By David Ian Klein February 17, 2021

Through an executive order on Sunday, President Biden reestablished the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The office, which was originally created during the Bush administration, is designed to help the government partner with smaller scale neighborhood and community nonprofit organizations.

“The American people are key drivers of fundamental change in our country, and few institutions are closer to the people than our faith-based and other community organizations,” the order stated. “These partnerships are also vital for the success and effectiveness of the United States’ diplomatic, international development, and humanitarian work around the world.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The office will be led by Melissa Rogers who had previously led it during President Obama’s second term.

According to Rogers, the office will work on addressing economic and educational disparities across American society, with special focus on making sure that religious communities are aware of government grants and accommodations that are afforded to them.

“We’ll be engaged in that particular effort, as well as others, in breaking down silos and communicating across agencies to try to find out what we can do with our partners to ensure that we really attack these disparities, which are part of the scourge of systemic racism,” Rogers told the Religion News Service.

While the office has existed in some form for the last two decades, its efforts were significantly reduced under the Trump administration.

Renamed as the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, it was left largely unstaffed until 2019, when President Donald Trump appointed the controversial, evangelical preacher Paula White to the post.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount