Vision

Our vision is for a world in which every individual is treated with dignity and respect, and has the opportunity to be healthy, safe, and economically secure, free from fear and discrimination.

Mission

JALSA puts our Jewish values into action by engaging the Jewish community and our allies in the pursuit of social, economic, environmental, and racial justice. As a grassroots, membership-driven nonprofit organization, our efforts to create a more just and equitable society are powered by relationships in both the public policy and Jewish communities, as well as through connections to thousands of activists across the state. Our robust, intergenerational network of individuals, clergy, and Jewish organizations makes it possible for us to use our “toolbox” of community organizing, advocacy, legal strategies, and educational workshops to achieve impactful and sustainable social and legislative change.

Our Values

JALSA is guided by our fundamental Jewish values. We believe that in every generation, it is our obligation to strive to bring about a just society, and we are optimistic enough to believe it’s possible to achieve. The following values serve as the underlying guide for our work:

  • Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof – Justice, justice shall you pursue (obligating us to put justice into action)

  • B’tzelem Elohim – Every human being is worthy of dignity and respect

  • Love Your Neighbor as Yourself – Show kindness and compassion to all human beings

Our History

Established in 2001, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action is a membership-based organization devoted to engaging the community in promoting civil rights, protecting civil liberties, and achieving social, economic, and environmental justice based on Jewish values.

Our JALSA toolkit includes:

  • Using community organizing to involve our members in finding solutions to “root cause” issues that lead to a more equitable society;

  • Working with public officials to enact and implement complex legislative proposals;

  • Filing amicus briefs in precedent-setting court cases; and

  • Hosting a variety of trainings, forums, and briefings to educate our members and the public on state and national issues.

 Building relationships with interfaith and multiracial coalitions is at the center of all of our work to advance justice. Our members have helped achieve major public policy changes on a wide range of critical issues in many areas.

  • ● The Immigrant Driver’s License Bill - JALSA played a leading role in passage of the Work and Family Mobility Act, which allows immigrants, regardless of documentation, the ability to obtain a driver’s license. JALSA helped make sure that the Jewish and interfaith community was part of the coalition of elected officials, major businesses, transportation experts, healthcare professionals, law enforcement leaders, and activists in every part of the state supporting the law. JALSA’s staff attorney was responsible for drafting the final version of the law, and is involved in writing the regulations to implement it.

    ● JALSA worked to defend the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, involving members in rallies, phone banks, and social media campaigns.

    ● Our members wrote a legal guide for congregations considering serving as sanctuaries for immigrants threatened with deportation

  • ● JALSA helped create the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, overcoming intense opposition to pass some of the strongest gun licensing, ownership, and data-tracking laws in the United States.

    ● The Coalition was the driving force behind passage in the state legislature of the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) law, which allows for the temporary removal of firearms, when a judge determines that an individual poses an extreme risk to themselves or others.

    ● We also worked on the federal level to oppose concealed carry reciprocity legislation, which would have weakened stronger state laws across the country.

  • ● JALSA was a founding member of Raise Up Massachusetts (RUM), a broad coalition of labor, religious, and community partners working on multiple issues of income inequality.

    ● This group successfully guided a legislative campaign to raise the minimum wage in Massachusetts, and give nearly 1 million full-time and part-time Massachusetts workers paid family and medical leave.

    ● We were part of the successful effort to put the Fair Share Amendment on the ballot in 2022, asking the Commonwealth’s highest earners to pay slightly more in taxes for major new revenue for education and transportation.

    ● JALSA is part of the Feed Kids Coalition, which successfully advocated for funding to continue universal school meals in Massachusetts, making us one of only five states in the country to continue the pandemic-era program of making sure all children have access to free school lunches.

  • ● JALSA took the lead in organizing the Jewish community nationally to get involved in protecting abortion access on the ballot in Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, and Wisconsin through phone banking, texting, and letter writing.

    ● In Massachusetts, JALSA was on the Steering Committee of the ROE Coalition, which successfully passed a law ensuring that our state had some of the strongest abortion protections in the entire country. After the Dobbs decision, we were also involved in the effort to update our laws to protect abortion providers and out-of-state patients seeking care in our state.

    ● JALSA created a curriculum which educates people about the current status of abortion in our country, the state and national laws governing reproductive health, and the Jewish values behind ensuring access to abortion procedures and medication.

  • ● JALSA took a lead role in organizing the interfaith coalition in opposition to the statewide ballot question that threatened to eliminate Chapter 40B, the state’s affordable housing law, which has led to the creation of thousands of affordable housing options for individuals, families, and seniors.

    ● Our members worked to ensure Boston’s participation in the Community Preservation Act, a state program that allows Boston to raise money for affordable housing, parks, and historic preservation through a small property tax surcharge, matched by additional funding from the Commonwealth.

    ● JALSA has created “Confronting Housing Discrimination,” a community education series that teaches participants about the impacts of historical housing discrimination and its contemporary manifestations, and offers them the tools to become more effective housing advocates.

  • ● JALSA has organized over 1,000 volunteers, including over 20 synagogue teams and individuals, in an effort to engage voters around the country in states facing severe voter suppression. We have reached over 250,000 people to help make sure they know how to register, obtain ballots, and cast their votes in a way that can be counted.

    ● We were part of the coalition to enact the state VOTES Act, which made mail-in and early voting provisions adopted under COVID-19 permanent, extended voter registration deadlines, and reformed jail-based voting.

  • ● JALSA members successfully advocated for passage of statewide legislation banning LGBTQ+ discrimination in employment, public accommodations, housing, and insurance, as well as adding “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the Commonwealth’s non-discrimination and hate crimes laws.

    ● JALSA was an early proponent of marriage equality, including amicus brief participation in the landmark Massachusetts case of Goodrich v. Dept. of Public Health (2003). And we were members of the steering committee of MassEquality, established in the early 2000s to fight a proposed anti-gay marriage effort to overturn the Supreme Judicial Court decision in Goodrich.

    ● Our members took a lead role in the “Yes on 3” campaign which was formed in opposition to an attempt to repeal the state’s transgender public accommodations law. This law we protected prohibits discrimination against transgender people in public places (such as movies, hotels, restaurants, public parks, etc.)

  • ● JALSA takes strong positions to support the passage of key legislation to address climate change, which among other things has resulted in the state’s climate change roadmap, including codification of a net-zero emissions target by 2050 and increased reliance on renewable energy sources;

    ● JALSA is a member of MA Power Forward, a coalition of environmental groups, community development corporations, faith groups, and neighborhood and safety advocates who work for clean, affordable, reliable energy and a thriving economy. We are also a member of the Zero Carbon Renovation Fund Coalition, supporting increased resources for conversion to green and renewable energy sources, particularly in environmental justice communities.

    ● JALSA participated in the effort to successfully halt construction of the Palmer Biomass Plant, which would have subjected residents in Springfield to the release of nitrogen compounds and high ozone concentrations from the burning of 1,200 tons of wood mass a day.

    ● JALSA created a climate justice curriculum to introduce participants to climate change policymaking, and arm them with knowledge, training, and opportunities to support climate justice initiatives.

  • ● JALSA helped pass a major omnibus criminal justice reform, which included significant changes to mandatory minimum sentences, reductions to punitive fines and fees for returning citizens, and reform of solitary confinement, among many other provisions.