“Move Hearts, Lift Sights, and Influence Decisions”: The National Council of Jewish Women and US Family Policy, 1960–1973

Abstract This article offers a case study of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW)’s early childhood programs and job training programs, highlighting the vulnerabilities of the War on Poverty–era “public-private partnerships” that were rooted in ideological commitments to racial liberalism and “middle-class values.” The article critically examines the challenges and criticisms faced by NCJW including issues of program participation, operation, and oversight as well as the broader political context that shaped their work. It argues that NCJW’s shift from targeted compensatory interventions to advocacy for universal family policies was a strategic response to balancing government directives, activist demands, and conservative criticism. The article concludes that NCJW’s strategies ultimately contributed to the endurance of a bifurcated system of care—a private (but subsidized) market for most and limited piecemeal interventions rooted in a regressive payment system for poor families of color.