In northeast Ohio, Cleveland Jewish Collective is building something rare: a Jewish community that holds progressive politics, radical welcome, and deep spiritual practice together without apology. Noa Barash spoke with CJC's Rabbi Miriam about how the community weaves justice and Judaism inseparably, and what it looks like to create belonging for Jews who've been pushed out everywhere else. Read the full interview here.
JLF March Newsletter: Egalitarian Sephardi Mizrahi Kehilla
In a Jewish landscape often dominated by Ashkenazi institutions and assumptions, ESMK is creating a rare space where SWANA Jewish heritage, political commitment, and traditional religious practice can coexist without compromise. Noa Barash spoke Zevulon Boukhobza from ESMK about the community they’re building, the gaps it seeks to fill, and how reclaiming Sephardi and Mizrahi traditions can help shape a more liberated Jewish future. Read the full interview here.
Hello from Keren, JLF's New Co-Executive Director
The following is an introductory email from Keren Soffer-Roth, the Jewish Liberation Fund’s new Co-Executive Director. This email was originally sent to JLF’s email list on March 12, 2026.
Hi Friend,
My name is Keren, and I'm thrilled to be writing to you as the new co-executive director of the Jewish Liberation Fund!
In case you missed it, JLF announced in January that we're planning to merge this summer with Rise Up Initiative, an organization which funds spiritually-rooted Jewish justice work that I have proudly led for the last four years. It's an honor to be stewarding this transition alongside JLF's founding director / co-executive director Joanna Ware. As Jo prepares to begin her five-month parental leave at the end of March, I've jumped right in and joined the talented ranks of JLF staff ahead of our merge date.
I am over the moon to be in this new role, where I get to more meaningfully fund my beloved Jewish left. I owe it so much — and I imagine many of you do, too.
I found the Jewish left when I joined Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ), one of JLF's grantees, as a dues-paying member in 2013. After growing up in a right-wing Jewish community in Queens, New York, where I was taught to believe that my safety as a Jew came before all else, JFREJ became the spiritual and political home I didn't know I needed until I was lucky enough to find it. To this day, JFREJ models an unwavering commitment to the dignity, safety, and belonging of all of us — Jews and our neighbors — wherever we live.
I return to the words of Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz, z"l, JFREJ's founding executive director, again and again. She writes:
"What do I mean by home? Not the nation state; not religious worship; not the deepest grief of a people marked by hatred. I mean a commitment to what is and is not mine; to the strangeness of others, to my strangeness to others; to common threads twisted with surprise. Diasporism takes root in the Jewish Socialist Labor Bund's principle of doikayt — hereness — the right to be, and to fight for justice, wherever we are…."
At JFREJ, I learned to take building power — and the belief that we can and will win — very seriously. I learned that each person making phone calls, painting banners, cooking dinner, or holding down childcare is just as much a leader as the one holding the megaphone. I learned that we are only as powerful as the numbers in our ranks, and all of us have a responsibility to give what we can to the organizations we want and need to exist. And I learned that organizing Jews means understanding our people’s deepest fears and profound yearning to really, truly belong.
My time leading Rise Up has been about making this same experience possible for more Jews who are adrift, in the way I used to be. I believe, with every fiber of my being, that we need more values-aligned spiritual and political homes for those of us who are desperate for a relationship to Judaism on our own terms. We shouldn't have to make moral compromises about the fact that all human beings are made b'tzelem elohim, in the image of the divine, in order to access these spaces. At Rise Up, that's what I've focused on funding, and I know that everyone at JLF has deeply cared about and led in this arena, too.
All of us have a critical role to play. Whether we're phonebanking, making a monthly gift, creating art, leading an organizing training, looking after our kiddos, or moving resources to the field. I am so grateful to have found my role, here at JLF, where I get to re-invest in the Jewish left that has already given me so much.
I'm looking forward to getting to know each and every one of you.
Onward,
Keren Soffer-Roth
JLF Co-Executive Director
A Personal and Professional Update from Executive Director Joanna Ware
JLF’s Executive Director, Joanna Ware, shares about her upcoming parental leave. Read the full announcement here.
Press Release: Jewish Liberation Fund and Rise Up Initiative Announce Planned Merger to Strengthen Progressive Jewish Philanthropy
January 14, 2026 – The Jewish Liberation Fund (JLF) and Rise Up Initiative today announced plans to merge in July 2026, creating a unified organization dedicated to building long-term, sustainable infrastructure for progressive Jewish social justice movements.
Read the full press release here.
In grief, we must not retreat →
With broken hearts, the Jewish Liberation Fund joins with Jews and friends around the world in grief and mourning for the twelve precious lives destroyed on the first night of Chanukah in Sydney, and for the two young people killed on Saturday in Providence.
JLF October Newsletter: Inside +972 Magazine's Fight for Press Freedom
With over 200 journalists killed and press freedom under siege, independent journalism from Israel-Palestine has never been more critical—or more dangerous. This month, Noa Barash spoke with Dana Mills of +972 Magazine, the only media organization run jointly by Israeli and Palestinian journalists, about sustaining truth-telling under extraordinary conditions.
