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The Jewish Organization Equality Index (JOEI) is the Human Rights Campaign first-ever index of inclusion within a faith-based community. It is modeled after HRC’s groundbreaking Corporate Equality Index and provides benchmarks for gauging, and resources for improving, LGBT inclusivity policies and practices of North American Jewish communal organizations.

The Index shows that in some areas, the Jewish community has been progressive in addressing LGBT equality. In fact, 50% of the 204 organizations that participated received the top score in the Index. By contrast, the first year of HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, which rates Fortune1000 companies on inclusion for LGBT employees, only 13 organizations of the 319 rated—or 4%—received the highest score.

But the findings also highlight significant opportunities for improvement, especially in the areas of employee recruitment and training. For example:

• 79% of participating organizations expressed they have not targeted the LGBT community in workplace recruitment efforts;
• 75% have not specifically recruited LGBT individuals to their lay leadership board in the past three years (often cited as a significant contributor to increased awareness about inclusive policies); and
• 59% have not completed any diversity or inclusion training in the past three years.