The Progressive Jewish Alliance (PJA) was founded in 1999 by Jewish Angelenos who broke away from the Los Angeles chapter of the American Jewish Congress. They sought to assert a Jewish interest in the campaigns for social justice in Southern California, which has the United States' second largest Jewish population. Progressive Jewish Alliance expanded in February 2005 by opening a San Francisco Bay Area chapter. The PJA stated goals are social justice, judicial reform, and improved working conditions. They also try to facilitate dialogue between non-violent young offenders and their victims and between Jews and Muslims.
They run the Jeremiah Fellowship that trains young Jews to be future social justice leaders. In addition, the PJA conducts education programs and quarterly holiday events on the intersection of art, culture and politics.
Famous quotes containing the words progressive, jewish and/or alliance:
“The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.”
—Henry Geldzahler (1935–1994)
“The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“It is a power stronger than will.... Could a stone escape from the laws of gravity? Impossible. Impossible, for evil to form an alliance with good.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870)