About

Exodus Leadership Forum, led by Van Jones and the Dream Machine Innovation Lab in partnership with the Aspen Institute, is a strategic effort to preserve democracy, reduce polarization and neutralize extremist narratives on both the left and the right. We seek to accomplish this in three ways:

• By renewing and leveraging the historic Black/Jewish alliance, which has always played an outsized role in advancing American democracy and civil rights

• By convening business, cultural and thought leaders—in partnership with existing organizations—to work across significant problem sets that have the potential to lead to generational change

• By creating a new generation of narrative media

The Problem

Democracy is threatened by increasing polarization, rising extremism and the erosion of social cohesion. In the United States, these challenges are compounded by the deterioration of relationships between key communities, such as Black and Jewish Americans. Contemporary issues – including the Israel-Palestine conflict, debates over Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, computational propaganda from foreign actors and the rise of extremist movements – are exacerbating divisions.

The Opportunity

Exodus Leadership Forum brings together business and community leaders who can forge partnerships and thought leaders who can shift the narratives tearing us apart.

Exodus has three unifying principles:

Partnership > Pity
Prosperity > Protest
The future > The past