Hazon is an organization promoting healthy Jewish communities in a variety of ways, including outdoor challenge and food programs. Based in New York, Hazon has developed bike and hike programs, and its food wing promotes community-supported agriculture in 18 communities, up from 10 in 2007. Other food programs include a curriculum, an annual conference and a blog. Nigel […]

Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa is a human rights advocacy organization that works on behalf of Jewish refugees from those areas. It is based in San Francisco, with branches in Boston and Seattle. Sarah Levin is executive director.

Jewish World Watch fights genocide and other human rights violations through education, advocacy and refugee services. It’s based in Encino, Calif. Michael Lieb Jeser is executive director.

The Jewish Defense League fights genocide, defamation and anti-Semitism. It considers itself the most controversial of pro-Israel Jewish organizations and defends the actions of Dr. Baruch Goldstein and Rabbi Meir Kahane. It is based in Los Angeles.

The non-profit Rand Corp., based in Santa Monica, Calif., does research analysis on various issues to improve policy and decision making.  Contact Jeffrey Hiday, director of media relations.

The Jewish Historical Society of Southern California chronicles the history and experience of Jewish life in and around Los Angeles and San Diego.

The Williams Institute focuses on sexual-orientation law and public policy, and its website has a number of resources on same-sex marriage. Scholars from the think tank, which is based at California’s UCLA law school, participated in friend-of-the-court briefs in both March 2013 cases before they went the Supreme Court.

July 23, 2006, Los Angeles Times op-ed by Zev Chafets on his appreciation of evangelical support of Israel even if they are motivated by predictions of Armageddon.

American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute) is a transdenominational school in Los Angeles, and AJU’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies ordains Conservative rabbis, both men and women. It maintains a page of issues and experts for journalists. Robert Wexler is AJU’s president.