DJJ Community, 

I hope that you are tending to yourselves and your loved ones as best you can. For me, these past months have been filled with grief, fatigue and despair. I have struggled to stay grounded in our work while our community processes continuous heartbreak at home and abroad. This video, highlighting why DJJ was founded and why our work matters was a timely, needed reminder.

DJJ continues to be a place where Jews can come together in multiracial, intergenerational community to learn together, grow together, and fight together for a more just future. While the crisis in Israel-Palestine has presented challenges to DJJ, we know our progressive Jewish community is needed to build a better world. We know this because of the continued strength of our relationships with local movement partners and the political stakes of this moment. 

Over the past couple of months, a narrative emerged that progressive movements abandoned Jews on October 7th and that Jews are, in turn, leaving progressive movements. We heard the stories of Jewish communities longing for support and solidarity from their progressive partners. We are grateful to have deep relationships with our partners, and that we didn’t experience this at all—if anything, our relationships with progressive partners have grown stronger. Partners have reached out to us to better understand anti-semitism and offer their condolences, while focusing on our common goals of materially improving the lives of Detroiters and Michiganders. 

Our vision—a world where all our neighbors have the resources they need to thrive—is ambitious. Regressive forces—namely racialized capitalism and institutionalized white supremacy—are powerful. In order to win, we need all of us to fight for racial and economic justice, and to preserve democracy.  We can not afford to cede any part of our power, even as we grapple with painful disagreements within our community.  We are committed to building a space where people can name and set aside their differences on Israel-Palestine for the sake of building a powerful organization of progressive Jewish activists, advocates, and organizers capable of contributing meaningfully Detroit movements. This means working across ideological lines and focusing on the future we need.

Progressive Jewish spaces are being tested right now, and we need your support. This Giving Tuesday, please make a donation or become a monthly donor to DJJ, and join us in building a powerful, progressive Jewish community here in Detroit. We are honored to do this work alongside you. 

In deep solidarity, 

Allie, Executive Director, DJJ