Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
Formation1964
TypeSocial justice
HeadquartersChicago, Illinois
Board President
Karyn Bass Ehler
Executive Director
Judith Levey
Websitewww.jcua.org

Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that mobilizes the Jewish community of the region to advance racial and economic justice. JCUA partners with diverse community groups across the city and state to combat racism, antisemitism, poverty and other forms of systemic oppression, through grassroots community organizing, youth education programs, and community development.[1]

About

According to Slingshot, a Resource Guide to Jewish Innovation, "For 45 years, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) has been perceived by many as the social consciousness of the Chicago-area Jewish community".[2] According to Sojourners magazine, JCUA is the preeminent model for today's Jewish social justice organizations.[3] As a Chicago-based organization, JCUA pioneered the American Jewish community's participation in social justice work. Since 1964, JCUA has been working with neighborhoods targeted by social and economic depression and collaborates actively with immigrant communities[4] to promote human rights and social justice. Working with other community-based organizations, JCUA focuses on issues that affect urban communities, such as "poverty, education, employment, housing, transportation and crime".[5] JCUA mobilizes the Chicago-area Jewish community in an effort to build partnerships and to advocate on behalf of disenfranchised Chicago residents.[2]

History

Early activity

JCUA was founded in 1964 by

civil rights activist.[6]

JCUA's origins can be traced to the

Open Housing March in Marquette Park.[5][6] JCUA was established as a Jewish voice promoting human rights and social justice
for Chicago's neighborhoods. In its early years, JCUA worked with the Contract Buyers League to fight unfair real estate practices in Westside homes that were causing excessive fines and evictions of black homeowners.

The first staff member of JCUA was Lewis Kreinberg, a young graduate student of the

University of Wisconsin. Kreinberg's first assignment was to work with the Northwest Community Organization (NCO) to counter slum landlords who were exploiting tenants.[6]
Kreinberg worked extensively with community organizations on the Westside of Chicago such as in Lawndale with the Lawndale Peoples Planning and Action Council and the Westside Federation. Kreinberg represented JCUA as a staff member loaned to Martin Luther King Jr. the Campaign to End the Slums. Kreinberg worked extensively, as well, in Pilsen with 18th St. Development Corporation and Pilsen Housing and Business Alliance.

1970s

JCUA continued its extensive work with community-based organizations in very low income and oppressed communities responding to local issues including

tenant unions
, and aided in the formation and staffing of the Public Welfare Coalition.

JCUA focused on supporting local organizing and the empowerment of Chicago's most oppressed communities, working closely with Chicago's diverse racial, ethnic, and religious groups. By working actively in partnership with grassroots community-based organizations, JCUA helped to build strong relationships with diverse groups, sharing common agendas, strengthening their commitments and capacity to create progressive coalitions and bring about social change. For example, JCUA joined a coalition with

corporations and to protest the Nazi march in Marquette Park. Working with local organizations in West Town, JCUA rallied in opposition to the post office, which at the time was practicing employment discrimination against Latino.[6]

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism) and JCUA created a summer youth program called the Youth Mitzvah Corps, empowering young people to volunteer in the inner city.[6]

1980s and 1990s

Jane Ramsey was the organization's executive director from 1980 to 2012. As the [American] public was awakening to

divest from companies engaged in business with South Africa.[6]

As in the previous decade, JCUA continued its focus on local social services, assisting in the formation and staffing of the Chicago Coalition for

coalitions, JCUA continued the struggle for the preservation and rehabilitation of low-income and public housing. The Community Ventures Program allowed JCUA members to provide no-interest loans to non-profit developers.[6]

Other JCUA campaigns focused on

Living Wage Campaign, JCUA fought for the Living Wage Ordinance which demanded employers with city contracts or city subsidies to pay employees a living wage.[6]

JCUA helped initiate Progress Illinois, a group of Illinois-based organizations that supported a graduated state income tax which would alleviate the tax burden for middle and low-income families, also allowing for additional state revenue to fund education and human service programs.[6]

JCUA developed several

Hebrew for "Making Whole"). The program developed strategies to raise public awareness of African American Jews.[6]

2000s to the present

Marking the fifth anniversary of the Congress Hotel

picket along with striking workers at the hotel through the seventh anniversary of the strike in 2010.[6]

Demanding political accountability, JCUA along with several other community organizations created a comprehensive agenda to hold local government officials accountable. This campaign is known as "Developing Government Accountability to the People" or DGAP. In 2010, DGAP published updated information on the records of Chicago aldermen and asked local citizens to grade their alderman on the DGAP website.[6][7]

JCUA has worked to ensure broad healthcare access in Illinois. JCUA won an increased 2008 budget for the Cook County Bureau of Health along with the creation of an independent board of directors that would take control of managing Cook County's public health care system, the second largest of such programs in the country. JCUA continued its work to preserve affordable housing in the city of Chicago. The organization assisted residents of housing projects in filing a lawsuit, claiming that orders for the residents to relocate violated their human rights.[6]

