After more than 17 years at Jewish Community Action, the last four-and-a-half as its executive director, Carin Mrotz announced Friday that she’ll be leaving the agency in 2022 following the appointment of her successor. A national search will begin shortly.
“The organization is as strong and vital as we’ve ever been, and I’m so proud to have been part of this, to have stewarded JCA to this point,” Mrotz wrote in a statement. “And as I reflect on my tenure at Jewish Community Action, I’m called to find out what’s next for me and to help the organization I love so dearly do the same.”
Board chair David Brauer lauded Mrotz for growing the agency since she became JCA’s third executive director in 2017, and for leading campaigns for tenants’ rights, immigration and criminal justice reform, and efforts to combat antisemitism and white nationalism.
“Carin has grown JCA into a social justice force in communities and at the Capitol,” Brauer wrote. “Under her leadership, JCA has had big wins, including helping end police evictions and boost suburban tenants’ rights, ending the Hennepin County sheriff’s ICE collaboration, and ensuring Hennepin County’s new better-funded hate crime response.”
Mrotz’s plan is to remain with JCA until at least next Passover, giving the board a months-long runway to look for her successor.
Mrotz joined the staff of JCA in 2004, where she was going to manage the operations but not engaging the organizing work JCA did while she pursued her master’s degree in the evenings. She wrote that within a year of joining, however, she was staffing an initiative to organize and mobilize Jews outside of congregations.
“Every time I paused to consider an exit, our work drew me in even closer,” she wrote. “At each inflection point in my own life, JCA’s work rose up to meet my curiosity and desire for justice.
“That I am in my 18th year on staff holds deep meaning for me – in Jewish numerology, 18 stands for life, and so it feels fitting that I’ll complete this year focused on bringing new life, fresh ideas, and sustaining leadership to JCA. Our work, our crucial organizing for racial and economic justice, gave me the path to my place in the Jewish community.”
