TL;DR: Rekindle is a fellowship that strengthens Black–Jewish partnerships by bringing leaders together for deep dialogue and joint community action. Participants build lasting relationships that translate into real-world collaboration on issues like civil rights and fighting hate. Rekindle complements Global Jewry by serving as a hands-on, local bridge-building model that helps Jewish communities form powerful alliances with Black civic and faith leaders.

Meet Rekindle, a fellowship on a mission to drive meaningful social change by fostering collaboration and allyship between Black and Jewish American leaders.

We’re a Black-Jewish dialogue and leadership initiative that takes real people in real cities and creates a brave space to discuss serious issues: power and privilege, race and religion. In 20+ cities nationally, we recruit cohorts of mid-career leaders—clergy, organizers, business owners, civic leaders—who spend fifteen hours together across five sessions, plus engage in immersive cultural and religious experiences outside the workshops. By the end, they’re not just “participants”; they’re friends who show up for each other in crises, serve on each other’s boards, and work side-by-side on concrete issues like public safety and education.

Rekindle fits into the Global Jewry ecosystem as a very specific, very practical tool: we help Jewish communities build trusted alliances with Black partners who are essential in the fight against hate, for a more just America, and for a healthy democracy. When Jewish leaders have deep, durable relationships with Black civic and faith leaders, they’re not isolated when a crisis hits—they have allies in boardrooms, on social media, and at the city council hearing. We partner with organizations on the ground to implement our proven model by sharing all the resources necessary to recruit and run successful Rekindle cohorts (for free!).

Among the ways Rekindle and the partners of Global Jewry can collaborate are:

• Featuring Rekindle as a “bridge-building lab” within the Global Jewry network—where partners send local leaders to learn a replicable model of cross-community dialogue and action.
• Lifting up Rekindle alumni stories and RISE projects as examples of what it looks like when Jewish values and Black–Jewish partnership show up in public life.
• Strategically planting new Rekindle chapters in cities where Global Jewry partner organizations are already active, so we’re reinforcing each other’s impact instead of operating in silos.

In short: Global Jewry is weaving the global fabric of the Jewish people; Rekindle is building allyship with other communities through Black-Jewish trust, courage, and shared action.

Together, we can turn a lot of good intentions into visible, measurable change on the ground. We welcome GJ partners and allies to reach out to us any time with partnership ideas.

Shavua tov and may this be the week the remains of all hostages return home,

Matthew Fieldman

Founder & Executive Director, Rekindle

Have an achievement (e.g. publications, awards, appearances, etc) you would like highlighted in a future GJ Connections? Let us know by emailing sandy@globaljewry.org.

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