Jewish Day of Action: This Budget is a Moral Failure. As Jews, We Must Call It Out.

Earlier this summer, Congress passed a federal budget that rips health care and nutrition assistance away from the people who need it most. Simply put, it’s a moral failure. And as Jews, we are commanded not to look away.

This new law guts critical programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and CHIP, which keep millions of women, children, and families from going hungry and ensures that they can get necessary medical assistance regardless of income. It slashes reproductive health care access, shuttering clinics that offer not only abortion care but cancer screenings, STI testing, and prenatal services — especially in communities where no other providers exist. It hands tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans while pulling the rug out from under working families.

This is not just bad policy — it’s a direct attack on our Jewish values. Our sacred texts command us to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and love our neighbors as ourselves. This budget fails every one of those tests.

At the National Council of Jewish Women, we know that budgets are moral documents. They tell us, in dollars and cents, who we care about and who we leave behind. And this one leaves behind the most vulnerable. It is an assault on the social safety net that generations of advocates — many of them Jewish — have fought to build.

As the budget law is enacted, we will not stand by while millions of people go hungry or without health care.

That’s why, on August 5, NCJW is launching a Jewish Day of Action: A Moral Response to an Immoral Budget. Alongside our partners at MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger and the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, we’ll meet with members of Congress in their home districts and flood lawmakers with stories, calls, and petitions demanding a federal budget that reflects our highest ideals. We will show up — in person and online — to say: Jewish values demand better.

We’re angry. We’re heartbroken. But we are not deterred. This budget is not the final word. The federal funding process will continue this fall — and with it, our lawmakers have a duty to fix what they broke. This is our chance to make our voices heard.

As Jews, we have been taught for thousands of years that society is judged by how it treats the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. That we must pursue justice and protect the dignity of every human being. This budget fails that mandate. But our fight for a just and moral future is far from over.