Mission & History

The Adoption and Jewish Identity Project supports Jewish adoptees and their families in creating healthy personal, family, and communal identities, and advocates for an inclusive Jewish community that is fully welcoming to adoptees.

About 10 years ago, it became increasingly clear to us – both Jewish adoptive mothers, Jayne to a daughter in her late teens adopted in a same-race domestic adoption and Jenny to a then-toddler adopted from China – that Jewish adoptees face a unique set of circumstances. We knew from first-hand experience that many Jewish adoptees grapple with a unique set of identity issues, and that their parents can feel isolated and alone as they strive to support their children in their identity journeys. While some of these challenges are common to all adoptees, others are specific to the Jewish community, rooted in common assumptions about what a Jew looks like, “Jewish” abilities, and what makes someone authentically Jewish.

Searching for resources for ourselves and our children, we realized that virtually none existed. In fact, despite the fact that American Jews adopt at about twice the rate of the general population, very little was known about the real-life experiences of Jewish adoptees and their families. We created the Adoption & Jewish Identity Project (AJIP) to address this void.

AJIP began as a research project. In 2010 we launched the first-ever in-depth survey of American Jewish adoptive parents. While this survey provided valuable context, we knew from the outset that the voices of adoptees must be central to any effort to understand the adoptive experience. In 2014 we embarked on an oral history project with a diverse group of adoptees raised in American Jewish families. Their reflections – on their experiences in the Jewish community, on their birth heritages and first families, and on their multifaceted and evolving identities – are at the heart of AJIP’s work.

We’re now hard at work on a book that explores Jewish adoption in its full complexity. At the same time, we have begun to shift our focus away from an emphasis on research. In 2017, AJIP became a sponsored project of Jumpstart Labs, a “thinkubator” for new approaches to building organizations within and beyond the Jewish community. We also gathered a dynamic Advisory Board, made up of a diverse group of adoptees, adoptive parents, and adoption professionals. Under their guidance, we are creating a non-profit organization, dedicated to education, advocacy, and support:

• education about adoption within American Jewry,
• advocacy for an inclusive Jewish community that is fully welcoming to adoptees,
• support for adoptees, their families, and those who work with them.

We invite you to join with us in our work to create a more just, equitable, and inclusive Jewish world.