Founded more than 25 years ago to make change in the D.C. area, Jews United for Justice now operates in all three parts of the DMV region.
The social justice organization officially launched in Virginia on Sunday. Thousands of JUFJ volunteers work to advance economic, racial and social justice in the Baltimore-Washington region by educating and mobilizing local Jewish communities to action, according to JUFJ’s website.
About 80 interested community members and local leaders gathered at the Pozez Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia to learn about JUFJ’s mission and how they can soon get involved.
The enthusiasm in the room was palpable. A common thread linking the attendees — who ranged from school age to older adults — was a collective desire to get started or do more.
“Since JUFJ’s founding, there’s been a vision of JUFJ organizing across the region,” Elianna Cooper, JUFJ’s Virginia lead organizer, told Washington Jewish Week. “And in a moment like this, it seems more important than ever to be thinking about how we can contribute and add to all of the incredible community organizing and advocacy work that’s already happening here [in northern Virginia].”
Expanding to northern Virginia was one of the goals listed in JUFJ’s 2013 strategic plan, but an expansion of this scale, which already takes years, was derailed by the pandemic in 2020, according to Ricki Henschel, a JUFJ volunteer.
Cooper added that while the JUFJ Virginia team is currently working out the logistics for next steps, interested volunteers may soon begin knocking on doors and phone banking to spread the word about issues.
“We are at the beginning of an amazing path to make change in Virginia together,” Hilary Klein, JUFJ’s deputy director, told the crowd.
During the program, attendees heard from JUFJ leaders about four issues — immigrant justice, housing justice, constitutional amendments and electoral work — and how JUFJ volunteers can help pursue justice in Virginia.
Klein discussed immigrant justice, including the fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reportedly preparing to deploy tactical units to five United States cities including northern Virginia, according to a report by MSNBC in June.
JUFJ volunteers can respond through rapid response or potential campaigns, Klein said. Rapid response includes “Know Your Rights” trainings and mobilization at the local courthouse. Potential campaigns might target the detention center in Farmville, Virginia, for instance.
Cooper said the Virginia State Constitution bars voting rights from residents who have completed their sentences for felony convictions, defines marriage as “exclusively a union between a man and a woman” and doesn’t enshrine reproductive justice, specifically access
to abortion.
“In January of 2026, hopefully [these constitutional amendments] can finally go on the ballot and voters have the opportunity to vote and pass these constitutional amendments to ensure that Virginia is a state where everyone can vote, where everyone can marry who they choose and everyone has access to reproductive care,” Cooper said at the event.
Attendees were most eager to get started on electoral work, according to a ballot they individually filled out near the end of the event. By popular vote, the JUFJ Campaign Fund Virginia will begin with a focus on electoral work, Cooper announced.
The electoral engagement campaign could include endorsing candidates, then organizing to get those candidates elected by door-knocking, peer-to-peer letters, phone banking, postcard-writing parties and other strategies, she said.
The group will operate all around the northern Virginia region, but may return to the Pozez JCC for future events, according to Jeff Dannick, Pozez JCC’s executive director.
Lisa Miller, a board member of the Pozez JCC who lives in Vienna, attended the event because she wants to make northern Virginia a better place by working with the community, especially through the upcoming gubernatorial elections.
Similarly, Henschel, who moved from Baltimore to northern Virginia, said she wanted a place to continue her advocacy with JUFJ: “I love Virginia; I love the state.”
But many attendees felt the need to show up because of the current political climate under the Trump administration.
“I’m scared to death about immigration [rights],” Miller told Washington Jewish Week.
Frank Kohn, a member of Temple B’nai Shalom in Fairfax Station, condemned the recent mass deportations as the son of Holocaust survivors who found refuge in the United States.
“Seeing what’s being destroyed by the current administration is sad,” Kohn told Washington Jewish Week. “It’s a brain drain and it’s a disrespect of human life and we’ve got to be better.”
A recently retired wildlife biologist, Kohn said acting locally is an effective way to make change when one disagrees with the national political climate: “Our actions everywhere have consequences,” he said, likening local action to the butterfly effect.
His wife, Susan Kohn, who chairs Temple B’nai Shalom’s social justice committee, brought a cohort of 10 fellow members to the event.
“I had been hoping for years that we, as the Jewish community, could be more involved and show how much we care for people, not only in our communities, but also people that are our neighbors,” Susan Kohn said. “It’s so needed and it reflects on the Jewish community in a way that is … very positive.”
After years of hoping for this opportunity and Cooper’s months of outreach in the northern Virginia community, JUFJ is beginning a new chapter.
“If this kickoff is any indication, there is going to be a huge amount of interest within the Jewish community, both among synagogue members and people who are looking for their Jewish communal home where they can live their values,” Dannick said.
“People are excited by something new and I’d like to think that JUFJ has [had] a long history in other parts of the [D.C.] region,” Klein said. “We heard conversations around the tables of, ‘I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a really long time,’ or ‘I’m on the social action team of my congregation and I wanted to [get more involved], but now this can be a home for us.’ So we hope to be sort of a vehicle for a lot of energy that already exists.”
The event aptly ended with a unity clap.
