Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Fellowship

Applications for the 2023-2024 Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Fellowship will open in late fall 2022. Please check back soon for updates. For more information, contact Assistant Legislative Director Jacob Greenblatt.

About the Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Fellowship

The Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Program is a year-long fellowship for recent college graduates or individuals with equivalent academic and professional experience who are interested in Judaism, social justice, and public policy. Being an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant (LA) at the RAC means getting involved and playing a pivotal role in our work: legislative advocacy, leadership development programs, communications, organizing, and supporting the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism (CSA).

The salary for the 2023-2024 class is $42,000, and the program will run from late August 2023 to mid-August 2024.

We are particularly interested in investing in and engaging with applicants who come from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds. This includes People of Color, people with disabilities, people coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized identities. LAs are at the heart of every aspect of the Reform Movement's social justice work, and we are committed to making the Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Fellowship and RAC reflective of the diverse Movement we represent.

LAs' work includes:

• Legislative Advocacy:  The LAs have primary responsibility for monitoring legislation; representing the Reform Movement institutions to Capitol Hill, the White House, and coalitions; and ensuring that the voice of the Reform Movement's nearly 850 congregations, 2,000 rabbis, and 1.5 million Reform Jews are heard. Each LA takes on a different policy portfolio (based in resolutions adopted by the Commission on Social Action, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis), bringing a Reform Jewish perspective to the crucial social justice issues of the day. The LAs are the lead staff member on their policy issues, playing a key role developing strategy, drafting materials, and driving our work forward.
• Leadership Development and Programs: Some 2,000 people participate in RAC-led conferences each year, which the LAs help plan, program and coordinate. Many LAs have found their opportunity to serve as the faculty for the L'Taken Teen Social Justice Seminars - the five weekend-long social justice seminars for high school students that we run each year - to be a highlight of their time at the RAC.
• Communications: LAs help guide our website, action alerts, blog posts, social media, press releases, and other communications, helping disseminate our message and materials across the country to decision makers, the media, congregational leaders, and Reform Jews.
• Organizing: LAs have an opportunity to work with our nine state-based affiliates to enhance our legislative advocacy at the state and local level and support congregations to bring social justice closer to the center of their work. Building transformative relationships across lines of race, class and faith are core not only to policy achievements, but also to bringing about a world where all people experience wholeness, justice, compassion, joy, and equity.
• The Commission on Social Action (CSA):  The LAs prepare materials for the CSA's meetings, work with its members and task forces, and advocate on its behalf on Capitol Hill and in coalitions. Interactions with CSA members are another highlight of the experience for many LAs.