Avodah Chicago

Avodah, which ensures social-justice warriors are prepared for battling the tough issues, was founded in 1998 by a group of rabbis and Jewish educators who felt a disconnect between their Jewish lives and their commitment to working for social change. They joined forces to create the first and only Jewish Service Corps. What started with nine young Jews in Brooklyn has grown into a program engaging more than 70 individuals every year in Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, and Washington, D.C. The Jewish Service Corps is an immersive experience for postcollege young people that includes full-time work placement at local nonprofits, communal living within a pluralistic Jewish framework, and in-depth education on domestic poverty. After running the Service Corps for many years, Avodah launched a second program in 2014—the Justice Fellowship.

The fellowship is a nonresidential, nine-month leadership development and community-building program that runs in New York and Chicago. The fellowship helps early-career Jewish adults make connections between social justice and Judaism, get support to develop as effective leaders, and continue in their work for justice long term. Avodah’s supportive cohort, programming, and peer and professional mentorship provide context for a fellow’s work and allow fellows to network with the broader Avodah community. Avodah’s robust and sophisticated fellowship curricula is used beyond the program; it’s shared with bar and bat mitzvah groups, synagogues, Hillels, and other Jewish organizations. This past year Avodah Chicago cosponsored Mishkan Chicago’s Social Justice Beit Midrash with the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. The program, which is being used as a model for national expansion, brought together Chicagoland residents to examine Jewish sources on pressing social issues and facilitate deep thinking, constructive debate, and greater facility with Jewish text. Throughout Chicago, several corps members are placed each year in service positions at organizations serving the Jewish community. Avodah is achieving both a shift in the way the American Jewish community engages in the fight against poverty and how the community engages with service, and it’s doing it big. It won’t be long before its tikkun olam troops are making change nationwide.