CJP’s mission and core commitments

For over a century, CJP’s mission and commitments have connected people, resources, and ideas to build a thriving, resilient Jewish community across Greater Boston.

Who is CJP?

Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) is Greater Boston’s Jewish Federation, one of 146 networked organizations across North America, and the oldest federation in the country. Each federation operates independently and differently, yet all share a common purpose: to build vibrant Jewish communities and ignite positive change at home, in Israel, and around the world.

As a philanthropic organization driven by our Jewish values, learning, and culture, we mobilize communal philanthropy and provide grants, build partnerships, and bring together our diverse community to:

Engage, educate, and inspire people, especially our next generation, with compelling, dynamic Jewish life and learning

Care for the most vulnerable in our community and for Jews around the world

Strengthen and deepen connections to Israel as the historic Jewish homeland and a modern, Jewish democratic state

Our work turns individual acts of kindness into collective action that strengthens Jewish life and makes the world a better place for all.

Our mission

To inspire and mobilize the diverse Greater Boston Jewish community to engage in building communities of learning and action that strengthen Jewish life and improve the world.

Our culture and values

CJP has been committed to its mission since 1895, and we’re always innovating and evolving to ensure that we, along with our community, remain rooted in the past while reimagining our future. Our culture combines passion for our mission, caring for one another, and a strong commitment to excellence and innovation.

Our driven and talented professional staff work in partnership with a highly engaged, passionate, and diverse volunteer community. We are guided by five Core Values that ground our work and shape the culture we create together. They are universal human values: Respect, Caring, Collaboration, Integrity, and Innovation. They’re also deeply rooted in the Jewish ethical and spiritual traditions (Torah). We strive to live these values through our daily work and the relationships we build with CJP professionals, volunteers, partners, grantees, and the broader community.

Core commitments

Alongside these Core Values, four foundational commitments guide CJP’s work. Making them explicit helps align and mobilize our staff, volunteers, and the wider Greater Boston Jewish community in service of our mission and vision. Together, we are writing the story of the Greater Boston Jewish community and shaping a vibrant future for the Jewish People.

We’re committed to creating an engaged, educated, joyous community.

We celebrate diverse expressions of Jewish life and Jewish identity, and we invest in both traditional and innovative approaches to bringing more people closer to meaningful, relevant, joyful Judaism, Jewish Peoplehood, and connections to Israel.

We believe that Jewish wisdom, tradition, and values speak to the most pressing issues of our time, and we work to ensure that they are relevant, compelling, and accessible to everyone. To do this, we support formal and informal Jewish education, overnight and day camps, adult learning, immersive travel to Israel and beyond, thriving arts and culture, Jewish activism, civic engagement, social justice, and more.

We’re committed to creating a community that is stronger because of its diversity.

We are guided by the Jewish belief that all human beings are created in the divine image, and we hold sacred the dignity of every person. Dehumanization of any people or group in language or action is antithetical to our values, in our professional and lay communities, and in work we support across the world.

We are dedicated to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment where all individuals, regardless of background and identity, feel valued, respected, and empowered.

We navigate the complexities of our world with openness and humility and strive to foster a sense of belonging for volunteers and staff at CJP and across the Greater Boston Jewish community by welcoming diverse voices and perspectives. We work in collaboration with community and organizational partners to build a more just and equitable society in Greater Boston, in Israel, and around the world.

We’re committed to creating a safe and secure community.

We believe all Jews should be able to be publicly and proudly Jewish and hold views around Israel without fear. Antisemitism targets Jews as a people, regardless of religious observance, so our fight against antisemitism also includes combating efforts to delegitimize Israel’s existence as a Jewish, democratic state and the demonization of Israel and Israelis through antisemitic rhetoric, tropes, conspiracy theories, and other forms of hateful disinformation.

We believe that partnering with the broader Greater Boston community, including leaders, partners, and allies from across civic life, enables us to strengthen civil society, elevate public discourse, and build a safer world where all can thrive. CJP’s primary responsibility is to our Jewish community, and we also work together with allies in the Greater Boston community to achieve our shared goals and values because we know that we are all stronger together.

We’re committed to creating a community that is connected to and responsible for Israel and the global Jewish People.

CJP proudly believes in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland. This belief animates CJP as a pro-Israel, Zionist organization. After millennia of living in exile and diaspora and dreaming to return, we celebrate the restoration of Jewish sovereignty and the opportunity to actualize Jewish teachings and values as, in the words of Theodor Herzl, “a nation among nations.” Our belief in Israel’s right to exist and our commitment to deep, long-lasting people-to-people relationships transcend the politics and policies of any sitting government in Israel or the U.S.

Like Judaism, Zionism has always been characterized by diverse viewpoints and opinions about how to best enact the vision, values, ideals and promise of a Jewish state. In that spirit, and recognizing the wide range of views about Israel and Israeli politics among our community and among Israelis themselves, we view critique and constructive debate as genuine expressions of support for Israel.

Given our commitments to both Israel and the Jewish People, as well as to a safe and secure community, CJP does not make grants to, nor partner with, organizations that work directly to oppose Israel’s existence or whose activities regarding Israel are done in alliance with those who actively oppose Israel’s existence. CJP distinguishes critique of Israel from denunciation of Israel’s right to exist or calls to be dismantled as a Jewish state. As an American public charity, CJP does not make direct grants to any foreign government, including that of Israel.