The Jews of Color Initiative is proud to be the catalyst for many projects and initiatives paving the way for efforts to represent Jews of Color in educational curricula. By making grants to projects that generate new educational efforts and resources as well as continuing our long-standing tradition of community education through key speaking engagements, JoCI and our partners are ensuring racial diversity is reflected in Jewish education.
Advancing Youth and Community Education and Resources
American Jews are increasingly racially diverse, with an estimated 12-15% of the population identifying as Jews of Color. As our community becomes increasingly diverse, Jewish communal leaders of all backgrounds are highlighting the critical need for educational resources that reflect the full spectrum of Jewish racial and ethnic identities—an effort that JoCI and our grantees are leading with great success.
Other educational initiatives are developing early childhood education materials. The Shalom Curriculum Project, led by Aweku Michal Avera Samuel at University of Wisconsin, Madison, is focused on reshaping early childhood education by developing books, dolls, and music that reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the Jewish community, especially for use in Jewish day schools, JCCs, and early childhood centers. This curriculum ensures that JoC children see themselves represented and reflected in the stories and lessons they encounter. It also ensures that children of all backgrounds understand Judaism as a multiracial community with a rich tapestry of cultural traditions and backgrounds.
The Olamim Family School in the San Francisco, Bay Area, and Brooklyn’s Camp Kulanu @ Hanah Senesh Community Day School are at the forefront of integrating education, community building and family empowerment. Olamim, led by Ariela Ronay-Jinich, celebrates Latin Jewish culture through intergenerational Spanish, English, and Hebrew multilingual programming. Brooklyn’s Camp Kulanu—a project led by Jamie Maxner and incubated by JoCI— is a multicultural Jewish day camp program that centers Jews of Color for kindergarten through 2nd graders and helps more children and families feel a sense of belonging. Both Ronay-Jinich’s and Maxner’s programs are more than just educational—they ensure diverse families, and communities are strengthened with powerful content, pride and confidence.
Through the support of JoCI, grantees are at the forefront of innovative educational projects that elevate Jewish racial diversity in both formal and informal educational settings. For example, the JewFro graphic novel, created by Tameika Minor and Tonia Respes and incubated by JoCI, tells the story of a young Black Jewish boy who discovers his heritage is his superpower. The graphic novel addresses the lack of Black Jewish characters in children’s literature while providing an engaging tool for cultural understanding.
Recent publications by others in the field, like HYPHEN and What Jewish Looks Like also help further diversify Jewish narratives and histories. JoC leaders, including JoCI Programs Associate Jade Groobman, advocated for increased JoC representation in New York City’s educational curriculum at a recent roundtable where many educational resources were shared. These efforts, among many others, illustrate how Jews of Color and allies are advancing education nationwide to foster greater representation and belonging. Moreover, as JoCI, its grantees, and partners continue to lead this charge, our work helps build Jewish and secular education at all levels that generates inclusion, belonging, and mutual respect for all identities, ultimately strengthening the fabric of Jewish life across the U.S.
JoCI Leadership Shapes Educational Advocacy
JoCI’s CEO, Ilana Kaufman, plays a key role in helping educators and educational institutions understand and teach about collecting demographic data and the diversity of the Jewish community. Through speaking engagements at institutions like The Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE) at George Washington University, the Zelikow School of Management at Hebrew Union College, and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Kaufman teaches the methodology behind JoCI’s research studies to post doctorate Fellows, Graduate degree candidates, and teaching hospital department heads seeking to expand how they think about, collect and interpret demographic data about identity,
For example, at HUC’s Zelikow School, Kaufman presented to master’s students in management studies, exploring how data on racial diversity can inform strategies for managing diverse teams and organizations. At UCSF, her audience included medical faculty and department heads, who learned how inclusive research practices can strengthen understanding of racial and cultural dynamics within diverse healthcare environments. At CASJE, Kaufman engaged postdoctoral fellows to challenge how traditional assumptions in research inform definitions of Jewish peoplehood, inviting them to apply these lessons to their future work.
“In every room, from management classrooms to medical departments, the question isn’t just about who counts—it’s about how we use this data to build equitable systems that reflect the full diversity of the Jewish community,” Kaufman shares. By equipping students, faculty, and researchers with these tools, JoCI increases the ripple effect of our research to build an inclusive and expansive Jewish narrative that will inform education, leadership, and policy for generations to come.
As part of a Jewish leadership roundtable, and equipped with relevant data and educational resources, JoCI Programs Associate Jade Groobman helped the Mayor’s Office of New York CIty understand the diversity of the Jewish community in an effort to increase JoC representation in New York City’s educational curriculum. Groobman’s powerful contribution to these efforts, among many others, illustrate how the JoCI partners with civic leadership and allies to advance multicultural education to advocate for greater representation and belonging. The JoCI, our grantees, and partners powerfully collaborate to support Jewish and secular education at all levels that demonstrably values inclusion, belonging, and mutual respect for all identities, ultimately strengthening the fabric of Jewish life across the U.S.
JoCI Program Officer Jordan Daniels has also helped advance the dialogue on JoC representation in education, sharing insights that amplify the importance of inclusive narratives both within their roles and in broader public conversations. In a recent blog post titled More Jewish Representation: When Your Intersectional Identity Becomes Living History, Daniels reflected on the transformative power of representation in education and media. “What stories could be told in school and media that demonstrated the joys and complexities of being Jewish, especially for this second-generation American Jew?” he asks, highlighting the lack of narratives that reflect the intersectionality of being Black, Jewish, and queer. As an integral part of the team at JoCI, Daniels is actively working to address this gap; “we fund the programs, leaders, and research helping write the histories that will hopefully fill my future children’s textbooks. We’re co-building the worlds for people like us to experience a reality where our stories are told.” Daniels’ reflections underscore his and JoCI’s commitment to cultivating visibility and inclusion, creating opportunities for future generations to see their diverse identities celebrated in classrooms and beyond.
By investing in communal dialogue, increasing visibility, and advocating for systemic change, we are building a community where diverse experiences are recognized for their invaluable contributions to Jewish life.
