Since our founding, JUFJ has worked to combat the legacy of racism in our community. Over the past year, JUFJ's Antiracism Working Group has been working to make this commitment more conscious and explicit by putting JUFJ on the path to be an antiracist ally organization.

Being an antiracist ally organization:

• Requires that we consider the role of racism in economic justice struggles, and that we actively work to combat racism.
• Means that we seek to eliminate prejudice and equalize power distorted by racism across groups. For more powerful groups, it requires ceding some power to groups that lack it.
• Means listening to what people of color have to say about racism, accepting that white privilege exists in the United States, and making a choice to stand with people of color to fight both racism and white privilege.

Our goal is to become an antiracist voice and resource in the Jewish community. We believe that if we neglect to explicitly include racism within our framework of social justice, then we are at best seeking only partial justice.

Why should we, as Jews, pursue antiracism?

Jews are in a unique position to understand racism because we have experienced oppression from every possible angle throughout history. While we have experienced persecution throughout much of our history, we in turn have denigrated subsets of our own Jewish community. Others have been anti-Semitic toward us, and we have responded in a prejudiced manner. In the United States, we have been abjectly poor and, more recently, have benefited from "white privilege."

As a Jewish organization, we need to understand this work's roots in Jewish values:

• We believe that fighting racism is an affirmation of the Jewish belief that all people are created in the image of God.
• Similarly, the Talmud states that "Each person is a world." (Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:5) The absolute sacredness of all human life in Jewish tradition inspires our action against racism.
• Jews have a history in the US of being visible allies for civil rights. We see ourselves as inheritors of that tradition.
• Although our Jewish identity is very complex, the majority of Jews in the US have been recognized as white and thereby benefited from white privilege. We need to examine how this has occurred, and how we can use our considerable resources to empower those who have not been so privileged.

What are the steps toward JUFJ becoming an antiracist ally?

1. We will educate ourselves on the nature of racism, power, and privilege so that we have a more nuanced understanding of the issues we are confronting.

• In the US and in the DC area, advantages are distributed by race, consciously or unconsciously. Nonwhites receive fewer advantages. We need to explore the barriers in our society that keep all from participating fully and equally.
• Jews have a complicated relationship with race. If we are to combat racism, we must examine the oppression and privilege that has shaped the Jewish community.

2. We will make a conscious effort to make Jews of color feel welcome in JUFJ.

• Jews of color may sometimes seem invisible in our region, where so many Jewish institutions are dominated by Ashkenazi Jews of European ancestry.
• We need to make sure that no Jew feels left out of JUFJ: we must acknowledge Jews of color while at the same time acknowledging the privilege that Jews, particularly Jews of European origin, have in our city.
• Where Jews of color have been oppressed, we need to reach out as allies just as with other communities of color.
• JUFJ prioritizes ensuring under-represented people have access to services and power in D.C. We should "walk the walk" by prioritizing such inclusion within JUFJ.

3. We will integrate racial justice in our campaign work, thereby making JUFJ more effective in partnering with ally groups and winning meaningful social change.

• Greater Washington, DC is a uniquely diverse place: racially, ethnically, economically, and in terms of immigration. Campaigns in such a diverse community require an antiracist lens in order to make impactful social change.
• We need to be accountable to people of color in our campaigns and accept others' leadership rather than set the agenda ourselves, thereby avoiding inadvertently perpetuating racism in our communities.
• Being an antiracist ally allows us to acknowledge the types of prejudice and challenges that the people we work with have encountered in their struggles, and demonstrates to our allies our commitment to racial and economic justice. This will enable JUFJ to build deeper relationships with our partner organizations.

This document was developed based on the comments and insights of members of JUFJ's Antiracism Working Group in 2008-2009.