - We’ve been actively supporting the Just Pay campaign, which advocates for a cost of living adjustment for New York State and New York City nonprofit human services workers. Because it’s not enough to talk about how vital our nonprofit human services workers are — we need to #JustPay to help these essential heroes pay their bills.

  • Racial Justice - We’re responding to a renewed awareness of racial justice in New York.

  • Criminal Justice Reform - We launched the Jewish Coalition on Criminal Justice Reform to create a dialogue among NYC communities about how we can best go about this. 

  • A Wider Tent, A Stronger World – For MLK Day 2023, we partnered with 22 partner agencies and welcomed thousands of volunteers of all ages and from diverse backgrounds to give back and benefit our greater community. From packing food to help mitigate hunger to playing bingo with seniors to brighten their day, and welcoming Ukrainian refugee families to a fun carnival after assembling kits filled with essential resources for them, we made a powerful difference. And we did it together.