Celebrate 10 years of organizing American Jews to pursue justice

Celebrating 10 years of organizing American Jews to pursue justice

Founded in 2012, Bend the Arc is building a multiracial, multiethnic, intergenerational movement of Jews and allies all across the country who are rising with conviction to build an American future free from white supremacy, antisemitism, and racism.

For 10 years — from the groundbreaking years of Barack Obama's presidency, through the relentless years of the Trump Administration — Bend the Arc has been the only national Jewish organization focused exclusively on progressive social change in the United States.

Scroll down to see highlights from the last 10 years and a preview of what's ahead.

2012

In 2011, two powerful organizations — Progressive Jewish Alliance in California and Jewish Funds for Justice in New York — merged and relaunched in 2012 as Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, our education and training arm. A few months later, we launched Bend the Arc: Jewish Action as a bold new advocacy organization — to bring a clear and unabashedly progressive Jewish voice on domestic issues to our nation’s political discourse.

2013

In 2013, we launched Yearning to Breathe Free, a national Jewish campaign in support of a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented Americans; the bill passed the House and came close to passage in the Senate. Supporters organized 49 in-district lobby meetings with members of Congress, and we helped shape the narrative with our campaign website www.entrydenied.org, which let visitors learn if their ancestors could have immigrated under current laws.

 

2014

In 2014, our community showed up powerfully to support the Ferguson Uprising and to say that Black Lives Matter. We also commemorated the 50th anniversary of the murders of three civil rights activists — Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Mickey Schwerner — by delivering a yahrzeit candle to every Member of Congress and creating a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial with 3,000 candles to demand Congress restore the Voting Rights Act.

2015

In 2015, Bend the Arc was the first Jewish organization to sound the alarm about Donald Trump’s bigoted and violent agenda, with our “We’ve Seen this Before” TV ad. We also launched the Bend the Arc Jewish Action PAC, and offered our first Selah Leadership Program cohort for Jews of Color. By 2022, the Selah alumni network has grown to 400, with 90 alums from our JOC cohorts.

 

2016

In 2016, our community showed up in unprecedented resistance to Trump’s politics of hate and bigotry — from days of action in over 50 cities, to videos seen by millions, to the largest Jewish get out the vote operation, to our first-ever national conference and lobby day. The day after the election, we published an Open Letter from American Jews — signed by 45,000 people — to everyone threatened by Trump’s election, promising that we would stay by their side in solidarity.

2017

In 2017, we put all of our energy into strategically resisting the cruelty of the Trump administration and the growing white nationalist movement. We launched the Moral Minyan project to seed dozens of new chapters, showed up en masse at airports to reject the Muslim Ban, and trained Jews and allies across the country in critical organizing skills. After Charlottesville, we demanded Congress choose a side: either with or against white supremacy. Bannon and Gorka were out of the White House that month.

 

2018

In January 2018, we organized the largest Jewish civil disobedience in a generation, demanding that Congress protect Dreamers and their families. In October, following the deadliest antisemitic attack in our country’s history at the Tree of Life - Or L’Simcha building in Pittsburgh, Bend the Arc leaders wrote an open letter demanding Trump denounce white nationalism, which was signed by more than 160,000 Jewish Americans and allies. Days later, Bend the Arc Pittsburgh leaders helped organize a march through the streets of Squirrel Hill, forcing Trump’s motorcade to turn around. In November, our movement helped elect the most diverse Congress ever in the midterm elections.

2019

In 2019, we continued our resistance to the Trump administration’s white supremacist policies, mobilizing alongside partners and allies to urge leaders to close the camps, welcome immigrants, and defund ICE & CBP. When Trump called American Jews disloyal, we sprang into action, launching a #DisloyalToTrump petition with thousands of signatures. On the one-year anniversary of the massacre in Pittsburgh, Jews and allies put their bodies on the line to confront Trump directly and show that if our elected leaders won’t act to keep us safe, we will.

2020

In 2020, our movement mobilized like never before to remove a tyrant from the White House, to support uprisings for Black liberation, and to demand equitable pandemic relief. We brought together 1,300 Jews and allies to learn, connect, and organize virtually at our second national conference, Pursuing Justice 2020 Online. We called out politicians using white nationalism and antisemitism to manufacture fear and division and got Trump ads off Facebook. And volunteers sent nearly 5 million calls and texts to voters in six critical swing states to help win the White House and both chambers of Congress.

 

 

 

2021

In 2021, we urged the incoming Biden Administration to investigate and address the threats of the white nationalist movement against all of our communities. We mobilized thousands of Jews across the country to demand the Democrats we elected make good on their 2020 promises for racial and economic justice, including a pathway to citizenship, economic policies like paid leave, and protecting the freedom to vote from an onslaught of right-wing power-grabbing legislation. Bend the Arc leaders around the country continued their work alongside partners to win campaigns for racial justice, like in Memphis, where Bend the Arc leaders helped commute the death sentence of Pervis Payne, a wrongfully convicted man with intellectual disabilities who had been on death row for over 30 years.

 

Quotes from a few of our friends

Read kind words from our partners, movement leaders, and members of Congress who we work alongside for liberation. 

We can do it together, Bend the Arc. Thank you so much for all the work that you continue to do to bring the very best of what hope, freedom and liberation can look like when we work together.

Rashad Robinson
President, Color of Change

Bend the Arc has been an incredible partner in the fight to stem the tide of white nationalism and win bold, progressive victories. You've built a real movement of progressive Jews, pushing back and resisting divisive and cruel immigration policies.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal
WA-07

I want to thank Bend the Arc for your expansive definition of justice and for all the alliances you’re building, and I’m thrilled to be in conversation with such wonderful people.

Naomi Klein
Author, The Shock Doctrine

Together, we’ve grown from three chapters in 2012, to nearly 30 chapters in 2022

Our campaigns put pressure on decision makers from members of Congress to big corporations

We've changed the outcomes of elections by mobilizing voters in close races across the country

Our work has received over 5,600 press mentions in the last 10 years

We've trained over 600 Jewish leaders through our leadership training programs in the last 10 years

Over 315,000 people have taken online action with Bend the Arc since 2012

— Bidding farewell to Stosh —

Bend the Arc is the organization it is today because of Stosh Cotler's leadership — with eighteen years working with us, including eight as our CEO.

“Building and leading Bend the Arc has been the honor of my life. As we approach our tenth anniversary, I am overwhelmed with pride and gratitude for all we have accomplished together.”

Stosh Cotler
Bend the Arc’s CEO, 2014 - February 2022

Celebrate 10 years of organizing American Jews to pursue justice

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