New York City Organizer

Reports to: Director of Organizing Strategy

About us:

As the JVP family of organizations, we are growing, developing and mobilizing a powerful grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational base of U.S. Jews towards Palestinian freedom, a future of Judaism beyond Zionism, and collective liberation.

About you:

A committed and passionate organizer with an orientation towards movement-building, you thrive on building relationships across differences and developing leaders. You are ready to organize the JVP-New York City chapter (JVP-NYC), which means growing and developing a large base of anti-zionist Jews and organizing that base towards accountable and strategic action for Palestinian liberation, in the city with the largest number of Jews in the US. Your organizing approach is rooted in relational work, building real power, and contributing to movements for collective liberation.

About the Role:

The NYC Organizer is responsible for developing an overall strategy for building accountable, strategic Jewish organizing towards Palestinian and collective liberation, together with JVP leadership, JVP-NYC member leadership, and partners. The NYC organizer is responsible for ensuring the JVP-NYC chapter has robust practices of base-building and community-building; leadership development, including developing organizing skills, political analysis and strategic orientation; partnerships; and campaigns and mobilizations. The NYC Organizer also brings the power of JVP-NYC to the wider organization and country.

Core responsibilities:

Base-building

Grow a large, multi-generational, multi-racial, cross-class base of Jewish people in NYC organizing towards Palestinian liberation and collective liberation through:

• Enhancing JVP-NYC’s structures for mass absorption of those who joined in the last 1.5 years;
• Implementing tactics for outreach to new communities;
• Ensuring regular chapter meetings and new member orientations;
• Cultivating an organizing culture that is anti-racist and anti-oppressive, and that allows for healthy group cultures to flourish.

Leadership Development

Develop and support intentional member leadership of that growing base through:

• Identifying key emerging leaders;
• Finding roles for key emerging leaders;
• Investing in members’ organizing skills;
• Ensuring basic political education for members;
• Working to create healthy and effective group cultures;
• Coach and develop member leaders in their strategic capacities, analysis and organizing skills, such that member leaders can effectively lead and in turn build others’ leadership.

Campaigns & Mobilizations

Support this skilled-up base to take strategic, accountable action towards our goals through:

• BDS or other campaigns aligned with JVP’s mission, mandate and strategic priorities, that are also aligned with local goals;
• JVPA campaigns aligned with JVPA’s mission, mandate and strategic priorities, that are also aligned with local goals;
• Local mobilizations that either escalate campaigns or respond to a crisis, in the service of growing the base, activating it, and meeting narrative and/or power shift goals;
• Occasional national mobilizations where JVP-NYC’s mobilizing power can be used to lead for the rest of the country.

Partnerships

Develop and maintain partnerships and healthy working relationships with Palestinian organizations, progressive Jewish organizations, and local movement organizations.

Communications

Work to shift narratives through:

• Ensuring an effective media strategy;
• Ensuring consistent social media engagement.

Maintain infrastructure

• Support the chapter in fundraising, budgeting and financial tracking;
• Ensure the maintenance of the chapter website, database, listservs, internal communications and bank account.

Bring the power of JVP-NYC to the wider organization

• Ensure effective communication, information flow, and coordination between JVP-NYC and the rest of the organization;
• Bring systems, practices and learnings from JVP-NYC base-building, leadership development, campaigns and actions to chapters around the country, such that they can be adapted for very different contexts;
• On occasion, lead a national mobilization.

Skills and qualities we are seeking:

• Develops effective leadership: Leads by developing leaders; effectively supports leaders’ growth through coaching, training, support, and feedback. Ready and able to identify and develop the leadership needed to build a multi-racial, multi-generational base of Jews for Palestinian liberation. This specifically includes the leadership of: young Jews; Jews who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), Mizrahi and/or Sephardi; white anti-racist Jews; trans and queer Jews; and working-class, poor, and/or disabled Jews.
• Builds strong groups: Works effectively with groups, showing a commitment to high-functioning, inclusive groups and building the structures & skills that enable them. Attuned to culture and group dynamics, and able to support groups to build and shift internal culture in liberatory ways. Has strong facilitation instincts and fundamentals. Can effectively support groups to: create organizing goals, focus their energies in strategic ways, build a base, build power locally, and take strategic action.
• Relational and communicative: Understands that organizing is fundamentally built on relationships. Has enthusiasm for meeting and engaging with people, builds authentic relationships across lines of difference, and communicates effectively with others (both verbally and written).
• Strategic, thoughtful, and curious: Able to focus on top-line goals in the work and how we get there. Oriented towards building power and the pathways to achieving our goals, and can in turn support others in building strategic capacity. Can grasp the subtleties of complex issues, identify patterns, hold nuance and balance conflicting priorities. Approaches challenges with curiosity. You quickly grasp the subtleties of complex issues and identify patterns in challenges. You don’t stop at diagnosing problems, though; you come up with insightful, pragmatic, equitable, and sustainable ways to produce positive change.
• Aligned with and rooted in JVP’s values, overall political analysis, and strategy: Has a commitment to building power both locally and nationally towards JVP’s political goals. Understands why JVP is building power as a US-based Jewish organization in the movement for Palestinian freedom, as part of our wider movements for collective liberation. Rooted in values of justice for all people, and works to express those values in their work & organizing approach, including in forging connections across movements.

Please note: As part of JVP’s commitment to equity and transparency, we have a no negotiation policy. Salary negotiations can introduce bias and perpetuate wage inequality.

JVP is a unionized workplace and this role is part of the bargaining unit with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild

Our Job Application Process:

We aim to be transparent and efficient in our hiring process. Each question you will be asked throughout our hiring process ties directly back to one of the skills and experiences listed above. In each stage, you will be asked to provide examples of these skills and experiences or how you would draw on your experience to handle a scenario commonly found at JVP. Our typical hiring process includes:

• Job application: You will not be asked to submit a cover letter. Instead, the application consists of several questions related to the role you are applying for. Your answers will be assessed anonymously by the hiring committee, based on the skills outlined above. You may be required to upload a CV or resume. The hiring committee will not look at your CV/resume or any identifying information until you have been invited to a first round interview, and will make those initial decisions based on your answers to the initial set of questions.
• 25 min video interview: With the hiring manager and a couple member leaders you would work with on a regular basis
• Written work assessment, responding to a scenario commonly found on the job.
• 50 min video interview: May be the same group or a slightly larger group as the first interview
• Reference check

Depending on logistics and scheduling, our hiring process generally takes about 4-5 weeks from the job closing to a job offer. We let candidates know after each step in the process, once we’ve made a decision, whether they are moving forward to the next stage or not, so candidates know the status of their application.

People of color, Sephardi and/or Mizrahi applicants, people with disabilities, and transgender or gender non-conforming applicants strongly encouraged to apply.

Jewish Voice for Peace opposes anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab bigotry and oppression. JVP does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran.

Benefits of working at JVP:

• A four day, 32 hour work week for bargaining unit staff (unless we are in rapid response)
• Up to 16 accumulated vacation days per year
• Up to 12 sick days per year
• Paid time off for political education and anti-racist training
• 17 paid holidays (9 floating and 8 federal)
• Health, vision, and dental insurance with premiums currently paid by JVP, and 15% of family benefits to be paid by JVP
• A supplemental health fund for trans and gender nonconforming staff
• Leave without pay, bereavement, parental leave and medical leave
• Flexible Spending benefit
• 1% of salary paid into 401k by JVP

JVP is committed to providing flexible work arrangements that suit the needs of our staff. All our positions are remote and based in the United States.