New York Jewish Agenda

08/21/2026

Serving as a poll worker is easy and rewarding. We’re so grateful to everyone in the NYJA community who has shown up for our democracy in this way. If you’d like to tell us about your experience as a poll worker, please DM us! And if you’d like to be a poll worker for the upcoming midterm elections, you can sign up at the link in our bio.

08/16/2026

08/12/2026

Huge thanks to Camp Shomria for organizing the Israel-Palestine Peace and Solidarity summit this past weekend! It was great to see some of our Young Leaders there and to introduce new people to NYJA. Our ED, Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson, led a training on breaking out of siloes and connecting with people across ideological difference. If you want to bring this training to your community, please reach out!

08/11/2026

Yesterday, our Executive Director Rabbi Margo Hughes Robinson and our cofounder and board member Rabbi Rachel Timoner joined a minyan of their rabbinic colleagues in a roundtable discussion with Mayor Mamdani about how to keep Jewish New Yorkers Safe. We’re grateful for the candor and good faith in which this conversation was held, and we eagerly anticipate seeing the mayor’s full plan.

08/07/2026

“It’s the basic theory of the big tent, right? Everyone should be welcome for some basic things. I mean, of course we all have red lines. I just try to keep mine very far away.”

During our webinar earlier this week, Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin spoke about the hazards of political litmus tests when trying to form partnerships to address important issues.

You can watch the whole webinar recording at the link in our bio.

08/06/2026

“Step one is to calibrate our fear, and then when we can do that, we can be more expansive with our feelings and our thinking.”

In this week’s webinar, Rabbi Rachel Timoner, NYJA cofounder and board member, discussed the importance of reacting to scary and challenging situations in ways that are aligned with our values. When we’re able to do this, we can uplift our values, our safety, and our democracy all at once.

You can watch the whole webinar recording at the link in our bio.

07/31/2026

NYJA’s Young Leaders Network braved the rain for the Brooklyn Cyclones game last night. We had so much fun, and it was a great reminder of how important it is to spend time as a community, especially in our current moment. Thanks everyone for joining us!

07/29/2026

Join us next Tuesday, August 4th, for a conversation with political analyst and researcher Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, and Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim, as we grapple with the challenges and opportunities of our political moment. 

Together, we’ll explore the most pressing tensions for New York Jews right now: How do we navigate new litmus tests across the political spectrum? How do we comprehensively address rising antisemitism and its weaponization? What models of relationships and of coalition can help keep our communities safe, and build a New York of welcome and care? Against a national background of rising authoritarianism, how do we move effectively and build new alliances at the local level?

We hope you can join us for this timely conversation. Registration link in bio.

07/27/2026

On Friday, we joined with interfaith partners for a vigil honoring Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Johan Sebastian Guerrero, and all who have lost their lives to ICE. We demanded accountability, justice, and dignity for all, and to uphold the right to migration.