We always knew it. Now the rest of the American Jewish world knows it too.

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs has been named one of the country's 50 most innovative Jewish non-profits by Slingshot 2009-2010, a resource guide for innovation in the Jewish community. The Slingshot guide, now in its fifth year, was created by and geared toward younger donors. It recognizes organizations based on four criteria: innovation, impact, strong leadership and organizational effectiveness.

JCUA is the only Chicago organization listed in the new edition of the guide, which is designed to point younger donors nationwide to creative organizations deserving of their support. (To see the Slingshot report on JCUA as well as the other 49 organizations, go to http://slingshotfund.org/submissions209/slingshot-09-10.pdf)

Founded in 1964, JCUA works with Chicago communities across religious and ethnic lines to combat poverty, racism and anti-Semitism, assist groups in low-income and minority communities and advocate on various social justice issues.

Jane Ramsey, the organization's longtime executive director, said she was "excited and touched by the recognition" in a phone conversation from New York, where she attended the Slingshot launch event.

"JCUA is aware that it is and has been from its founding a unique organization in the context of the broader Jewish community," she said. "We have our special role. But we always looked forward to not being so unique."

To some extent that has happened, Ramsey said. "In the last decade or so, there have been a growing number of Jewish organizations around the country where social justice was the dominant part of the agenda, but when JCUA was founded, it was the only Jewish organization in the country where the agenda revolved around social justice," she said.

She added that she feels most proud that JCUA "has stayed so true to its mission."

The organization "doesn't seek to be recognized in the traditional way," she said. "Helping communities to help themselves, you don't do that and then turn around and say, we did this."

The importance of being chosen by Slingshot, she said, is that "the group of young philanthropists who created Slingshot are embracing and saying to organizations like JCUA, 'We think you're taking risks. Your mission is to bring change by working with others.'"

Programs Ramsey sees as exemplifying this mission include one designed to bridge the Jewish and Muslim communities; a teen social justice program; and partnerships with groups in very low-income communities.

"I hope this sends a message that helps us reach out and get the support we need from the philanthropic world," she said. "This is a book that is being distributed to thousands of Jewish philanthropists in the country as a guide for consideration of their support. You can do innovation but you can't sustain it without support."

The recognition, she said, "will hopefully help us garner new support that will enable us to continue to be innovative and to impact communities that have the greatest need and to create a world that we envision to be just, to be the kind of world we want our children to have."...