We are JCUA Votes, the 501(c)4 electoral sibling of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA). Our mission is to effectively combat economic injustice, white supremacy, and antisemitism, and to create communities where everyone can flourish.
We work to elect progressive candidates at the city and state level, co-govern with our City Council and state legislators, and hold leaders accountable to our shared values and political commitments.
We envision a Jewish community exercising its political and electoral power in order to create systemic progressive change.
Our Principles
Community
- We prioritize relationship over task.
- We center the perspectives of those directly affected by the issues and campaigns we work on.
- We strive to make our work joyful, soulful, and connective.
Judaism
- We are grounded in Jewish values.
- We combat white supremacy, Christian hegemony, fascism, and antisemitism.
- We strive to create olam haba, “the world to come,” in the here and now.
Power Building
- We support candidates and campaigns that align with our vision and support our issue campaigns, not based on money or connections.
- We strive to elect organizers and grassroots members of our communities — leaders who will govern from their base at the forefront.
- We expect to co-govern with elected officials and to make powerful demands of them.
Democratic Decision-Making
- We are a member-driven, member-led organization.
- We strive to decentralize decision-making power within the organization, and we support decisions made via our agreed-upon processes.
- We prioritize political education and trainings so that all members feel empowered to contribute and make decisions within the organization.
Risk Taking
- We lean into and welcome tension and generative conflict.
- We do not shy away from decisions or conversations because of political or ideological conflict.
- We assess risk honestly.
Accountability
- We hold ourselves compassionately accountable to our ideals and values, one another, and our broader movement and political community.
- We hold leaders within our organization, our movement, and our political systems accountable to our values and vision.