About Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block

Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block has been a leader in progressive Jewish activism for over two decades.  He served for nearly 14 years Bend the Arc Jewish Action, working as part of the leadership from its formation to it becoming the largest national Jewish organization focused exclusively on social justice in the United States.  

 

As the Washington Director, Rabbi Kimelman-Block led Bend the Arc’s national advocacy work, representing the organization to Members of Congress and their staff, as well as Administration officials. He also was an active member of advocacy coalitions, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Fight Back Table, Hate Crimes Taskforce, Interfaith Criminal Justice Coalition, Civil Rights Big Table, the Defund Hate Coalition, and others. In addition, he managed and oversaw the organization’s electoral work, growing the number of PAC endorsees to 56 and money distributed to candidates to over $500,000. He also managed independent grassroots electoral work in 2018 and 2022, engaging thousands of volunteers to complete hundreds of thousands of voter contacts.

He is a sought-after speaker in Washington at conferences, public demonstrations and Hill events.  He authored opinion pieces published in USA Today, The Hill, Huffington Post, the U.S. Department of Labor Blog, and the White House Blog and was quoted in publications including the Washington Post, Politico, Wall Street Journal, Haaretz, JTA, The Forward, PBS and the National Journal.

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For five years, Rabbi Kimelman-Block directed the Selah Leadership Program, a first-in class leadership training program for Jewish social justice leaders, in partnership with the Rockwood Leadership Institute. He spearheaded the growth and expansion of the program, including an overhaul of the Jewish curriculum, training six cohorts, including the first-ever leadership cohort focused on training Jewish Leaders of Color.

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In 2022 he was named a "Faith Leader To Watch" by the Center of American Progress.

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Prior to his work at Bend the Arc, Rabbi Kimelman-Block served at the PANIM Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, initially as Director of Education, then as its Director. At PANIM, he taught thousands of Jewish teens about how Jewish texts and values can be brought to bear on a wide range of contemporary issues.  He directed the Jewish Civics Initiative (JCI), which at the time was the country’s largest Judicially-framed service-learning program for teens.  He spearheaded the revision of JCI’s curriculum, which led to the publication of Just: Judaism. Action. Social Change, of which he was co-author and editor.  He also launched two additional ground-breaking service learning programs:  Impact: DC, a campus-based residential program for Jewish high school students, integrating Jewish study and spiritual development, community service and national advocacy training;  and Impact: Southwest, a Jewish service-learning program working with communities in the Navajo and Hopi Nations. 

 

He received his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.  While at JTS, Rabbi Kimelman-Block launched the Tzedek Hillel program at the Columbia/Barnard Hillel, studied at the Schechter, Elijah Interfaith, and Hartman Institutes in Jerusalem, and was the recipient of the “Peace Essay Prize” and the Gladstein Fellowship.

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His undergraduate work was in Political Science at Grinnell College in Iowa, where he received the Harold A. Fletcher Scholarship for Excellence in the Social Sciences and studied abroad at the University of Cairo, as well as in Israel on Young Judaea Year Course.  

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He has served as President of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Washington, DC, on the Social Justice Commission of the Rabbinical Assembly, and as a board member of Jews United for Justice. Raised in the Reform movement, he is committed to pluralism in the Jewish community. He has participated in the Kirva Institute's Ovdim Leadership Cohort, the Schusterman Fellowship, and holds a Certificate in Mindfulness Practices from Sefira. 

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He is married to sustainable food and agriculture activist, Devora Kimelman-Block, the founder of KOL Foods which provides kosher grass-fed meat, lamb and poultry. The Kimelman-Blocks are one of the founding families of an award-winning green-designed cohousing community in downtown Silver Spring, MD.