JOI

Community Job Opportunities

Director of Community Initiatives
Jewish Funds for Justice

ABOUT JEWISH FUNDS FOR JUSTICE:
The Jewish Funds for Justice is a national public foundation guided by Jewish history and tradition. JFSJ helps people in the United States achieve social and economic security and opportunity by investing in healthy neighborhoods, vibrant Jewish communities, and skillful leaders. Our holistic approach to social change includes grantmaking and loans, service learning, leadership development, organizing, education, and advocacy. We are a rapidly growing, entrepreneurial organization seeking to hire someone who shares our values and enjoys a fast-paced, friendly, collaborative and ambitious work environment.

POSITION SUMMARY:
Lead local and national initiatives engaging synagogues in organizing. Partner with local and national organizing groups, Jewish denominations and seminaries, and other institutions. Collaborate with JFSJ’s VP of Philanthropic and Community Initiatives, Associate Director of Organizing, and other senior staff. Applicants should be comfortable working in an environment that is fast-paced but which also values personal development and work-life balance.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Three or more years of organizing experience (congregation-based, labor, tenant, or other direct action organizing) and a track record of developing and training leaders to act publicly and negotiate for their interests;
• Appetite to build power, and to engage leaders relationally;
• Desire to learn the art of congregation-based organizing in particular, and its application in seminaries and denominations;
• Capacity to evaluate and reflect critically on your own work;
• Intimate knowledge of the American Jewish community and Jewish communal life, either through professional, lay or personal experience; and
• Ability to build and maintain excellent working relationships with wide range of partners in and out of the Jewish community.

Jewish Funds for Justice is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity on its staff.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Work with seminary, denomination, and synagogue leadership and organizers to advance synagogue engagement in organizing;
• Partner with local and national organizing groups;
• Lead and explore new geographic regions for JFSJ’s CBCO work;
• Lead planning and execution of national gathering of synagogue leaders engaged in organizing;
• Lead integration efforts between CBCO work and other JFSJ departments;
• Oversee creation and dissemination of resources and support systems for synagogues nationally; and
• Lead and execute other activities as determined by organizing team.

SALARY: Commensurate with experience. We offer a generous benefits package.

HOW TO APPLY: Please send a cover letter and your resume to: jobs@jewishjustice.org with the position title in the subject line. We will not respond to all applicants. Only applicants considered for the position will be contacted to interview. We will review applicants on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Seminary and Synagogue Organizer
Jewish Funds for Justice
Posted August 18, 2008

ABOUT JEWISH FUNDS FOR JUSTICE:
The Jewish Funds for Justice is a national public foundation guided by Jewish history and tradition. JFSJ helps people in the United States achieve social and economic security and opportunity by investing in healthy neighborhoods, vibrant Jewish communities, and skillful leaders. Our holistic approach to social change includes grantmaking and loans, service learning, leadership development, organizing, education, and advocacy. We are a rapidly growing, entrepreneurial organization seeking to hire someone who shares our values and enjoys a fast-paced, friendly, collaborative and ambitious work environment.

POSITION SUMMARY:
1) Assist the Lead Organizer of JFSJ’s Seminary Leadership Project in developing and organizing rabbinical, cantorial and education student leaders from all four movements in New, York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati; and to assist in building a national network of student leaders and graduates, who we trained;

2) Collaborate with JFSJ’s Director and Associate Director of Organizing on local and national initiatives engaging synagogues in organizing and partnering with national organizing networks.

Applicants should be comfortable working in an environment that is fast-paced but which also values personal development and work-life balance.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Three or more years of organizing experience (congregation-based, labor, tenant, or other direct action organizing) and a track record of developing and training leaders to act publicly and negotiate for their interests;
• Appetite to build power, and to engage leaders relationally;
• Desire to learn the art of congregation-based organizing in particular, and its application in seminaries;
• Capacity to evaluate and reflect critically on your own work;
• Intimate knowledge of the American Jewish community and Jewish communal life, either through professional, lay or personal experience.

Jewish Funds for Justice is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity on its staff.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Develop students leaders through core teams comprised of student leaders (and faculty and administrators) at HUC-JIR, JTS, and YCT in New York to address issues that arose out of the 2007-08 house meeting drive;
• Develop, and potentially train student leaders in Philadelphia and Los Angeles;
• Work with synagogue leaders and organizers to advance synagogue engagement in organizing
• Support national gathering of synagogue leaders engaged in organizing
• Lead and execute other activities as determined by organizing team

SALARY: Commensurate with experience. We offer a generous benefits package.

HOW TO APPLY: Please send a short cover letter, two writing samples, and your resume to: jobs@jewishjustice.org with the position title in the subject line. We will not respond to all applicants. Only applicants considered for the position will be contacted to interview. We will review applicants on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Executive Director
MIT Hillel
Posted August 18, 2008

MIT Hillel Foundation is looking for a dynamic Director who will make an already great Hillel even better. The standard duties of the Director are to provide strategic vision, leadership, and managerial oversight. They include programming, Jewish learning opportunities, fiscal and budgetary management, facility utilization, staff management and administration, community relations, and board and financial resource development.
But we are looking for someone who can go beyond that, someone who is energetic, charismatic, creative, and smart who can meet the challenge of making an already great Hillel even better. Our Director will have the capabilities and personality to:

• Articulate the vision for MIT Hillel and be committed to achieving that vision
• Redefine and rebrand MIT Hillel to change the perception of MIT Hillel from that of a club to that of a community.
• Create a sense of community among MIT’s Jewish students and MIT’s Jewish faculty, staff, and alumni
• Motivate, lead, and support students in creating and participating in programs and in the MIT community at large
• Be an imaginative leader and manager of professional staff
• Raise funds from major donors and foundations
• Work with students, faculty and staff who have a scientific and technological orientation
• Attract students to Hillel from all segments of the Jewish community
• Maintain the fine working relationship with the MIT administration
• Attract a higher number of graduating Jewish high school students to MIT

While we are choosing not to list any mandatory qualifications, we expect that the successful candidate will have several years of solid professional experience that include working with the Jewish community in general and Jewish young people in particular.

