Our Purpose

Jewish Youth for Community Action engages Jewish youth in movements for social justice by creating a joyous, multiracial community where young people develop innovative leadership and organizing skills, facilitate socio-political learning, and run action campaigns.

OUR VISION

We envision a Jewish community that recognizes the importance of investing in youth leadership. We envision interconnected networks of Jewish youth who experience their Judaism and their social justice values as one and the same. We envision youth who have the tangible skills to participate in movements for justice. We envision a world in which Jews mobilize towards justice from a place of joy, pride and connection instead of a place of fear. 

We envision a world in which everyone understands the inextricable connection to the earth and all that is living. We envision a world in which youth are treated respectfully by adults and lifted up in their brilliance. We envision movements for liberation with the songs, voices, leadership and allyship of Jewish youth and young adults. 

We envision an end to antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, ageism, sexism, racism, white supremacy, classism and all systems of institutional oppression and violence. In their place, we envision a deep honor of life, interdependence between peoples, and Jewish communities defined by love, celebration and justice.

JYCA’S History

JYCA was founded and created by Pella Schafer in 1995. In deep collaboration with youth in the East Bay, they developed a unique program that offered Jewish youth a place to connect to their Jewish histories and personal identities through the lenses of tikkun olam and tzedakah. JYCA was founded out of the need for young progressive Jews to find their collective voice of resistance, cultivate their passion and commitment to social justice, and make concrete changes in their communities as well as in the world.

25 years later, JYCA remains a youth-led program dedicated to the same founding principles. JYCA continues to create a safe space for youth to connect to their own identity in a way that is meaningful to them and to build a community based on shared values ranging from social and racial justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, to environmental advocacy and prison abolition.

Throughout the years JYCA has remained innovative and dynamic, exposing youth to the most pressing social movements of the moment. JYCA provides a wide range of opportunities for leadership development and youth engagement through courageous art, bold activism and radically loving community. JYCA youth are using their voices and visions to embody their Judaism and to change the face of their communities.