JCUA recently bid farewell to our 2025-2026 Avodah organizer Sally Hirschwerk. Sally began her year-long fellowship by attending an organizing conference in Washington, D.C. focused on how to shift our strategies and tactics to fight back against an authoritarian regime, and win. She brought those learnings back to JCUA, trained our members, and led our participation in the PowerUp campaign targeting corporate collaborators.

Sally led JCUA’s base-building efforts in two Chicago wards, organizing a series of house meetings for JCUA members to get to know their neighbors. She concluded the year as a leader on the training team for JCUA’s annual Organizing 101.

It has been a joy to see Sally grow as an organizer in the past year and to learn from her wisdom, clarity, and care for our community. We are so excited for her to bring all of this back to New York and eventually to the rabbinate. Sally is good for the movement and good for the Jews.

Sally reflected on her year organizing with JCUA:

In my final weeks as an Avodah fellow I had the opportunity to co-facilitate JCUA’s Organizing 101 training. I left the training feeling inspired by the passion, care, and energy that each person brought, and grateful to have spent the past year organizing with all of you, who are so determined and passionate about working towards a more just world.

Throughout the year, I translated the Jewish values, stories, morals, and lessons that form who I am into how I act. It has been a privilege to build hyper local neighborhood communities, support the PowerUp campaign to pressure corporate collaborators to withdraw their support from the fascist regime, and lead trainings on community organizing and the shifts we need to make in order to defeat authoritarianism and build a multiracial democracy.

In a world that can feel dark, you have given me so much hope, taught me what it means to show up for your neighbors and city, and helped me recognize my own agency and stake in the future. I feel so lucky to have been a part of a Jewish community that has pushed me to think expansively about the world around me, and brought me closer into solidarity with people throughout the city. I am so excited to continue to build and be a part of Jewish communities like this wherever I go next.

When I first came to JCUA, I was excited and curious to see how an organization could bring Jews from across a wide array of practices, traditions, and experiences together for political power. I am leaving with the understanding that it is because at JCUA, relationships come first. It has been such a joy this year to get to build relationships with you over coffee, at Sketchpad, on the bus to Springfield, and in the streets of Chicago. I will take all that you have taught me as I begin my next adventure back home in New York. I cannot wait to see what comes next for JCUA.