March 19, 2013

(JTA) – The Nathan Cummings Foundation will give one million dollars in matching funds to Jewish social justice movements.

The charity whose mission statement is to promote values of fairness and diversity announced Monday it would create a “Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue” fund to help advance progressive causes. 

“These funds will help continue the efforts of those seeking justice in our communities, a commitment that stretches back generations,” said Simon Greer, president and CEO of the Nathan Cummings Foundation. “The fund announced today seeks to provide new funding for existing efforts and will also help unleash the creativity of the Jewish social justice community to find new and exciting ways to combat the injustices of our era.”

The Nathan Cummings Foundation said in a statement it sought to encourage activism in the fields of human rights and gender equality akin to the cooperation that existed among the Jewish legal community, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP in the 1950s or the work of Jewish feminists in the 1970s.”

To be eligible for the fund, organizations must be 501(c)(3) organizations operating in the United States and “self-articulate as a Jewish initiative and/or embody Jewish values including Jewish organizations launching social justice initiatives,” according to the statement,

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