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Atlanta Jews of Color Council is a nonpartisan grassroots organization owned and led by Jewish women of color. We provide a platform for Jewish women and girls of color to be amplified as the best experts of their own lived experience. Through the arts AJOCC works at the intersection of empowerment and social impact. It is built on recommendations from the local community.

AJOCC serves as the south’s intergenerational leadership development, mentoring, and power building entry point for Jewish women of color. AJOCC is at the forefront of championing justice and equitable policies that center racial, economic, and gender justice to promote health and wellness, economic security, education, and global empowerment as key elements of liberation.

Our goal is to embrace the humanity in every person by promoting a culture of justice where all individuals, regardless of ethnic identities, ages, social and economic status, sexual orientation, and physical and mental abilities are able to thrive and be engaged. Our intersectional lived-experience gives us a unique vantage point to provide strategic and programmatic leadership for equity and inclusion initiatives that advance justice as a critical component of belonging, and welcoming communities.

Jews are located in almost every corner of the world, and can be categorized as Sephardi Jews in Northern Africa, Spain and Portugal; Mizrachi Jews from communities in Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries; or Ashkenazi Jews from Europe.  Jews also descend from ancient communities in Ethiopia, India and China.  In the United States Jewish demographics are becoming more diverse. Younger Jews are far more likely to say they are not white. In all, 15% of Jewish adults in the United States under 30 years old are Hispanic, Black, Asian, another non-white race or multiracial; 12% for ages 30 to 39.

We ask our community to arrive with empathy and an equity forward perspective to create a community based on respect for the dignity of each individual and a shared sense of responsibility for the well-being of one another. We must seek to understand privilege and confront overt and hidden biases in ourselves, our organizations, institutions and systems.

“Those with the closest proximity to the problem are the closest to finding the best solutions.” -Glenn Martin

No initiative for social justice has ever succeeded without the full participation and leadership of those most affected. We must elevate diverse perspectives, beliefs, and values as vital to our community’s conversation of purpose.