Public Commitments to Change
We are proud of all of the organizations that have publicly stated their commitment to building an anti-racist Jewish community. To add your organization's statement to the list, please email notfreetodesist@gmail.com.
“Juneteenth falls this week bringing increased eagerness to acknowledge and uplift this holiday that celebrates the formal end to chattel slavery in America. In the spirit of this milestone, we commit to building an anti-racist Leichtag Foundation. We commit to building an anti-racist Jewish community.
We recognize that pathways for organizations like ours with wealth, power and privilege to demonstrate allyship with communities of color result in deeply needed empathy. But expressing our empathy and lending our voice isn’t enough. Embarking on an intentional path of work only starts there. We commit to better understanding what is required of us to advocate for Black and non-Black people of color and dismantle the structures that oppress them.”
— Leichtag Foundation
“Reboot acknowledges that white supremacy and anti-Blackness are present in the Jewish community and cause harm. Reboot affirms that Black Lives Matter and condemns the racial oppression that continues today. And Reboot makes a commitment to doing the work needed to achieve racial equality within our organization and beyond.
We commit to continuing the work of building an anti-racist community within the Reboot Network. As a Jewish arts and culture organization and the R&D arm of the Jewish community, we will use our tools and resources to support the Jewish community as it continues to tackle this important issue, and we commit to commissioning work from Black Jews and Jews of Color that will help us tell new stories that pave the way to a future that is free of racism and oppression.”
— Reboot
“We join a growing chorus of individuals, organizations, and institutions proclaiming this statement to affirm the dignity of Black lives and call for an end to structural racism. More importantly, while we know that a statement is powerful, we are eager to join others in committing to action. As a primarily white and Ashkenazi organization, we’ve spent time over the past several weeks reflecting on how we are already showing up in this fight, and how much more work we urgently need to do.
We are inspired by the powerful “Not Free to Desist” letter co-authored by Lindsey Newman, Aaron Samuels, and Avodah alumna Rachel Sumekh, which calls on Jewish organizations to share bold commitments to racial justice and the inclusion of Jews of Color. We applaud their vision and proudly sign on to their letter. We know it will be hard work for us to achieve some of the letter’s specific targets, and, in full transparency, we’re not completely certain we can meet them all. However, we commit to taking the time to study the proposed metrics and determine how we can fulfill the Community Obligations outlined by the authors, and additional metrics to achieve those ends.”
— Avodah
“I also want to take this moment to note Mitsui Collective’s commitment to “Re-imagining our Collective Jewish Covenant” as a signatory to the open letter Not Free to Desist. As an organization committed to racial justice and building resilient Jewish community, we are proud to support this work and commit to doing our part in creating a more just and equitable community, and to stand firm in stating unequivocally that Black Lives Matter.
To all those reading this who are not Black, I ask us to continue to push into our discomfort and hold ourselves accountable for the work needed to actualize full liberation, and not to accept the liberation of only some.”
— Mitsui Collective
“We are committed to working for racial justice not only in our city, but also within our community. A year ago, our taskforce on Racial Justice and Inclusion offered—and our Board unanimously adopted—a series of recommendations to help us become not only a more inclusive and welcoming community, but also an explicitly anti-racist community.
Since then, we have taken significant steps to recruit Jews of Color to our Board and staff, and to develop a pipeline for lay leaders and professionals that more accurately reflect the composition of the Jewish community and the city of Los Angeles. Last week we signed on to a bold, aspirational call for Jewish communal organizations to take explicit steps toward greater equity, co-written by our Board Member Rachel Sumekh. There is a lot of work still to be done, and we believe that this must be a time for audacious, aspirational thinking, for a reimagining of what is possible, and then for taking concrete steps toward the achievement of those goals.”
— IKAR
“Now is the moment for clear and decisive action against anti-Black racism. We uplift the lives and memories of Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Rayshard Brooks, Mike Brown, Philando Castile, George Floyd, Eric Garner, Tyquarn Malik Graves, Marsha P. Johnson, Trayvon Martin, David McAtee, Elijah McClain, Tony McDade, Nina Pop, Tamir Rice, Antwon Rose, Breonna Taylor, and too many others who have been murdered … We recognize that Black Lives Matter is a statement that is inherently true and should be accepted without caveat or qualification. “
Read more about Repair the World's tangible commitments including an anti-racist approach to service, hiring additional expertise in racial justice work, an expanded internal racial justice working group, support for Black fellows and staff, a commitment to rewriting governance policies, and a focus on anti-racist hiring and compensation.
