Orgs worth knowing
Campus, community, Israel, culture, relief, legal.
campus
- Hillel International
The largest Jewish campus organization in the world, the default landing spot for Jewish student life.
- Chabad on Campus
Chabad houses run by young rabbis and their families near hundreds of campuses, open door, no membership required.
community
- JCC Association of North America
The umbrella body behind local JCCs, the gyms-and-preschools-and-everything-else version of Jewish community life.
- Jewish Federations of North America
The fundraising and coordinating backbone behind local Jewish community services in over 350 communities.
- Moishe House
Peer-led Jewish community in shared houses, aimed at people in their twenties who've aged out of Hillel.
- OneTable
Helps people in their twenties and thirties host or attend a Shabbat dinner, no synagogue membership needed.
- Repair the World
Puts Jewish young adults into real volunteer service alongside the communities they're serving.
- Hadassah
The Women's Zionist Organization of America, still running major hospitals in Jerusalem and advocacy back home.
culture
- Sefaria
A free, searchable library of Jewish texts, Torah through Talmud, with translations, built to actually be used.
- PJ Library
Mails free Jewish children's books to families every month, no strings, funded by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.
israel
- Birthright Israel
The free ten day trip to Israel for young Jewish adults that's introduced a generation to the country firsthand.
- Honeymoon Israel
Sends couples, including interfaith and LGBTQ couples, on a subsidized trip to Israel with peers from their own city.
legal
- American Jewish Committee (AJC)
Advocacy and diplomacy focused on Jewish security and Israel, one of the oldest Jewish advocacy groups in the US.
- Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Tracks antisemitic incidents and hate groups, and is also the group people argue about most inside the Jewish world.
relief
- JDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee)
The global Jewish relief agency, working in disaster zones and vulnerable Jewish communities worldwide.
- HIAS
Started resettling Jewish refugees over a century ago, now resettles refugees of any background on the same Jewish values.
