Emma Mayerson is Involved in the Jewish Community

Alliance for Girls Program Director Emma Mayerson got her start organizing within the Jewish community of the Bay Area. Coming from a family with deep Jewish roots and devotion to community service, Emma Mayerson has been involved in relationship building and activism from within Jewish organizations since she was a young teenager.

Emma Mayerson first got involved with activism as a volunteer for the Jewish Coalition for Literacy of San Francisco, where she created the Generations program as a way to promote literacy while also building relationships between Jewish youth and elders. Emma Mayerson was also a Development Assistant at the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco. She worked as a community organizing resident with Bend the Arc, which used to be called The Jewish Funds for Justice, and has been on the Bend the Arc board for seven years. She is also a Bend the Arc Jeremiah fellow. Emma Mayerson is currently a board member of the Impact Grants Initiative board of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Marin, and Sonoma Counties.

In addition to her Jewish activist work, Emma Mayerson has also been involved in the religious instruction side of Jewish life. As a high school student, Emma Mayerson volunteered as a teaching assistant for the Seventh Grade Fund through Temple Isaiah. She also participated in the instruction of bar and bat mitzvah students, focusing on the importance of tzedakah, a Jewish concept meaning righteousness or charity that is considered obligatory for true participation in Jewish life.

Emma Mayerson comes from a long line of family members involved in both the Jewish community and larger community service. Her grandparents, Manuel and Rhoda, founded the Mayerson Family Foundations, which invest in Jewish community building, inclusion of people with disabilities, and social justice work around the world through grant funding and social programming.