About Us

AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps strengthens the Jewish community's fight against the causes and effects of poverty in the United States. We do this by engaging participants in service and community building that inspire them to become lifelong agents for social change whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values.  Participants in our service Corps program live out and deepen their commitments to social change and Jewish life through a year of full-time work at anti-poverty organizations in Chicago, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, DC.  This work partners Corps members with service providers and residents in low income communities and equips our Corps members and alumni to emerge as lifelong agents for social change, whose work for justice is rooted in and nourished by Jewish values. After participants complete this intensive year-long program, Pursue: Action for a Just World provides a broad platform for long-term leadership in social change and Jewish life.

About Our Programs

• Year-Long Program
  

  Each year, AVODAH recruits people in their 20s from across North America and from the full spectrum of Jewish life to spend a year working on urban poverty issues as full-time employees in local non-profit organizations in Chicago, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, DC. During their year of service, participants live and study together, forming an intense and diverse community of people making a connection between social activism and Jewish life.

  Corps members help bring housing, education and other basic services to thousands of people each year, and save each organization we partner with an average of $18,500 dollars in staffing costs, since Corps members live on a basic stipend during their year of service.

• Pursue: Action for a Just World 

  AVODAH strengthens the impact of our year-long program by supporting alumni after their term of service has ended. Pursue: Action for a Just World was created in 2006 as the AVODAH-AJWS Partnership in response to a request by alumni of both organizations for ways they could continue to build the kind of skills, knowledge, and community that they found through their experiences with AVODAH and AJWS.

  Pursue: Action for a Just World engages young people at the intersection where their Jewish values meet their passion for social justice, building a community that takes action to create social change. The program offers a new opportunity for young Jews to work together toward a just world within and beyond the Jewish community.

  By strengthening our sense of community, we become better equipped to work together toward common goals. By establishing partnerships with like-minded organizations, we help unite the overall social justice movement. By investing in new leaders and innovators, we increase the impact we all make toward lasting social change. And by constantly working to inspire action, we make the world a just place. With staffing in New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC we now engage thousands of young people.