Jewish Community Action

Affordable housing: our affordable housing campaign has focused on the suburbs of hennepin county, passing policy at the city level to protect renters, especially in low wealth and communities of color. Working in a coalition with housing advocates, tenants' rights organizations, and social service agencies, we passed tenant protection ordinances requiring renters be given at least 3 months notice before an eviction or a rent increase based on a change of building ownership. This has impacted thousands of renters in the western twin cities suburbs, and at the end of the fiscal year, we obtained seed funding to expand this work to the east metro as well.

Congregational organizing: as anticipated, the work of this new position continues to evolve. Our organizer has developed strong relationships with st. paul congregations in support of city and state efforts to provide reparations to survivors of chattel slavery. They have also connected with native minnesotans who are working on land-back reparations and are exploring the intersections between racial and environmental justice. The work to engage congregations around nonpartisan election and democracy defense work through the 2024 general election continues.

Immigrant rights: our immigrant rights campaign has focused on the intersection of immigration policy and the criminal justice system, working in coalition with faith, Community, and immigrant-led organizations to pass state and national immigration reform. We have advocated for several years for drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants and other immigrant communities at the Minnesota legislature, and last year we successfully passed the first material reform to sentencing laws in more than a decade. (see continuation on schedule o)

Decriminalizing communities: the 2022 midterm elections created a favorable environment for passing many of our statewide legislative priorities. We were part of powerful coalitions that passed drivers licenses for all, allowing all minnesotans, regardless of immigration status, to obtain drivers licenses. We restored the vote to 40,000 formerly incarcerated minnesotans who live, work and raise families in our communities while on parole or probation. We passed incremental changes to the work-release and post-conviction relief policies in our department of corrections, but there remains work to be done in 2024 to ensure that these opportunities are fully implemented and funded. Our ice out team has joined forces with the north star coalition that is organizing in support of legislation that would end collaboration with ice statewide, while we continue our county-based organizing. We convened our dcc coalition for a two day retreat, committing to shared work for the next program year and beyond.

Combating hate: we continued to lead the communities combating hate coalition, and were finally able to pass our combating hate bill in the state legislature. We consulted with the post board to update training standards and objectives for peace officers. We met with the us attorney's office and the department of human rights to create systems for collaborating and reporting to ensure accurate data about the state of hate in Minnesota. We received a contract from hennepin county to convene organizations in the county around anti-hate public education initiatives, and are working on co-creating curriculum with multi-faith, multi-racial partners. Our book club continues to meet regularly and has expanded its program offerings to explore antifascist art and deep dives into historical archives. We continue to offer bi-montly public antisemitism 101 trainings, and have provided the program to 12 faith, school and Community groups.

Housing justice: we have continued to work with a reticent minneapolis city council to implement a fair rent stabilization policy following the outcome of the 2021 election. We joined our future starts at home, a multi-sector statewide coalition that is proposing an amendment to our state constitution that would create an affordable housing fund. We hope that the measure will appear on 2024 ballots. The housing justice league continues to advocate for a meaningful topa policy that will give renters the first right to purchase their buildings when they are up for sale. We have strengthened our suburban housing teams and the suburban tenant coalition.

Tzedek institute: unfortunately we were not successful in engaging enough members in greater Minnesota to complete our planned winter training cohort. Instead, we are holding our first in-person cohort since 2019 beginning next month. Jca's co-founder and long-time executive director vic rosenthal lost his battle with cancer this spring. In his memory, we have renamed our organizing training program the vic rosenthal tzedek institute (vrti), and reconfigured the curriculum to create meaningful opportunities for multi-generational organizing training and Action. Beginning this winter we will begin a fundraising campaign in support of stipends for vrti participants.

Democracy: the statewide we choose us coalition developed an ambitious and ultimately very successful policy platform for the 2023 Minnesota legislative session. In addition to restoring the vote, we passed automatic voter registration legislation, made updates to election day access and technology, passed a bill allowing 16 and 17 year olds to pre-register to vote, and ensured voter protections for early and election day voting. We are working with the policy team to develop priorities for 2024.