If you cry 'Forward' you must be sure to make clear the direction in which to go.  Don't you see that if you fail to do that and simply call out the word to a monk and a revolutionary, they will go in precisely the opposite directions? 

~ Anton Chekhov

When I joined JOI as the new Executive Director in September, "Forward" seemed to be the universal cry.  On the heels of the 2006 strategic plan, our board members, donors, Jewish partners, placements, fellows, and alums, seemed ready to go.  Me, I wasn't so sure.  They might have been involved in months (or years) of reflection, but hey, I was pretty new to the scene.  It initially seemed all but clear to me.  Yes, grow, but how?  Yes organizing, but why?  Yes, young Jewish adults, but towards what ends?

Five months later, I've joined the chorus.  Somewhere between the reflective monk and the radical revolutionary, lies our treasured, important organization.  And it is absolutely ready to improve and grow.  JOI can build a national network and a movement of Jewish leaders who are grounded in Jewish tradition and have the organizing skills, experience and understanding to build powerful Jewish and community organizations to pursue justice throughout their lifetimes.  We imagine a new Jewish paradigm where the option of pursuing a career as a social justice organizer is as understood and culturally supported in the Jewish community as becoming a lawyer or doctor, and where college students have the option of learning about organizing in supportive, Jewish community.

This month, we are beginning to share and vet a draft strategic growth plan that defines a clear direction for JOI over the next half decade.   We believe it fulfills the call for JOI becoming larger, more efficient and more effective organization by separating our correlating goals of exposing organizing to young adults and developing excellent emerging organizers into two separate audiences and programs.  We can achieve these goals by following three principles in moving forward:

1)      Exposure:  We believe in the power of a hands-on organizing experience coupled with a Jewish learning community.  We will take this experience to a new generation of young Jewish adults by developing a shorter version of our year-long fellowship that is an immersive summer paid organizing internship program for college students.   These students will have a powerful justice and Jewish experience, and will help us identify those with the talent and interest to take that experience to the next level.

2)      Excellent Organizers: Our year-long fellowship program will target individuals whose intention is to delve deeper into organizing as a calling with the idea we are building a network of Jewish organizers that will be part of a larger justice movement.  We will focus on improving our program by selecting appropriate placements and providing subsidies to select organizations most in line with our vision.  We will better target our recruitment efforts, and focus on strengthening our curriculum, better evaluating our outcomes, and making them replicable. 

3)      Efficiency and Expansion: Without sacrificing quality, we will design these, and potentially other new programs to enable more people to experience the JOI model while reducing per participant spending, over the next several years.  After piloting both programs in Boston, we will bring these models into multiple cities over the next five years. 

Over the next 9 months, I plan on discussing the viability of these key structural changes with our many constituencies.  We need as many reactions, ideas, and resources as possible to move forward together.  If you would like to discuss this proposal or want more information, please visit or call during my "office hours" on Monday, February 25th and Wednesday March 5th from 4-6 pm. I am also happy to set up another appointment to connect with you.  Please contact me at kvanpraag@jewishorganizing.org or (617) 350-9994.