California Organizer

T’ruah is seeking a California Organizer to build relationships with T’ruah clergy in our two California clusters in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, developing pathways for engagement and leadership. This person will add value by strategizing with the organizing team on how to fully leverage T’ruah’s power to advance campaigns for justice that make concrete changes in our world and alter the relations of power. 

The ideal candidate is an enthusiastic, relational organizer, grounded in Jewish community and wisdom, who is committed to making a difference in movements for justice.

This is an exciting time to join T’ruah at an incredible moment of growth. We plan to expand our staff and our capacity over the next few months. We are at the beginning of an ambitious five-year plan to grow our organization and budget substantially, and we are engaging in organizational reflection and alignment to make sure we are maximizing our impact. You have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor.

Who We Are

T’ruah trains and mobilizes more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism, together with all members of the Jewish community, to act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. 

To learn more about our work, visit www.truah.org or find us @truahrabbis on Twitter and Facebook. 

What You’ll Do 

The California Organizer, who reports to the Director of Organizing, is responsible for the following:

• Base building and leadership development: Develop relationships with local clergy, recruit them to participate in local and national campaign work, and develop their leadership in the structure of campaign work.
• Running campaigns: Support the development of T’ruah’s role in local campaigns -- beginning with identifying what the right campaign is for T’ruah in partnership with local leaders, and then developing the strategy and tactics to win concrete change. Partner with the Director of Campaigns to identify ways for the local clusters to connect with T’ruah’s national campaigns.
• Coalition building: Serve as primary staff person on local campaigns, interfacing with partner organizations, developing T’ruah’s local strategy to advance a campaign that is led by those directly affected by the issues.  

In addition to your supervisor, you will collaborate regularly with:

• Members of the Program Team
• Members of the Communications Team

If you were here right now, you would be:

• Holding research meetings with local, progressive organizations in the Bay Area, prepping chaverim for those meetings, and setting up a process for the cluster to identify a campaign.
• Working with leaders in LA to hold (virtual) house meetings where they build/deepen relationships with one another and identify what issues matter most to them as individuals, and as a group of Jewish clergy.
• Collaborating with the rest of the organizing team and the Director of Campaigns to engage chaverim in particular legislative districts around our national immigration campaign, in a way that moves forward the national work and builds the power of the local cluster.
• Conducting 1:1 meetings with chaverim to engage them in the work. 

Who You Are & Keys to Success

To be successful in this job, you will be or have:

• A skilled and experienced organizer. You have a significant amount of organizing experience. You’ve led successful organizing campaigns, and have a demonstrated track record of building relationships as well as building up the leadership of others.
• Relationship-builder: You are self-aware and attuned to others, and put relationship before task, without dropping the larger vision and goals. You demonstrate appropriate use of self in professional contexts and elicit similar vulnerability in others. You demonstrate integrity, acting in line with your, and the organization’s, values. 
• Thoughtful and strategic about power: You are attentive to the ways that power moves interpersonally across lines of difference and understand how to effectively build power alongside communities that are directly impacted by the issues we organize around (e.g. racism, xenophobia, etc.). You understand the value of relational power and of the unique and powerful contributions that Jewish clergy can make in movements for justice.
• Strategist’s mind: You quickly grasp the subtleties of complex issues and identify patterns in challenges. You come up with insightful, pragmatic, equitable, and sustainable ways to tackle common challenges and produce positive change. You have a successful track record of taking a concept from idea to implementation.
• Knowledge and familiarity with racial equity and inclusion principles: You recognize ways that race and other identities intersect in the work, especially with communities we serve. You are comfortable talking about identities such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, ability, or gender in plain, specific terms. You understand the historical context for racial inequity and its present-day implications.
• Alignment with T’ruah’s values: You are comfortable representing T’ruah’s mission and campaigns. You have the ability to articulate T’ruah’s mission and programmatic work clearly and compellingly.  

Experience with the following are plusses but not requirements:

1. Experience working with clergy
2. Familiarity with the progressive California, Bay Area, and/or LA organizing landscapes
3. Experience overseeing a large group of people to realize a vision

Systemic inequities in hiring have caused many women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. If you don’t have all of the qualifications listed above but are a strong writer and communicator, passionate about our mission, and believe you have applicable and transferable skills from other industries, we encourage you to apply for this job. We’d love to hear from you. In your cover letter, be sure to explicitly highlight how your experience, skills, and personal qualities have set you up to succeed in the role.

What Else You Should Know 

Status

This position is full-time (40 hours/week). 

Salary

This position is in T’ruah’s $60,000 – $85,000 salary band. Rabbis and cantors start at $70,000 and those with a different relevant degree start at $65,000. We set salary within this band through a collaborative process using a standard rubric based on years of experience.

Location

This is a permanent remote position; the person in the role will be based either in Los Angeles or the Bay Area.

Travel

Currently due to COVID no travel is required, but in the future we’d expect: ability to travel to occasional in-person meetings in various US locations.

Benefits include:

• 100% coverage of your medical insurance premium and 50% coverage for one family member
• Automatic employer-side contributions of an amount equal to 5% of your salary to your 403(b) retirement account beginning one year after the date of hire – whether or not you choose to make employee-side contributions
• 10 vacation days a year in your first year of employment, increasing to 20 days a year after three years
• 34 holidays a year, which includes Jewish and most Federal holidays, Summer Fridays, and a floating holiday
• Paid leave of up to 12 weeks for the birth or adoption of a child

Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)

T’ruah is committed to DEI at every level of our organization, including our Board of Directors. For the past several years we have been actively working on becoming an antiracist organization. We are currently in the process of creating a set of organizational values that will reflect this commitment. 

Equal opportunity employer

T’ruah is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, personal appearance, family responsibility, political affiliation or any other status protected by applicable law. Women, transgender people, veterans and people of color are encouraged to apply. 

How to Apply 

1. Complete the informational form located here.

AND

1. Send a cover letter and resume to jobs@truah.org. Please write “California Organizer” in the subject line. Resumes without a cover letter will not be considered. No phone calls, please. 

Our Timeline

Applications will be accepted through June 10. Interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis. Our ideal start date for this position is on or around July 18.