Making Mensches has gone through lots of changes since we began in 2020. Folks often ask how we started working together, so we wanted to share a bit of our story.

Jessie and Elana grew up going to the same Reform temple in the Hudson Valley, NY. They both attended “Mentsch Makers” - the Jewish preschool at their temple. This is what led to our organizations name - Making Mensches.
(Check out some cute pictures below of us in Mentsch Makers.)

We started working together as Making Mensches in the summer of 2020 to bring anti-racism training and education to the majority white temple we grew up in. They welcomed us with open arms and we hosted a 6 workshop, action-based series for our community. We intentionally decided not to highlight our anti-zionism, because we knew our community would opt not to work with us on anti-racism.

In May of 2021, we decided it was unaligned with our values to remain silent on anti-zionism, so we published a blog post making our values clear. Our temple never worked with us again, leaving workshops in the midst of being planned in the dust, and congregant members we grew up loving sending us emails telling us how we were misguided, wrong, or not Jewish anymore. This blog post led to Jessie being fired from her job as a Jewish educator. Jessie ended up suing the synagogue that fired her, and the lawsuit is still ongoing.

This shifted our work to something much more authentic and grounded. We began our podcast and eventually began hosting anti-zionist ritual events, and this remains the core of our work now. We are deeply grateful to have created this community and look forward to continuing to nourish it with all of you.

-Elana & Jessie