JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL (JCRC)

Building Relationships, Connecting Communities, Meeting Challenges

Every successful community must engage with other groups; be a hub for collaboration, information sharing and coalition building; and give voice about its priorities to constituents, political leaders and others.

In San Diego the Jewish Community Relations Center of the Jewish Federation seeks to meet those needs by understanding that our Jewish community's needs are best served when the general community's interests are met as well. The Center serves as the community relations arm of the organized Jewish community in San Diego County.

Through advocacy, organizing, service and partnerships, the Center pursues social justice, ensures a vibrant Jewish community, and builds a network of support for Israel. The Center promotes its goals through its programmatic work focusing on government relations, Israel advocacy and international affairs, interfaith, ethnic and inter-group relations, and Holocaust remembrance and education, always with an emphasis on consensus-building among diverse groups.

The Jewish Community Relations Council is an integral component of the Center, enabling development of consensus-driven strategic responses to issues that affect the Jewish community. The Council serves as the place for the community to turn when something happens that requires a response.

The Council is a representative organization of San Diego’s diverse Jewish community. The Council convenes to address issues, concerns, needs and aspirations of our community of local, national and international scope in the spirit of cooperation and consensus.

The work of the Council is carried out by four committees:

• Intergroup Relations, focused on developing and sustaining relationships with other ethnic and religious communities in order to advance Jewish and democratic values.
  
  
• Israel and World Affairs, focused on support, educating and advocating on behalf of Israel and Jews worldwide.
   
• Legislative Committee, focused on legislation and public policy measures that affect the Jewish community and our inter-group partners.
   
• Social Justice Committee, focused on partnerships with Jewish agencies, congregations and organizations to engage Jewish individuals and groups in meaningful social justice learning and effective social action projects.

JCRC and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs - JCRC is a member of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), which connects San Diego to 14 national and 125 local independent partner agencies and serves as a catalyst to heighten community awareness, encourages civic and social involvement, and deliberates key issues of importance to the Jewish community.

JCRC and the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California - JCRC is a member of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee (JPAC), the largest single-state coalition of Jewish organizations in the nation. JPAC monitors and helps to promote state legislative initiatives of interest to the Jewish community and the community-at-large.

JCRC and the Israel Action Network (IAN) - The Israel Action Network is a joint initiative launched by the Jewish Federations of North America in cooperation with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs to counter the assault on Israel’s legitimacy. The IAN was created to educate, organize and mobilize the organized North American Jewish community to develop strategic approaches to countering these assaults and develop innovative efforts to change the conversation about Israel and achieving peace and security for two states for two peoples.

JCRC and Secure Community Networks (SCN) - Secure Community Networks was established in response to a heightened security concern among national Jewish leadership to serve and advise the American Jewish community concerning matters of communal safety, security and preparedness, including institutionalizing of a culture of security awareness and preparedness into the consciousness and operations of the American Jewish community.