We recently sat down with Jessica Schaffer, the Executive Director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA), to discuss her path from a last-minute Avodah applicant to a leader in Chicago’s social justice landscape.
An Avodah alum, Jessica shares how her service year provided the foundation for a career in immigration advocacy and community organizing, and how that work led to a deeper understanding of her own family’s history.
In this conversation, Jessica reflects on the power of building relationships, the importance of coalition work, and why, in difficult moments, we must continue to lean in.
Avodah: To start, tell us about your Jewish justice journey. How did you get to where you are, and what role did Avodah play?
Jessica: I was raised in a Modern Orthodox home in Montreal. I lived in a two-flat with my parents, sisters, and maternal grandparents, who were Holocaust survivors. I was educated in the Jewish day school system, and my Judaism was very rooted in tradition and religious practice. The connection between Judaism and social justice – even the language of Tikkun Olam – was not familiar to me growing up.
When I was about to graduate from college, a relative of mine told me about Avodah. I was interested in the program because it offered the opportunity to move to a new city and live in Jewish community. I applied several months after the application period had closed and luckily, there was one spot left in Chicago, working at a refugee resettlement organization. I took a giant leap and decided to give the program a try.
It was Avodah that helped me understand the deep connection between Judaism and social justice, and put me on my own path to discovering a different element of my Judaism. I now see the pursuit of justice as being a core tenant of my Jewish practice, and I credit Avodah with bringing that to life for me.
Avodah: What was your placement experience like during your service year?
Jessica: My placement was at the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago, which is both an Ethiopian cultural center and a refugee resettlement agency. I helped coordinate their youth program and supported case management efforts for newly arriving refugee families from around the world. I loved the opportunity to build relationships with people of diverse backgrounds. I got to experience new foods, languages, and cultural traditions. And I had the privilege of supporting families in this momentous time in their lives, as they were settling into a new home and community. It was really powerful and meaningful work.
Simultaneously, I was living in the Avodah house with six other young Jews from across the country, learning about social justice themes and creating new traditions of our own. It was the first time that I was in relationship with people whose experiences and expressions of Judaism were different from mine and it was eye-opening. Many of my beliefs were challenged that year, in ways that inspired a lot of important personal growth.
Avodah: You mentioned your family’s history as Holocaust survivors. How did your work with refugees connect to that?
Jessica: It’s interesting – growing up, my family never spoke about the fact that they were refugees. My maternal grandparents survived the war and were resettled to Canada from Germany. My paternal grandparents fled from Berlin to Shanghai and lived in the Shanghai ghetto for ten years before being resettled to the United States and later moving to Canada. My mother was born in an internally displaced persons camp in Germany after the war. And yet – perhaps unsurprisingly – no one ever spoke about their experiences of persecution or resettlement.
It was several months into my placement, working each day to welcome newly arriving refugee families, when I began to ask questions about my own family’s immigration stories. And it was even later when I began to draw parallels between the experiences of my grandparents and mother and the families I was supporting. Now, I often talk about how my family’s experience inspires me to pursue justice for immigrants and refugees today, but it was my experience working with immigrants and refugees that illuminated my family’s history for me.
Avodah: How did that year with Avodah shape your career and eventually lead you to JCUA?
Jessica: Avodah put me on a path to pursue a career rooted in justice and service, and connected me to the field of refugee resettlement. After my Avodah year, I continued working at the Ethiopian Communication Association of Chicago. I returned to school to pursue a Masters degree in Social Work, and held positions with Heartland Alliance and American Jewish World Service. In 2015, I became the Director of HIAS Immigration and Citizenship, part of JCFS Chicago’s family of services. I spent nine years at HIAS, guiding its refugee resettlement and immigration legal services program through the ups and downs of two federal administrations. Then in June 2024, I stepped into my current role with JCUA.
JCUA is the heartbeat of Jewish social justice work in Chicago. The organization’s mission is to combat poverty, racism, and antisemitism in partnership with diverse communities, and I believe so deeply in the strategies we implement to achieve that mission: facilitating education to help our community understand the challenges we face, building relationships rooted in solidarity, and organizing to create sustainable, systemic change.
Avodah: What are some of the main issues JCUA is focused on right now?
Jessica: The core of JCUA’s work is community organizing. We bring members of the Jewish community together into multiracial, multifaith coalitions with our neighbors to advance grassroots campaigns around immigration, housing and economic justice, and community safety.
For immigration, we are a member of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), working to make Illinois a safer, more welcoming place for our immigrant neighbors. This year, we were proud to pass the Safe Schools Act in Illinois, which guarantees free public education for all K-12 students — regardless of immigration status — and requires schools to develop a plan for when federal immigration enforcement arrives. In addition, we have been co-leading Know Your Rights canvassing throughout the year, to make sure our neighbors have the knowledge and resources they need when interacting with ICE.
For housing and economic justice, we are working on a number of issues within the city and state, including campaigns to end homelessness, prevent displacement, build green social housing, and generate more progressive revenue.
For community safety, we are focused on ensuring the Chicago Police Department is accountable to the people, and that the city invests in a robust public health infrastructure — including by expanding the mental health crisis response system that can serve as an alternative to calling police.
Avodah: In this current moment, which can feel precarious for so many, what do you think is important for us to keep in mind as we do this work?
Jessica: At JCUA, we often say “relationship before task” – our work cannot come at the expense of our relationships, which are critical for deepening understanding, strengthening community, and building power. We cannot shy away or turn away from relationships with people who have different points of view or life experiences; in fact, those relationships have the ability to expand our worldview and help us develop empathy. We have to be brave and vulnerable in our relationships, and we have to build relationships on foundations of respect, trust, and mutual understanding. It’s not always easy but it is necessary – both to help us through the precarity of the moment, and to create balanced, nuanced, and healthy communities.
Avodah: What advice would you give to people who are just starting their own Avodah journeys?
Jessica: Be open and be curious. I often reflect on my own journey – to Avodah and to the position that I am in now – and feel as though it was untraditional. But I am proud of myself for continuously striving to expand my ways of thinking, and for giving myself the time and space to process my new learnings. Avodah provides so much opportunity for transformation and growth – embrace it, struggle with it, and lean on others to support you through it.
Avodah: That’s great advice. For our readers in Chicago, how can they get involved with JCUA’s work?
Jessica: We always have meetings and events happening! Anyone who is interested in learning more should go to jcua.org, and sign up for our mailing list or register for an upcoming committee meeting, training, or program. Our organizing staff are always eager to take somebody out for coffee and learn about how they’d like to take action with JCUA. We’d love for more people to reach out and connect!
