Corps Member with Jewish Service Corps

Applications are open for the 2024-2025 Avodah's Jewish Service Corps, an immersive service year program running September 2024 - August 2025 for emerging changemakers ages 21-26. Spend a year serving full-time at a non-profit placement partner while living and learning in a justice-oriented Jewish community. We are accepting applications on a rolling basis until all open roles are filled. Some of our open positions with Avodah placement partners include:

• Paralegal at Capital Area Immigrants' Rights (CAIR) Coalition: The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition strives to ensure equal justice for all immigrant adults and children at risk of detention and deportation in the Capital region area and beyond through direct legal representation, know your rights presentations, impact litigation, advocacy, and the enlistment and training of attorneys to defend immigrants. The Paralegal in the Detained Adult Program will focus on the coordination and execution of visits to detention centers for the purpose of conducting know your rights presentations and intakes with detained adults, working with clients throughout the course of removal proceedings, including assisting with paperwork and case preparation, and supporting the program’s provision of services as a whole. 
• Knowledge Management Coordinator at DC Central Kitchen: DC Central Kitchen’s mission is to use food as a tool to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities. The Knowledge Management Coordinator will manage knowledge databases, ensuring information is organized and accessible, execute knowledge management protocols to improve information sharing and collaboration, provide administrative support to executives, including managing schedules, communication, and travel arrangements, attend occasional community engagement events to distribute DCCK-related resources, assist in the preparation of presentations, reports, and other materials for meetings and events, and Conduct research and gather information to support decision-making and projects.
• Virginia Outreach Coordinator at First Shift Justice Project: First Shift Justice Project is a nonprofit organization that helps working mothers and other caregivers in low wage jobs assert their workplace rights to prevent job loss. The community Outreach Coordinator will coordinate and deliver Know Your Rights presentations, train medical providers and other professionals about workplace rights, and conduct client outreach in Northern Virginia by reaching out to community groups.
• Client Services Associate at Food & Friends: Food & Friends improves the lives and health of people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses that limit their ability to provide nourishment for themselves. The Client Services Associate primarily works independently by building relationships with clients through home visits to enhance the partnership between the client and the rest of our staff. The role involves implementing and maintaining existing projects and there is flexibility in initiating special projects (members in past years have created peer support groups, caregiver newsletters, etc.). Spanish language skills are desired, but not required.
• Migrant Support Coordinator at HIAS-DC: Drawing on our Jewish values and history, HIAS provides vital services to refugees and asylum seekers around the world and advocates for their fundamental rights so they can rebuild their lives. The Migrant Support Coordinator will assist the Volunteer Coordinator with the annual recruitment and onboarding of volunteers and will be responsible for matching volunteers with HIAS clients, developing and presenting training materials and resources, and supporting volunteers through weekly office hours and telephone/email contact. The Migrant Support Coordinator will liaise with the Legal Services staff to review client needs and ensure appropriate services are provided and be responsible for administering, managing and facilitating the monthly Letter Writing Program, through which HIAS volunteers write letters of solidarity and support for people in immigration detention, and the annual holiday toy drive to benefit HIAS clients. The Corps Member will also assist with program development and research and database upkeep. Spanish proficiency is strongly preferred; proficiency in French, Dari, Pashto or other languages also preferred.



As a member of the Jewish Service Corps, you’ll: 

• Create lasting Jewish community. Home-cooked Shabbat dinners, late night conversations, and holiday celebrations make living in the bayit (communal home) memorable and meaningful. Corps Members co-create intentional, pluralistic communities that help them vision and embody how the world could be. 
• Launch your career in social justice.  After matching with a placement organization,, you'll contribute meaningfully to on-the-ground efforts on crucial justice issues such as immigration, housing insecurity, education, healthcare, the criminal legal system, and more. Gain a year of hands-on experience with a supportive community by your side.
• Dive into deep learning. Through experiential programming, you’ll explore different visions for movements for justice, the role of community in creating a more just world, and how you want to show up as a Jew in justice work.  Our dynamic curriculum will deepen and contextualize your day-to-day work, while supporting you in finding your place in broader justice movements. Jews of Color (JOCs) can also participate in JOC-specific programming and community building.
• Have your basic needs met. Avodah takes care of the most important things. Corps Members receive furnished housing, a monthly living stipend, health insurance, an exit stipend, and a travel allowance.  Corps Members can also tap into the economic access fund to support unmet financial needs.   
• Join our active alumni network for life. Our community of over 1,500 Jewish social justice professionals and activists across the country are there to help with apartment hunts, job references, Shabbat dinner invites, mentorship, and everything in between.

Jews of Color (JOCs) can also apply for our JOC Bayit, an affinity space within the Jewish Service Corps designed to nurture the leadership and well-being of Jews of Color.

Avodah is committed to building a service corps that inclusively represents the diverse Jewish Community. Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Jews of Color, people of color, women, people with disabilities, immigrants, LGBT2QIA people, and people who come from poor or working class backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply!