Join Tzedek Lab
Tzedek Lab is a network of individual members who support one another in their shared work as practitioners leading their Jewish communities and allies in ending racism, antisemitism and white supremacy. Members join our living laboratory through multi-day immersive network gatherings.
We open applications for new members every 2 years, and members join through participation in an immersive Network Gathering. This is an interest form, and is not the application to join Tzedek Lab. Filling out the form below will add you to our list, and you will be notified next time there is an open application cycle. Thank you!
Expectations & Benefits of Tzedek Lab Membership
Benefits & Offerings
Contribute to the Web: Being in Tzedek Lab offers an opportunity to be part of strengthening the wider Jewish movement against racism, antisemitism, institutional white supremacy and white supremacist movements.
Ground in Shared Strategy: Join the larger strategy conversation about how to politicize and transform the Jewish community.
Receive Authentic and Impactful Support: Tzedek Lab offers deep, honest, vulnerable, and supportive conversation and practice space among high impact/low ego thought-leaders and practitioners through all Network Calls, Gatherings, and community dialogue.
Grow as a Leader: Peer-to-peer dialogue and connection as well as our robust library of resources provide abundant and accessible leadership and skill development.
Access Relational Resources and Mentorship: Be a part of an ongoing network of support from leaders in the field through our active listserv and numerous threads for particular groups. Tzedek Lab spaces offer peer-led camaraderie, challenge, accountability, and inspiration.
Give and Receive Spiritual Care: Staff and peers offer spiritual care and tracking, with one-on-one support as needed and desired. Staff actively note where you are leading, taking risks, and/or coming up against challenges, and staff steward relationships with members to support personal & professional growth and collaborations.
Get Connected: Staff are engaged in intentional network weaving, pairing members and small groups and supporting members to self-organize to connect around topics, skills, or relevant experiences.
Play and Celebrate: We know that our joy brings the world to come. We have fun together!
Reciprocity & Expectations
Commitment to high impact & low ego: Tzedek Lab members are committed to politicizing, transforming & inspiring the Jewish community towards collective action against white supremacy, and we understand that we all have places to lead and places to learn within this political project. Internally, this means warmly welcoming 1-3 new members via one-on-one calls each year and bringing humility, curiosity and a generous spirit to your Tzedek Lab interactions.
Commitment to learning: Members do their best to stay connected with communities of practice through the network, reading and interacting with questions and virtual group discussion, attending gatherings, and engaging thoughtfully when offering and receiving feedback.
Commitment to praxis: Joining is a commitment to participating in a living organizing lab. This means experimenting, putting into action and deepening the quality of the practices that emerge from our shared learning. In practice this includes being open to connecting with fellow lab-mates around shared work, interests, identities, etc as capacity allows. Practitioners are expected to be in positions training, organizing, or leading within the Jewish community and/or movement spaces (paid or unpaid).
Commitment to generosity and resource sharing: Resources related to our roles in the movement are shared within the network generously, with citation of individual or organizational authorship. Members are expected to offer what they are able in terms of support, time, attention, and presence with fellow lab members.
Commitment to sustain our collective: Our movements deserve to be sustainable places of joy, connection, collaboration, and vision. To collectively embody this at Tzedek Lab, members contribute member dues and make a monthly or annual financial contribution. Most members give $14/month.
Commitment to a culture of care and transformation: We treat each other with respect and generosity of spirit and honor our diverse experiences and points of view. We commit to uphold and respect our community values & approach. In the event of conflict or harm, we seek counsel from trusted fellow members and staff to discern the steps for a supportive process.
2024 Network Gathering
This year we will gather for a hybrid virtual & in person Network Gathering with regional crews to connect as a full network and deepen with TLers closest in geography to us. We will root in with local buds, feel the breadth of the full network, celebrate Shabbat, power map, scheme and dream together!
For those who aren’t able to travel, we will also host some virtual space over the course of the weekend to cultivate connection across the full network.
What happens at a Tzedek Lab Network Gathering?
As a community of practitioners, we debrief action, training, leading and mobilization moments, cross-pollinate and learn from each other’s experiments, explore new connections and partnerships, and strategize together. We dig into analysis together, sharing insight about intersections and impacts of white supremacy, antisemitism, racism, and Islamophobia in the US and Israel/Palestine. We wrestle with barriers to building trust with one another and our allies, and invest in each other as family in this work. This year our gatherings will be in local hubs, in intimate crews of our regional neighbors, as well as a virtual component for those who can’t travel or aren’t in a hosting city.
We are excited to bring together a mix of returning members along with a solid crew of new members. If you've been waiting to join or to invite people to join, now is the time!
Schedule
The shape of each regional gathering is still forming, and the gathering in each location may look slightly different from each other. At this stage, we want to know if you can hold that weekend to attend any amount in person or at minimum if you can attend the Full Network Opening, Closing and member-led zoom sessions.
Thurs Aug 15: Travel & arrive
Fri Aug 16: For those in person, gather in person in regional hubs and zoom in to virtual Full Network Opening & Orientation from your regional hub or from home. We will gather virtually for the Full Network Opening & Orientation as well as member-led sessions before Shabbat. Opening & Orientation will take place 12-2pm ET/ 10-12pm PT, with member-led sessions to follow from 2:30-3:30ET/ 11:30-12:30PT and 3:45-4:45ET/ 12:45-1:45PT.
Sat Aug 17: Spend Shabbat together in regional clusters or join for a virtual component
Sun Aug 18: Option to do in person activities in community (election organizing, anyone?), close out as a group and travel home
Mon Aug 19: Gather virtually for member-led sessions, Integration & Closing Full Network Call (on zoom). Member-led sessions will take place 11-11:45am ET/ 8-8:45am PT, 12-1ET/ 9-10PT, following by our Integration & Closing Full Network Call at 2-4pm ET/ 11-1pm PT.
Who can attend?
All existing members are welcome and encouraged to attend, and we also welcome a new round of members to join.
How are new members selected?
Our strategy is to grow intentionally and fractally, not fast and big. To support the relational culture of Tzedek Lab, our intention is to grow by a maximum of 10% each cycle, with a maximum of 25% new members at the Network Gathering. This year that means we have room to bring in about 32 new members.
We prioritize practitioners and long-haul leaders, people with marginalized identities who have been systematically kept out of structures of support (BIPOC, Sephardim and Mizrahim, raised poor and working class folks, and others), as well as individuals who are in isolated geographies.
Where will we stay and gather?
Most folks in each location will be local, and we will support matching members coming in from nearby areas with local TL members who can host each other. Each regional hub will have an organizing team who will find a meeting place that makes sense for their group, depending on the group size and the local context and resources available. We’re mapping out locations and will share more details soon.
What are the costs and funds?
There will be a sliding scale individual registration fee which will go to provide a small budget for each region to use how they wish towards food, space, or materials and for small travel stipends for those who need them. If this is not within your means, no one will be turned away for lack of funds!
What’s Next?
~ If you are new to Tzedek Lab, and think this network could be a good fit for you, apply here by June 14th! New members will be confirmed in July. There is more information about membership in the FAQ below.
~ If you are a member, it’s time to register and contribute to the planning! Are you excited to help gather your people? Lead something for Shabbat? Cook something delish? Host a buddy on your couch? Have another idea for something to contribute? Write to Helen to get scooped in.
Tzedek Lab Membership
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if I should apply?
If you are a leader and practitioner working to politicize, transform, and mobilize Jewish communities to take more accountable action addressing antisemitism, racism, white supremacy, and white nationalism, this is for you. Anyone who resonates with the purpose, is moved by this concept, and who is actively doing this work is invited to apply. We look for individuals who will uniquely contribute to the community of practice and who will benefit from it in unique ways.
We are expecting more people to apply than we will be able to accept at this time. Our strategy is to grow intentionally and fractally, not fast and big. While we want everyone to have access to this space, we know we can only grow so fast while maintaining the relational fabric that makes our network strong. Please note that we are prioritizing long-haul practitioners and leaders, people with marginalized identities who have been most directly impacted by white supremacy (BIPOC, Sephardim and Mizrahim, raised poor and working class folks), and individuals who are in isolated geographies.
How does Tzedek Lab orient to organizations? Do members represent their organizations?
Tzedek Lab is a network of individual practitioners currently and actively engaged in this work, not organizations. We encourage staff members of organizations who are active in political education, community organizing, spiritual leadership, and cultural organizing against racism, antisemitism, and white supremacy to apply to join the network.
While we expect you to represent the work you do as it is relevant to the vision of your organization, we do not ask that you formally represent the organization at which you work. We consider your role in your organization to be a major asset to your work, in that you have access to a network of leaders and members and a location at which you are moving the work forward. We bring together individuals who have access to a wide spectrum of formal and informal networks so that we can learn from each other and experiment together. We are creating a network that will benefit both from tight clusters of individuals who experiment and work closely together and from people coming from very different experiences and locations.
How are new members selected?
We believe a nourishing culture is both critical to sustaining our movements and a key way we interrupt oppressive systems. As opposed to a base-building organization where numbers mean power, Tzedek Lab’s role is in building relational strength in our movement leadership. To support the relational culture of Tzedek Lab we are committed to intentional fractal growth rather than rapid expansion. This means that we grow each cycle by a maximum of 10% of our current members. In 2024, that is around 32 new members.