JLF September Newsletter: Interview with Rabbis for Ceasefire
Noa Barash of the Jewish Liberation Fund spoke with Rabbi Alissa Wise of Rabbis for Ceasefire about how the organization is helping rabbis navigate the High Holidays during this crisis, the role of teshuvah (repentance) when complete repair may not be possible, and what it means to practice Judaism as a force for liberation.
In it for the Long Haul: Organizing Allies of Immigrants with Never Again Action
Jordan talked with Serena Adlerstein of Never Again Action about the unique role organizing allies can play in long-term organizing for immigrant justice. Jordan and Serena also talked about what coalition-building looks like for an organization that works primarily with organizing allies.
Black Jewish Community During the Israel - Hamas War: Black Jewish Liberation Collective
Jordan sat down with Shoshana Brown and Autumn Leonard, the outgoing and incoming leaders of the Black Jewish Liberation Collective, to ask what it's been like organizing Black Jewish community in this moment, how they've approached their upcoming planned leadership transition, and what's to come in the next chapter of Black Jewish Liberation Collective!
Meeting this Moment as a Movement - Video and Audio
As the JLF team was discussing what, if anything, we would like to offer to our community in response to the escalation of the conflict in Israel / Palestine, we spent some time discussing what JLF’s role as a funder is in a time like this. We believe that one role we can play is to facilitate connections between progressive Jews and the wider Jewish left; to help people feel connected to a strong movement of progressive Jews in the struggle for collective justice and liberation. Particularly in this moment, when many Jews in the US may be feeling isolation or disconnection from one or more of their communities– many Jewish institutional responses and non-Jewish left responses to this moment have felt lacking to our community in different ways– and as that disconnection amid grief and pain threatens to divide us, it feels more important than ever to remind people of the breadth and strength of the Jewish left.
Thus, we’d like to invite you to watch our recording of what was JLF’s outward-facing offering, a conversation between leaders at our four grantee partners whose primary work consists of organizing to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories: Center for Jewish Nonviolence, Achvat Amim, IfNotNow, and Jewish Voice for Peace. This is a difficult moment for all of us. Exercising leadership amidst profound uncertainty, grief, and trauma is an enormous challenge. It is a testament to the leaders at these organizations - and how important the work they’re doing is - that they continue to do it. In this session, you’ll hear from these leaders about what they’ve seen from their communities in the United States and in Israel / Palestine since October 7th, how their strategies intersect, what it means for the broader Jewish left movement today, and how you can take action, not just as a member of one of these organizations or JLF, but as a member of a strong, resilient, Jewish left.
Mending Minyan: Bringing Politics to How We Pray
We sat down with May Ye and Mikveh Warshaw to learn more about JLF Grantee Mending Minyan, a lay-led spiritual community decoupled from Zionism in New Haven, Connecticut.
Ammud: A Pillar of Community for Jews of Color
This month, we sat down with Sarah Fried from Ammud: Jews of Color Torah Academy to learn about what it means to be space to learn Torah for Jews of Color by Jews of Color. Sarah also spoke about some of Ammud's most impactful programming, as well as what she hopes it will mean for Black Jewish and JOC history when we look back in the future. Check it out!
Cultivating JOC Leadership to Build Power with JALSA
We sat down with Maria Isabel Rosario, from the Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action (JALSA), to learn more about their Jews of Color Leadership Engagement Initiative, and how they're building relationships with JOC to create meaningful coalitions to build power in Boston.
Coming Home, with Reclaiming Indigeneity
A video of an Indigenous Woman speaking with Jordan from JLF
Rosa Blumenfeld, from Reclaiming Indigeneity, speaks about what it means to “Come home,” the impact of their curriculum on its Indigenous participants, and the planned impact of their upcoming book!
JLF Event Archive: Who Speaks for the Jews?
An archive of videos from our event series about power in the Jewish Community. Co-sponsored by IfNotNow.
Catalyzing through Connectedness, with Tzedek Lab!
Jordan sat down with Helen Bennett, one of the founders of JLF Grantee Tzedek Lab, to learn about catalyzing the progressive movement through connectedness, growing from 50 to over 300 people, and why it's so important to have generative and restorative communities for organizers.
Decolonizing Storytelling and Building Latin-Jewish Community with Jewtina y Co.
With Hispanic Heritage month kicking off, we spoke with Analucia Lopezrevoredo, founder and Executive Director of Jewtina y Co, about building Latin-Jewish community, the importance of decolonizing storytelling, and how they were able to build programs for that, a leadership fellowship, and cultural archive all on two years of passion from volunteers.
Holding Our Communities Accountable, with Tiyuv Evaluation
This month, Jordan sat down with Ramona Tenorio, one of the co-founders and directors of Tiyuv Evaluation! In this conversation, we learned about Culturally Responsive Evaluation, and the importance of having evaluators who understand the nuances of different communities, as well as Tiyuv's work to build a cohort of JOC evaluators to hold the communities working towards more inclusive Jewish community more accountable.
How EDOT Organizes Jews of Color Across the Midwest
Jordan sat down with Shahanna McKinney Baldwin of EDOT: The Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity Collaborative, to learn more about their theory of change, and their wins in organizing Jews of Color in oft-overlooked Jewish communities in the central states!