Jewish Liberation Fund is grounded in the belief that the American Jewish community has enough resources to bring forth the liberatory world of which we dream. In Jewish communities across the country, innovative leaders are taking action in pursuit of transformative visions of justice and liberation. People are coming together to organize politically, to build spiritual community, and to create art and music that inspire and sustain our movements.

It is a vision of a loving, robust, deeply engaged process of moving money to where the hurts - and possibilities for visionary transformation - are greatest that animates and directs JLF’s work. Yet, there are critical funding gaps in the Jewish philanthropic community, leading to insufficient support for deeply necessary organizing work.

Too often, philanthropy operates at a distance from the grassroots movement work it funds. It has prioritized keeping this distance instead of building relationships that encourage mutual learning, iteration, and growth. Thus, Many Jewish funders have practices that serve to maintain structures of oppression— including sexism, racism, classism, ableism, and others— rather than uproot them.

Across the American Jewish philanthropic landscape, within Federations and many family and community foundations, the norm of instituting policies that require organizations to adhere to a Zionist political framework that totally rebuffs the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement has widespread silencing, alienating, and divisive effects. These effects are not only felt by organizations doing work within the Israel / Palestine sphere, but they also felt by the entire Jewish community. They send the message to communal leaders and members that they are unwelcome within the Jewish community unless they adhere to a particular political analysis.

• The progressive Jewish movement deserves funding that enables it to build authentic and strong relationships with our allies, across lines of difference and disagreement.

• The progressive Jewish movement deserves funding that enables it to harness the wisdom of Jewish leaders who deeply believe in Jewish values that compel them to pursue justice.

• The progressive Jewish movement deserves funding that encourages its leaders, organizers, and participants to be creative, to be whole, and to be unabashedly radical in the way they approach power. 

We believe in a progressive Jewish movement that is composed of people with diverse experiences and identities. We are here to fund the Jewish organizers and artists, activists and spiritual leaders that are committed to sustaining and growing the work of intersectional justice and liberation.

We envision a Jewish community that facilitates the open exchange of ideas and whose values compel it to sustain and grow the work of justice and liberation for all people suffering under the weight of oppression.