Build a JFRG Campus Delegation

You should not have to navigate campus alone.

The Jewish Faculty Resilience Group (JFRG) is building a national coalition of Israel-affirming faculty, staff, and postdoctoral scholars working within higher education. Our goal is simple: stronger campus communities, stronger connections across universities, and a stronger collective voice for Jewish and Israel-affirming faculty and staff.

• You do not need to create a large organization.

• You do not need to become a professional activist.

• You do not run the nonprofit side.

• And you are not expected to do this alone.

• You, plus two colleagues, can be the beginning.

What is a JFRG Campus Delegation?

A JFRG Campus Delegation begins with at least three faculty, staff, or postdoctoral representatives who share JFRG's mission, principles, and Code of Conduct and want to help start or strengthen a JFRG community at their institution. Delegates serve as a bridge between their local campus community and JFRG's national network.

Their role is not to do everything themselves. They help:

• Bring colleagues together

• Identify what their campus community needs

• Strengthen or develop local leadership

• Connect their campus to JFRG's national network

• Represent the perspectives and needs of their community nationally

As the campus community grows, Delegates can help develop a broader local JFRG Advisory Council so responsibility and leadership are shared.

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Interested in learning more about becoming a delegate?

Join our confidential JFRG mailing list to stay connected to our national work and opportunities.

AND email Chair@JFRG.org and ExecutiveDirector@JFRG.org.

Tell us a little about:

Yourself and your role

Your institution

What the campus climate is like

What already exists on your campus

What you think your community needs

   We will take it from there, together.

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What does JFRG provide?

You lead your campus. We help provide the infrastructure around you.

Faculty and staff already have demanding careers. We do not believe they should also have to become full-time organizers, administrators, fundraisers, communications professionals, or social-media managers simply because they want to strengthen their campus community.

Delegates are not expected to do this work alone.  You bring your knowledge of your institution, your relationships, your professional judgment, and your leadership. JFRG brings the national network, professional staff, resources, training, and infrastructure behind you. Depending on the needs and stage of your campus community, support can include:

Professional organizing support

JFRG staff can help Delegates think through how to start, strengthen, and sustain their campus community.

Communications and visibility

Campus Delegations can have their own presence on the JFRG national website, giving colleagues a professional place to learn about their community and become involved. JFRG can also help with communications, messaging, and social media, reducing the operational burden on faculty leaders.

Training and leadership development

JFRG's Masterclass has already trained hundreds of faculty from universities across North America and Israel to navigate difficult campus situations with greater confidence, clarity, and resilience. Delegates can also benefit from training and resources related to organizing, advocacy, communications, leadership, documentation, and institutional engagement.

Strategic guidance

JFRG can provide strategic guidance to help Delegations navigate their institutions, understand relevant structures and processes, and engage effectively with university leadership and governance.

Governance resources

Delegates have access to practical tools and guidance for building a healthy, sustainable campus community, including leadership structures, governance resources, decision-making tools, and support for developing a local Advisory Council.

Legal connections and referrals

When appropriate, JFRG can help connect faculty and staff with experienced attorneys and legal organizations familiar with higher education, civil rights, academic freedom, discrimination, employment matters, and related concerns.

Financial and administrative support

Depending on the needs of the campus community and applicable legal, accounting, and organizational requirements, JFRG may be able to provide or facilitate financial, fundraising, and administrative support appropriate to the Delegation's circumstances.

A national network, not another isolated campus group

• One of the greatest advantages of JFRG is that faculty do not have to reinvent the wheel university by university.

• Delegates become part of a growing national network of colleagues who can share experience, resources, ideas, and lessons learned.

• That means connections with people confronting similar campus challenges.

• But it also means something broader.

Build professional relationships across the country.

JFRG Delegates can develop relationships with colleagues within their own disciplines and across different fields and institutions. Those relationships can lead not only to stronger collaboration around campus challenges, but also to new opportunities for:

• Research and scholarship within their fields

• Mentorship

• Teaching

• Professional collaboration

• Interdisciplinary and translational work

• Connections across universities and fields

JFRG is not simply building a network to respond to anti-Jewish hate. We are building a stronger, more connected professional community in which Jewish and Israel-affirming faculty and staff can support one another, collaborate, lead, and thrive.

