Earlier this year, JoCI launched a cohort of ten grantee projects addressing antisemitism through a JoC lens. Rather than funding these projects as stand-alone efforts, JoCI designed a cohort experience that emphasizes peer support, shared learning, and standardized tools for measuring impact. In the following Q&A, JoCI Program Officer Sarah Starks shares the method behind this model and its potential for shaping the field’s response to antisemitism.
We knew that these projects would be most powerful if the leaders had a chance to learn from one another along the way. Rather than funding each grantee separately, we wanted to build in structures for peer support and thought partnership. JoCI is deeply invested in the cohort model as a means for leadership growth, so we developed a cohort curriculum that would serve our grantees and their projects. The cohort model is grounded in proactive grantee support and our commitment to building community among leaders. We wanted to create an environment where grantees feel resourced, empowered, and connected. Collaboration and peer mentorship helps sustain leaders and foster creativity, and we wanted to make sure our curriculum encouraged an openness to innovation. By developing a culture of trust and experimentation among our cohort, we hope to catalyze bold ideas and collective learning that go beyond what an individual project might accomplish alone. Because all ten projects are working on the same timeline and share common parameters, we’ll be able to collectively assess how different approaches meet similar goals. This creates a rare opportunity to see the broader impact of JoC-led strategies on the field. It also means that grantees can learn from one another’s data, which deepens the collective knowledge of the cohort and ultimately the field.
At JoCI, our grantmaking is always about more than a single project. We want to strengthen the field by building capacity and creating opportunities for collaboration. For this cohort, we asked grantees to implement a standardized attitudinal survey to help measure the impact of their work. This shared tool not only helps each grantee reflect on their own outcomes, but also allows us to collect data across the full cohort. By partnering with our grantees to gather this data, we can begin to identify patterns and explore how these projects might be scaled or adapted in the future.
Oftentimes, traditional tactics responding to antisemitism don’t utilize an inherently intersectional approach. JoCI’s research shows that there is a substantial portion of the US Jewish population that identifies as JoC. We also know that there are multiple, diverse communities that fit under the JoC umbrella, and that Jews of Color are not a monolith. Antisemitism is also not monolithic, and it shows up in different forms. Many JoC have experienced our Jewishness being questioned simply because we are people of color. When non-Jews assume that JoC are not Jewish, they may also reveal biases that may not be spoken in front of other Jews.
This RFP was created with the intention of leaning into the unique experiences, perspectives, and leadership of JoC, especially in this polarized moment. We know that JoC are uniquely positioned to lead these important conversations with nuanced and complex experiences and to build coalitions across difference. Multiple grantees are focused on advancing conversations within and beyond the Jewish community. For example,the LUNAR Collective’s Horizons project is training fellows to lead bridge-building workshops that connect Asian, Asian-Jewish, and other Jewish community members. Correlate JOC’s Between Us project is another effort building bridges through a unique card game designed to foster dialogue and solidarity among diverse Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Jewtina y Co.’s Raíces y Redes program is exploring antisemitism embedded in Latin culture and building a multilingual resource guide to support solidarity and action among Latin Jews and non-Jewish Latino/as. We are supporting other efforts like the Shalom Curriculum Project which is examining how increased understanding of the racial and ethnic diversity of the Jewish community might reduce antisemitism among high school students of all backgrounds, or a case study at Yale University that’s building curriculum to address antisemitism in on college and university campuses.
We have faith that the projects that come from this RFP can help expand and push forward the conversation on how antisemitism appears in various forms and how it impacts different community members. This conversation can and should extend to the broader multiracial community.
The ten projects in this cohort reflect the vision, creativity, and leadership of Jews of Color who are reimagining how our community confronts antisemitism. From youth education to interfaith initiatives and innovative public programming, each project offers a unique and powerful contribution. We encourage you to learn more about these grantees and the inspiring ways they are strengthening Jewish life.
