WASHINGTON (JTA) – A new partnership aimed at increasing Jewish participation in a coalition to protect voting rights and promote civic engagement was launched this week.

The Andrew Goodman Foundation, named in memory of a civil rights activist who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi in 1964, and Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, will work together for the next two years as part of a national, multi-racial, interfaith and intergenerational coalition.

“Bend the Arc is excited to work closely with The Andrew Goodman Foundation over the next two years to reanimate the values that drove Andrew Goodman, Mickey Schwerner, and James Chaney – two Jews and an African-American Christian – along with thousands of Americans to work across lines of race and faith in the Civil Rights Movement,” said Alan van Capelle, Bend the Arc CEO.

“The Andrew Goodman Foundation is excited to partner with Bend the Arc not only to advocate for voting rights legislation in Washington, D.C., but also to inspire a new generation with the message that ordinary people can make extraordinary social impact,” said Sylvia Goodman, foundation executive director.

Efforts during the next two years will be centered on the 50^th anniversaries of the 1964 Freedom Summer and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.