We launched JewsOnFirst.org in October 2005 because we wanted to oppose the growing strength of the Christian right and the accelerating pace of its theocratic agenda. We made it a point that Jews should support the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — in particular its "Establishment Clause," which says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." We took our name, Jews On First, from those first few words of the First Amendment (with pun intended, reference to Abbot and Costello's comedy skit, "Who's On First?").
We knew there had to be thousands of Jews around the country who were already working hard to protect the First Amendment or were seeking a way to get involved in stopping theocracy. And we surmised that many of those who were engaged in resistance to Christianization, or were offended enough to get engaged in resisting it, were looking for encouragement, for resources and for a supportive community.
So we started the website, started assembling resources, and started reaching out to let people know that we were here. Over the years we've built a network of individuals -- Jews and many others -- and organizations dedicated to energetically opposing efforts to Christianize our government and our culture.
Despite the 2008 electoral defeat of the Republican Party, where the Christian Right is hugely influential, we continued our work because the Christian right continued its work, unabated, on the state and local levels and, without missing a beat, in augmenting the ranks of Christian Zionists, who envision Israel as the scene of the End Times. We stopped adding content in 2012 because of other demands on our time.
The original website featured hundreds of links to news reports organized into such categories as Public Education, LGBTQ Rights, Church-State Separation, Reproductive Rights and more. Over the years most of those links became obsolete, as publications cleared their archives.
But the website continued to have visitors, especially as the fundamentalist Christian right gathered power with the Trump administration. Jews On First: The Archive will be a continuing resource for them. For you.
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak and Jane Hunter
JewsOnFirst.org founders
JewsOnFirst @ gmail.com