Local leadership. National voice.

Each Delegation has both a local and a national role.

1. Locally, Delegates help build or strengthen their campus community.

2. Nationally, they connect that community to JFRG's growing coalition, share local experience and priorities, participate in national initiatives, and help amplify the collective voice of Israel-affirming faculty and staff throughout higher education.

Delegations will also be represented in the JFRG National Assembly, planned for March 2027, bringing together campus representatives to build relationships, learn from one another, identify shared priorities, and help shape JFRG's national work.

This is how JFRG remains genuinely grassroots. Our national voice grows from the people who actually work inside colleges and universities.

______________________________________________________________

Interested in learning more about becoming a delegate?

Join our confidential JFRG mailing list to stay connected to our national work and opportunities.

AND email Chair@JFRG.org and ExecutiveDirector@JFRG.org.

Tell us a little about:

Yourself and your role

Your institution

What the campus climate is like

What already exists on your campus

What you think your community needs

   We will take it from there, together.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The first six: Nachshon Founding Delegations

JFRG’s first six Campus Delegations will become our Nachshon Founding Delegations. According to Jewish rabbinic tradition, when the Israelites stood trapped at the Red Sea, Nachshon ben Aminadav stepped into the water before it parted, and only then did the path through the sea open. The Nachshon Founding Delegations honor that same idea: the first six delegation leadership teams willing to step forward and help open a path for the national network that follows.

The name reflects a simple idea from Jewish tradition: Sometimes the path becomes possible because someone is willing to take the first step.

These first six Delegations will not simply join an established system. They will help us build and refine it.

As founding partners in JFRG’s national expansion, the Nachshon Delegations will receive enhanced access to JFRG National leadership, professional support, training, strategic guidance, communications assistance, and opportunities for collaboration across campuses.

They will also have an especially meaningful opportunity to help shape:

• The developing Campus Delegation model

• Resources and support for future Delegations

• National programming and training

• Priorities for the National Assembly

• How JFRG can best serve faculty and staff as the national coalition grows

Their role is not simply to be first. It is to help us build this well.

The path does not always appear before someone begins walking. And no one has to take that first step alone.

Independent support for people working inside universities

JFRG faculty and staff work within colleges and universities, where they understand their institutions, participate in academic life and governance, and can create change from within. At the same time, JFRG itself is independently funded and governed.  Important: That allows campus leaders to be supported by a national organization whose staffing, resources, and priorities are independent of the university administrations they may sometimes need to engage, question, or challenge.

We believe in collaboration.

JFRG is building something distinct, but we are not building it in isolation. We complement and collaborate with AEN, ISGAP, StandwithUS, MAAZ, StopAntisemitism, ADL, Simon Weisenthal Center, campus Jewish organizations, student groups, legal and civil-rights organizations, and other partners and allies who share our commitment to fair and equal treatment for Jews and Zionists.

Considering becoming a JFRG Campus Delegate?

We are looking for Israel-affirming faculty members, staff members, and postdoctoral scholars at colleges and universities throughout North America who want to help start or strengthen a resilient, connected campus community.

You may already have an active faculty group that could benefit from national connections and professional support. Or you may simply know two colleagues who are ready to begin with you.

Either is a place to start.

• You do not need to be an experienced activist.

• You do not need to understand every university process.

• You do not need to have a strategic plan.

• You do not need to have everything figured out before you contact us.

______________________________________________________________

Interested in learning more about becoming a delegate?

Join our confidential JFRG mailing list to stay connected to our national work and opportunities.

AND email Chair@JFRG.org and ExecutiveDirector@JFRG.org.

Tell us a little about:

Yourself and your role

Your institution

What the campus climate is like

What already exists on your campus

What you think your community needs

   We will take it from there, together.

_______________________________________________________________________________

You do not need to start big.

You do not need to start fast.

You just need to start.