Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)
JCRC Quarterly Recap: October
As we embark on a new year—the Jewish year of 5778—may we allow the High Holiday traditions of reflection and renewal to fill our minds and hearts.
This season has been a particularly reflective one for me. I think back now on the moment I first saw the images of crowds with lit torches marching in Charlottesville, chanting antisemitic phrases, waving Nazi flags, spewing hate directed at so many communities. In that moment, there was no time to reflect on what I was seeing—it demanded an immediate response. The Holocaust and Humanity Center’s Sarah Weiss and I quickly went to work crafting this op-ed, which ran days later in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Our JCRC wasted no time reaching out to our friends in other targeted communities. We joined our Jewish community relations partners across the country on conference calls with the ADL, Homeland Security, and the FBI to better understand what had happened, and to learn more about how to proactively move forward. We appeared in television news segments, in Twitter town hall forums, and as a guest on online Shabbat services to pass along what we were learning.
I don’t think I took a moment to pause and reflect until about a week later, during a coworker’s daughter’s bat mitzvah. Thinking about the overt displays of hatred in Charlottesville, juxtaposed with the resilience of Jewish life and ritual continuing before my eyes, as it has for generations, brought a flood of tears. Those same tears of reflection were shed throughout so many churches, mosques, and diverse community gathering spaces across our country. This is why people who hate have not won in the past, and this is why they will not win now, I thought to myself.
In the following weeks, reflection turned to forward action, as we worked with AJC Cincinnati, the Holocaust and Humanity Center, SAFE Cincinnati, and the Freedom Center to host a leadership briefing on the status of hate groups, featuring high-level panelists from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the FBI, and the ADL. One hundred and thirty Cincinnati leaders—from nearly every faith, ethnic, and civic community—took time on a weekday afternoon to join us. As we face the possibility of a visit by Richard Spencer to the University of Cincinnati campus, there is strength and power in knowing we are not alone in this fight. The JCRC is working with a group of leaders across diverse ethnic, religious, and civic communities to develop a counter response that will proactively showcase our values of diversity and inclusion in a way that does not draw additional attention to Spencer and his hateful rhetoric.
In 5778, I look forward to joining arms with you, in a renewed effort to counter hate with tolerance and division with unified resolve.
Warmly,
Jackie Congedo
Director, Jewish Community Relations Council
P.S. Read on to learn more about how we’re living our JCRC values in the work we do every day.
We worked to protect Religious Liberty by partnering with the Bridges of Faith Trialogue, a group of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders committed to promoting interfaith understanding and dialogue, in the development of informative guidelines on how to create a productive and respectful space for hosting speakers of religious faith.
In the spirit of Education and Knowledge, we facilitated conversations between SAFE Cincinnati, the Mayerson JCC, and the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, in an effort to share best practices in community security and fundraising.
In response to the recent white supremacist rally and subsequent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, we highlighted the importance of Mutual Understanding and Respect by uniting with other Cincinnati leaders and organizations against violence and hate. We attended an interfaith community vigil and conversation, participated in calls with the FBI, ADL, and JCPA about responding locally, participated in a roundtable discussion with Sherrod Brown, co-authored an op-ed about the importance of speaking up against hatred, and were also quoted in Byron McCauley’s column in the Enquirer. We worked with AJC Cincinnati, the Holocaust and Humanity Center, SAFE Cincinnati, and the Freedom Center to host a leadership briefing on the status of hate groups, featuring high-level panelists from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the FBI, and the ADL. In addition, we hosted an interfaith basketball game in collaboration with the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy for high schoolers from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian backgrounds to get to know each other.
Compassion for the Vulnerable and Bereft led us to issue a statement calling on Congress to protect Dreamers in the wake of the recent DACA repeal.
In an effort to model Just and Peaceful Resolution of Disputes, we hosted a Beyond Civility Project forum that brought together diverse panelists from both ends of the political spectrum to have a respectful debate, demonstrating how empathy can bridge political divides.
We hosted Ambassador Dani Dayan, Consul General of Israel in New York, during his first visit to Cincinnati. While he was here, he met with diverse constituencies in the Jewish and greater Cincinnati communities, speaking in a variety of social, educational, business, and civic forums across Cincinnati.
In alignment with Ish Festival’s community outreach planning, we coordinated a musical workshop performance at the Music Resource Center (MRC) with Israeli artist Tamar Eisenman. MRC is a Cincinnati nonprofit that inspires teenagers in a culturally diverse and musically focused setting to elevate lifetime and academic achievement. Tamar performed for and interacted with about 20 urban youth, sharing her Israeli story, identity, and musical influences.
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