Compensation:
Salary will be commensurate with experience. A competitive benefits package will be offered.
NOTE: Please submit a cover letter in the same document as your resume when applying for this position. Click here to apply.
Job Location
Cambridge, MA, US.
Position Type
Full-Time/Regular

Campaign Field Organizer
Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA)
Posted August 18, 2008

JCPA, the public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community, serves as the national coordinating and advisory body for the 14 national and 125 local agencies comprising the field of Jewish community relations.
In September of 2007, JCPA launched a National Anti-Poverty Campaign entitled, “There Shall Be No Needy Among You” designed to:

• Re-energize the organized Jewish community and its partners around combating poverty in America;
• Strengthen the natural connection between direct service and anti-poverty advocacy in the Jewish community
• Enhance and coordinate anti-poverty activism taking place in communities around the nation;
• Provide technical assistance to Jewish organizations for social justice work.
Position: The Campaign Field Organizer is responsible for coordinating the grassroots effort of the JCPA’s Confronting Poverty Campaign, consulting with local affiliates and providing resources to increase field participation in the campaign. The position is located in the Washington DC office of the JCPA reports directly to the Poverty Campaign Coordinator. Specific responsibilities include:
• Developing and staffing the JCPA Poverty Campaign’s 4 issue clusters (working groups of local member agencies dedicated to addressing a specific aspect of poverty) on hunger, healthcare, affordable housing and educational disparities;
• Maintaining the Poverty Campaign Website and coordinating issue websites for each of the 4 cluster groups that include updated and relevant resources for them to engage in anti-poverty activism;
• Tracking anti-poverty participation among JCPA local and national member agencies and compiling data into usable formats;
• Providing fundraising support for the Poverty Campaign by assisting with grant-writing and data collection
• Aiding the Washington Director and Poverty Campaign Coordinator in preparing information such as memos, background information, as well as presentations for meetings and other relations with the Jewish Community Relations field;
• Assisting local Jewish Community Relations Councils in developing and implementing local programming and advocacy;
• Working with the Poverty Campaign Coordinator to publish and maintain an online “activist manual” with resources and policy/programming ideas for the campaign’s monthly themes.
• Working with all JCPA staff in the planning semi-annual JCPA meetings and the annual Plenum conference;
• Working with the Washington Director in the general operation of the Washington office of the JCPA;
• Assuming other duties and responsibilities as determined.

Required Skills and Abilities: Applicants will need to demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills, proven research ability, and basic web skills (more advanced web skills preferred, but applicant can be trained).
We are looking for a pro-active, motivated, deadline-driven candidate who is flexible and has a good sense of humor. One to two years prior experience with related community organizing or public policy experience required.
BA/BS degree required. Interested candidates should send a cover letter and resume to advocacy@thejcpa.org.

Community Engagement Coordinator
Bay Area
Posted August 18, 2008

The Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA), a dynamic and growing statewide organization dedicated to the Jewish traditions of pursuing peace, promoting equality and diversity and working for social and economic justice, seeks a full-time Community Engagement Coordinator for its Bay Area office.

The Community Engagement Coordinator will be responsible for running and managing the Jeremiah Federation Fellowship (a two year-long program that educates and trains emerging Jewish social justice leaders) as well as the Jeremiah Leadership Team (an Alumni Network), planning and producing PJA community events, and participating in organizing for some PJA campaigns.

Chief responsibilities include:

Coordinating PJA’s “Jeremiah Federation Fellowship” in the Bay Area, including recruitment, program planning, scheduling, leading bi-monthly evening meetings and running weekend retreats (2-3 per year).

Working closely with the Community Engagement Coordinator in the Los Angeles office, and the Bay Area Program Director and Regional Director.

Working with the “Jeremiah Leadership Team,” made up of fellows and former fellows, on programming, communications and strategy.

Planning and producing PJA’s large community cultural events, such as our Rags to Righteousness Sweatfree Fashion Show and Festival of Rights in collaboration with local cultural and community organizations.

Coordinating PJA’s role as community partner for cultural, educational and community events produced by PJA or partner organizations, including tabling and workshop presentations/facilitation.

Assisting with and implementing other PJA campaigns and programs as needed, including community organizing/issue-based organizing.

Qualifications: We seek an energetic, organized and creative self-starter with a passion for Jewish social justice work and PJA’s vision. Applicants must have experience working closely with people, leading groups, program planning, and producing arts, cultural, and/or social justice organizing events. Applicants must have excellent interpersonal, writing and communication skills and comfort with public speaking.

Applicants must have a strong team-work ethic, ability to multi-task and to work with conflicting deadlines. Applicants must also be available to work nights and weekends, and to travel out of town for training and planning.
Bachelor’s degree required.

Salary DOE. Benefits include full health insurance, a dental plan, sick days, and vacation. Please mail a resume, cover letter and two references (SNAIL MAIL ONLY!) to Sarah Church, PJA, 409 Liberty Street, El Cerrito, CA 94530.

Position starts 9.1.08 (possible 8.15.08 start date negotiable).