After 9/11, in the wake of increased prejudice against Muslims, JCUA created the Jewish-Muslim Community-Building Initiative (JMCBI), a program that brings together members from both faith groups through cultural and educational opportunities. JMCBI mobilizes Jews and Muslims to advocate collaboratively around several social justice campaigns.[6][8]

Together with the Community Renewal Society, JCUA convened the Justice Coalition of

civil rights, other types of organizations to battle police and criminal prosecutorial misconduct. In a landmark success, JCUA and JCGC won a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois, postponing all lethal injections until investigations could conclude why more Illinois executions had been overturned rather than carried out. JCUA initiated Or Tzedek, the Teen Institute for Social Justice. Or Tzedek is an urban-immersion program aimed at strengthening teens' Jewish identities though social justice education and direct activism.[6][9]

After the 2008

St. Paul, Minnesota, were invited to join the Postville Community Benefits Alliance (PCBA). PCBA is a coalition of organizations that is working to ensure that the new owners of the plant (now called Agri Star) continue to distribute kosher meat products and that the company is held accountable to provide employees with safe working conditions and fair treatment.[10]

JCUA has been active in advocating for federal comprehensive

deportations.[11]

Current activities

JCUA works to end racism, poverty and antisemitism by mobilizing the Jewish community of Chicago to advance racial and economic justice. It is the only Jewish organization based in Chicago using a community organizing model to advance systemic change on domestic issues with a local focus. JCUA has three core program areas: grassroots organizing campaigns, youth engagement and community development.

JCUA works on grassroots organizing campaigns with its 2,000 members and in partnership with more than 100 community organizations across the city and state. As a member-driven organization, JCUA selects issue campaigns based on the input and deliberation from its core membership base. In the past, JCUA has worked on campaigns focused on civil rights, public housing, police brutality, immigration reform, and worker rights.

Currently, JCUA is active on four issue-based campaigns. Its immigration justice campaign, in coalition with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, focuses on making Chicago and Illinois safer for immigrant communities. The coalition seeks to shut down Chicago's Gang Database, end collaboration between city agencies and federal law enforcement, and remove carve-outs in Chicago's Welcoming City Ordinance. Its police accountability campaign focused on reforming policing and public safety in Chicago, by implementing civilian oversight over the Chicago Police Department and reforming police union contracts. Its Fair Tax campaign focuses on passing the Illinois Fair Tax referendum in the 2020 election, which would amend the Illinois constitution to remove the state's flat tax and implement a progressive tax system. Its Right to Recovery campaign focuses on ensuring an equitable response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that essential workers and communities of color are adequately served by city and state governments.

JCUA focuses on preserving affordable housing opportunities for low-income Chicagoans and strengthening Chicago neighborhoods through its Community Ventures Program (CVP). CVP functions as a revolving loan fund that provides nonprofit developers with $100,000 zero-interest loans for predevelopment costs on their projects. Since 1991, CVP funds have led to the creation of 4,200 units of affordable housing and more than 1,000 living-wage jobs.

JCUA runs two youth engagement programs for teens and college-aged students focusing on community organizing through a Jewish lens. The programs give participants the opportunity to engage with issues such as affordable housing, health care, immigration, poverty, and homelessness. Participants learn about social justice issues through a Jewish lens while meeting and volunteering with community leaders and experts. [12]

Recognition

  • JCUA was included in the 2009–2010 and the 2010–2011 editions of Slingshot, an annual guide that highlights innovative Jewish non-profit organizations. JCUA was the only Chicago-based organization to be selected in Slingshot's most recent publication[13]
  • The "Forward 50" is an annual list published by
    American Jewish community. In 2009, The Forward included JCUA's former executive director, Jane Ramsey. "In almost every social and economic justice issue that came up in Chicago—homelessness, unemployment, community reinvestment, racism, anti-Semitism—Ramsey was there, providing Jewish leadership".[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Our Work".
  2. ^ a b "Home | Slingshot Fund".
  3. ^ Sojourner's Magazine, "Do What is Just." February 2010
  4. ^ Rosner, Shmuel. "Fixing the world, one neighborhood at a time." Haaretz. October 24, 2007
  5. ^ a b "Honoring Social Justice Stars." Chicago Jewish News. June 22–28, 2007
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Jewish Council on Urban Affairs: Chicago's Jewish voice for social justice".
  7. ^ "Welcome | DGAP". Archived from the original on 2010-09-12.
  8. ^ jmcbi.webnode.com
  9. ^ ortzedek.org
  10. ^ "CBA (Community Alliance) Meeting". Postville Herald-Leader. August 19, 2009.
  11. ^ "Let Their People Stay." Chicago Jewish News. July 16–22, 2010
  12. ^ "Teens and the City...Chicago Jewish News. June 29, 2007.
  13. ^ "Slingshot Hit is on Target: Chicago." Chicago Jewish News. November 5, 2009.
  14. ^ "The Forward 50." The Forward. November 20, 2009.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jewish_Council_on_Urban_Affairs&oldid=1231509179"