— Repair the World
“We also know that the Jewish community is not immune to racism, and that repairing these wrongs must start here. The open letter is one of many calls to the larger Jewish communal sector to make concrete and timely commitments towards advancing racial justice.
First, we want to say unequivocally that Black lives matter and that we are committed to building an anti-racist Jewish community. We stand with our team members of color, our network members of color, and all people of color in this struggle for justice.
Second, while we have started this work, we recognize that we have so much more to do. We are committed to accelerating our actions towards making our vision a reality, including ongoing self-reflection and learning, centering marginalized voices, and annually articulating concrete priorities to advance this work.”
— Upstart
“Reconstructing Judaism is fully committed to building an anti-racist Jewish community. We state firmly and unequivocally that Black Lives Matter, and that working tirelessly to demonstrate that Black Lives Matter is a Jewish value.
We are deeply grateful to Not Free to Desist for the direction offered to Jewish organizations, and for so clearly challenging us to translate statements and intentions into meaningful and transformative action. As leaders of Reconstructing Judaism, the central organization of the Reconstructionist movement, we commit ourselves to the Community Obligations articulated by Not Free to Desist. We have signed on to the open letter as individuals, as have the members of the senior staff of Reconstructing Judaism. We will share the Community Obligations with our board, our staff, our faculty, our students and our affiliated communities as part of our ongoing efforts to make racial justice a pillar of our movement.”
— Reconstructing Judaism
“As expressed in Hillel’s recent statement in support of racial justice, our country is in a state of substantial pain, turmoil, and fear, particularly for our Black friends and colleagues and other people of color. We know this moment feels like uncharted territory for many, but that some in our community know it all too well. As we move forward together in taking action, we must learn how best to be allies, to take responsibility for our own learning, to support our staff and students in meaningful and sensitive ways, and ultimately to be a positive force in repairing what’s broken and continuing to break in our world.
To assist in how we take action as a Hillel community, in the coming weeks and months, Hillel International will provide guidance, training, and opportunities for discussion on topics of race, power, and privilege in our society.”
— Hillel International
“Bend the Arc is proud to join the Not Free to Desist campaign’s call to re-imagine our sacred covenant to one another and to our collective future,” said Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. “We are committed to building a loving, liberated, and anti-racist Jewish community that affirms that Black Lives Matter — and that starts by living our values as an organization.”
‘In this moment, we are being called as a country to rewrite our social contract and dismantle centuries old structures of white supremacy that oppress Black people daily,’ continued Cotler. ‘For our multi-racial Jewish community to be fully committed to Black lives and Black liberation, including for Black Jews, we must also look inward and reimagine our communal obligations to each other.’”
— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
“The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund is committed to building an anti-racist Jewish community and to do our part in the struggle against racism in the broader Bay Area community. We acknowledge the long history of injustice that people of color have lived and continue to live through, both here in the Bay Area and around the country. In addition to experiencing the ongoing burden of anti-Semitism, Jews of Color have also had to bear the brunt of racism, both inside and outside our community. The Torah commands us to take action to pursue justice (tzedek), one of the Jewish values that guides the Federation’s work. We must and will do more.
We respect and appreciate the brave, bold leadership of Jews of Color in our community to re-imagine our collective Jewish covenant. While we have started our own internal work to establish racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion as pillars of our organization, we have much more to learn. We look forward to engaging in the conversation and being the best partners that we can to build a safe, welcoming, and inclusive community for acheinu kol bet yisroel – for all of our people.”
— Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco
“Challah for Hunger is proud to sign the Not Free to Desist letter written by Lindsey Newman, Aaron Samuels, and Challah for Hunger partner, Rachel Sumekh. We thank them for their time and labor to put together such a critical ask of the Jewish community.
Challah for Hunger recognizes that the systemic racism which is evident in the history, government, and society of the United States of America also affects our Jewish communities. We are committed to standing against these racisms as an anti-racist organization.
…
The Not Free to Desist letter contains seven obligations and asks Jewish organizations to fulfill four of them in one year and all seven in three years. As an organization we are committed to taking on this obligation to right our past wrongs and work toward racial justice. We are committed to this timeline, as we know that the time is past due to fight racism in our own community.”
— Challah for Hunger