The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s DC Advocacy Day is April 22, and the organization has three funding priorities it is focusing on for FY 2026.
One is increasing funding for the Safe and Secure DC grant program, which is funded by the District to provide grants for nonprofits at risk of hate crimes. The grant program was first established in 2024, and was increased in 2025 from $500,000 to $750,000. This year, the JCRC is advocating for another $250,000 increase, which would bring the grant program to $1 million.
“Every year is a difficult budget year,” said JCRC’s Director of D.C. Government and Community Relations Rachel Feinstein. “This year, D.C. is facing another $1.1 billion deficit due to lack of congressional funding. So, understanding the budget situation, we’re going to be advocating for an increase but understand as well that a straight-line extension is beneficial to the affected communities as well.”
The JCRC will also be advocating for continued funding of the Pay Equity Fund, which provides funding to private preschools in Washington, D.C., to increase the pay of early childhood educators.
“Over the last several years, this program has been in place. Four of D.C.’s Jewish preschools participate in this program, and the program has become a large part of their budgets, and of many budgets for private preschools across the city,” Feinstein added. “We’re really going to work hard to advocate for reinstating the Pay Equity Fund in the mayor’s proposed budget that was released on Friday — that program was cut entirely. The program was being funded at $60 million, and we’ll be advocating to reinstate that $60 million for early childhood educators and voicing the value of private preschool and the gap it fills.”
Feinstein explained that the fund is important not just for religious private schools, but secular private schools as well, providing smaller class sizes and being able to adapt to different learning styles more effectively.
“I think, across the board, an overwhelming majority of the council, if not every council member, supports the Pay Equity Fund,” Feinstein explained. “In years past, in 2024 when the program was eliminated by the mayor’s proposed budget, it was a decision the mayor made at the time to not include the Pay Equity Fund in the budget, because she had other initiatives that she wanted to fight to include in the budget with the money that they had to work with, and she knew that the council would fight to reinstate the Pay Equity Fund and then put it back in and fund it into the budget. And I think the same thing is happening this year.”
If the $60 million isn’t reinstated for the Pay Equity Fund, Feinstein predicts negative outcomes for private preschools in the District and surrounding areas, specifically private Jewish preschools.
“You’ll see a reduction in teachers,” Feinstein said. “A lot of teachers will seek work elsewhere, then there will be less seats for children. We’ll see, across the board, a reduction in teachers due to lack of funds, thus less access for children to private preschool education.”
The third budgetary priority for the JCRC this year is advocating for the continuation of the Affordable Housing Production Trust Fund, which provides affordable housing and funding for affordable housing across the District.
“Many synagogues in D.C. and across the region work with different shelters and different communities who need services related to being unhoused, and part of helping those communities that we work with is increasing the availability of affordable housing and ease of access as well,” said Feinstein.
Working toward affordable housing reflects Jewish values, according to Feinstein.
“I think one of our values as a community is advocating for others to have a home, to be welcoming to people, to provide people the opportunity that we have had in different ways to housing,” she said. “Thinking Jewishly, advocating for access to affordable housing can be seen as a moral imperative … to provide safe and healthy housing to our communities that we live and work with.”
Another JCRC priority is combating local anti-Jewish hate.
“We’ll be encouraging our Advocacy Day participants to share any thoughts or how they’re feeling about being a Jewish person living in D.C. and any antisemitism that they have faced, or [their] children have faced,” Feinstein said.
She hopes that this opportunity will raise awareness of community members’ experiences and inspire the council members in attendance to act against antisemitism, speaking to “some issues” in D.C. public schools.
Feinstein said she encourages residents of the District to register to attend D.C. Advocacy Day or email their council members asking them to fund the JCRC’s initiatives.