New Member applications are reviewed by a team of current Tzedek Lab members and staff that select new members using a rubric that looks for the following criteria:
We prioritize applicants who are:
Able to attend the Network Gathering. This is where you get brought into Tzedek Lab culture and analysis, so it is key! (We strongly encourage all new members to attend the Gathering, but if you think Tzedek Lab would be a good fit for you and you can’t attend the Gathering, please still apply and we will be in touch.)
Actively leading through accountable and bold action that addresses antisemitism, racism and white supremacy and their intersections. You are a practitioner, meaning you are a seasoned leader and continue to deepen your practice or skills.
Aligned with Tzedek Lab’s analysis and understanding of the intersections of antisemitism, racism and white supremacy.
BIPOC, Raised Poor and Working Class, and those whose lived experiences are most directly impacted by white supremacy and central to the work to end it.
Isolated in geography or role, and would benefit from a network of connection and support.
What if I don’t officially work in the Jewish social justice field?
You are welcome to apply just as you, the trainer, organizer, politicized healer, spiritual leader, cultural worker or other flavor of leader that you are, and be a part of the network without any official organizational affiliation. We know that extraordinary political education, organizing, and spiritual and cultural work happens in grassroots collaboration, and individual praxis outside formal organizations just as much as it may through organizational work, and all of your wisdom and connections are welcome and valued here.
What are the financial costs of joining Tzedek Lab?
We know that our movements won’t succeed unless all of us are invested and take ownership, and that organizations are most powerful when they are led by those they serve. After five years as a network and with significant member consultation, we are ready to move towards a member dues model so that we can be sustained and led by all of us together.
Members make a monthly contribution in order to make Tzedek Lab possible. Dues are sliding scale, and our average monthly gift is $14/month. Members have until January 1st, 2025 to start member dues. You are encouraged to start your monthly gifts before then if you want to skip being phone banked in December!
In addition to monthly dues, members attending the 2024 Regional Gathering are asked to make a sliding scale financial contribution to help cover the expenses of gatherings and create a travel scholarship for members who need support to be able to attend.
Who is organizing the gathering and can I join the team or contribute?
This gathering is being planned by a team of Tzedek Lab members and staff. If you have ideas for the planning or want to contribute in some way, fill out our contact form below and someone from our team will be in touch!
Our next gathering will be synchronous regional gatherings this summer, August 15-19, 2024. If you've been waiting to join or to invite people to join, now is the time.
Timeline
Applications Due: June 14, 2024
Notifications of Invitation: Week of July 8, 2024
New Member Confirmation Date: Week of July 15, 2024
Network Gathering: August 15-19th
When will I know if I am accepted? What happens next?
How else can I get connected to Tzedek Lab?
Being connected to Tzedek Lab means being a member-practitioner and joining the Lab, or reaching out to us if you are looking for support for you and your community in addressing antisemitism, racism and white supremacy where you are. For the latter, message us through the contact form below to share what you are looking for and we will be in touch!
What kind of accommodations will be available?
We strive to make our gatherings and shared network space as accessible as possible, understanding that access is a core and key pathway to liberation for all of us. Our zoom spaces have captioning available, we give visual descriptions before speaking, and we will work with you to meet other access needs as we are able. The format of our zoom sessions typically includes break-outs for relational connection, use of the chat for celebration, affirmation and resonance, use of slides and emojis, along with the invitation and guided support to remember and be in our bodies throughout. Sessions are typically not longer than 90 minutes without a break, and everyone is invited to participate in the ways that bring them the most connection, liberation, and joy. If you have access needs not covered here, please reach out via our contact form.
Calls for mutual connection, support and learning: we meet on zoom weekly for Co-working, monthly for our Meeting the Moment Member Check In calls, bimonthly in communities of practice by role, and quarterly for Full Network Calls and Governance Calls. Members also self-organize emergent calls around live topics, work and questions.
Network Gatherings: Every two years we gather to connect as a network, ground in our evolving shared analysis, share back from our experiments, and welcome new members.
Access to resources: Tzedek Lab members have access to our active member listserv, text threads and our google drive and resource library.
Participation in governance and stewarding the Lab: Tzedek Lab is stewarded by three staff with significant collaboration, consultation and participation from members. We meet once a quarter to share updates from the backend of the Lab and get member input, and members can opt in to participate in teams to help move the network forward, such as the Network Gathering team, the Political Frame update team, the Hanukkah Member Drive fundraising team, and more.
What happens in Tzedek Lab?
Can I talk with a Tzedek Lab member to learn more?
Sure! If you are already connected with current Tzedek Lab members, we highly recommend reaching out to them to learn about what it's like. If you don’t already know TL members and want to speak with someone, fill out our contact form and someone from our team will be in touch. If we get many requests for this we will set up a group info call.
