AJC is the public affairs voice of a vigilant
Jewish community and an enduring advo-
cate for Israel, committed to building bridg-
es within the community through media
and government relations.
Above all, JCRC/AJC is volunteer-driven.
We can’t do justice to our mission without
the support and vision of our leaders, and
the hands and hearts of our volunteers.
Q: Describe your early influences.
I am the product of the institutions of
this community — and of the wisdom of
my parents to send me to Hillel Day School,
and then to take the leap of faith with the
dream of the Frankel Jewish Academy,
which was just opening in the fall of 2000.
I always assumed I would go to Groves
High School, but, instead, we took a
chance, along with those first pioneering
students and their families. And when
you start with a strong Jewish home life,
where Jewish holidays, traditions and
family are sacred, and put my two formal
educational experiences together, add the
informal Jewish education of Camp Ramah
in Canada, you get the basis of a very “solid
Jewish citizen,” to say the least.
Camp Ramah will always have a special
place in my heart as the most important
Jewish institution in my life. That was
where I formed my love of living Jewishly.
My dad served as chair of the board for
years. And, most significantly, that’s where
I met Katie. We were fellow campers start-
ing at age 10, stayed long-distance friends
through high school and college, and mar-
ried six years ago.
Q: What was your experience as an
activist in college?
By the time I got to the University of
Michigan, I was already on a path toward
a career in Jewish communal service. We
were a maize-and-blue family, but Ann
Arbor is where I came of age.
For me, campus life at U-M was a new
landscape, so different from the bubble
I grew up in West Bloomfield. After the
Second Lebanon War in Israel in the sum-
mer of 2006, we came back to campus
hearing this narrative that Israel had com-
mitted mass atrocities and human rights
violations. I couldn’t stand by and just lis-
ten. I was compelled to stand up, speak out,
apply all I had learned from firsthand expe-
rience here and in Israel, and get involved.
So, fast-forward a few years. Thinking
about my career path, I realized I couldn’t
leave all that passion behind on campus
as an extra-curricular activity. I needed to
keep going with the work I had started.

JEWISH COMMUNAL CAREER PATH

Q: What brought you back home?
Family brought me home.
After I graduated from U-M, I went to
Chicago to follow Katie, my girlfriend at the
time. That was a good choice! And Chicago
was a good place to start my career, far
enough from home to push me out of my
comfort zone, but only 280 miles down I-94.
In Chicago, I had career opportunities
with the Illinois Holocaust Museum &
Education Center and then the ADL— two
organizations where I developed skills in

speaking, organizing events, community
relations and working with students.
But Chicago was never really home for
either of us. (Katie grew up in Rochester,
N.Y.). After eight years, we were done with
city life. We felt it was time to move closer
to family. Coming home to Detroit was a
natural choice that’s worked out for both
of us. Katie’s Jewish network here closely
matches mine. She’s just returned from
Israel as a participant on the esteemed
Becker Marcus All-Star Mission, geared spe-
cifically for Federation’s NEXTGen leaders.
Q: How did you find your perfect fit
with JCRC?
As an ADL staff member in Chicago,
I knew the JCRC network, worked with
JCRC in Indianapolis and Milwaukee on
programs, where I understood their impor-
tance. But I didn’t know Detroit’s JCRC and,
honestly, didn’t have much experience with
the Detroit Jewish Federation.
So, when I decided to come home, I just
started looking for opportunities. I called
Scott Kaufman and talked to community
leaders like Stanley Frankel and asked
them, “What’s going on? Where can I make
a difference?” I was in no rush. It took a
little time, but it was important for me to
find the right opportunity. And I did.
JCRC is the perfect agency for me. And,
I would underline the word agency. We are
a Federation agency and partner in every
sense. It is an enormous privilege to get
an allocation of community dollars — the
result of the work that goes on in fundrais-
ing, and all that is involved in educating
and cultivating donors. I like to think that
I give back in the work we do, in our narra-
tive and messages to the community.
Working together, we are incredibly for-
tunate here in Jewish Detroit. It’s a great
honor to walk into the Federation building
every day and to be brought in with the
team as a peer with the senior leadership
and to collaborate in events.
Q: How have the roles of JCRC and AJC
been expanded with the partnership?
I emphasize we have a partnership with
the American Jewish Committee, not a
merger. We were doing much of the same
work, raising money independently. By
combining our resources, we now have the
premier Jewish global advocacy organiza-
tion at our side and a thought partner at
the forefront of many issues affecting the
Jewish community.
And we also have the voice of David
Harris, a one-of-a-kind communal leader,
whose messages and opinion pieces help
inform the work we do. Together, it’s a great
fit for our community.
Because of the partnership, several AJC
leaders have joined our board, includ-
ing our president, Alicia Chandler, a
gifted young leader, who is currently in the
Wexner Fellowship Program. In addition,
I must acknowledge our former president,
Dr. Richard Krugel, for advocating for the
partnership and his confidence in us to pull
it together. •

Vivian Henoch is editor of Federation’s
myjewishdetroit.org , where this story first appeared.

The JCRC/AJC Agenda

Israel: As the agency of Israel advo-
cacy in our community, our job is to
speak up, speak out and to seek partner-
ships to help local Detroiters understand
why the Jewish community cares about
Israel, why we raise money to support it,
why we send all those missions there.
Our conversations can get heated, but
we strive to keep those conversations
centered on facts and balanced. When
we talk about Israel, we acknowledge
its complexities and speak up when we
have concerns. Our responsibility is to
defend the security and well-being of
Israel as the Jewish state and our home-
land. That message is unequivocal — we
cannot budge on that.
BDS (Boycott, Divestment,
Sanctions) against Israel: As much as
it pains us that our students on campus
are still dealing with the BDS move-
ment against Israel, to date, no college
has divested from the State of Israel. In
fact, we’ve had a legislative victory on
the issue here in Michigan. As a result
of a concerted effort led by JCRC/AJC,
and championed by Dennis Bernard, a
Federation leader in government rela-
tions, Michigan became the 16th state
in the nation to pass an anti-boycott bill
into law.
Anti-Semitism: It’s not the primary
mission of the JCRC/AJC to combat anti-
Semitism; the organization responsible
for that is the ADL (Anti-Defamation
League). Anti-Semitism is the oldest form
of hate — there’s an undercurrent of it
that’s never gone away, but what has
happened now — and I think we’re all
wrestling with this — is this uncorking
of the bottle, where toxic discourse has
been normalized. In America, we don’t
outlaw hate speech as some other coun-
tries do, but as Jews we are compelled
to fight it … with more speech! Our
words matter. Discourse and debate can
and do lead to better understanding and
work to mobilize the community.
Immigration: It’s a hot topic now,
but immigration is a Jewish issue. As a
Jewish agency, we’re not going to hesi-
tate to take a stand for refugees … or
speak out to protect immigration rights.
At times, it feels like walking a tight-
rope — keeping the discourse about the
policy and the issues, and not the politics
and the people. But that’s what we’re
charged to do day after day. While every-
one else is going about their day, our job
is to make sure our neighbors know that
the fate of one community is the fate
of all communities, and that the Jewish
community cares.
Community outreach: Look at where
we live. Look at our demographics in
Detroit … how can we NOT engage our
neighbors? Our interfaith outreach has

been bold, particularly with the Muslim
community. Mitzvah Day, for example,
could have been kept as a Jewish volun-
teer activity, but we’re not the only ones
who need something do to get us off the
couch on Christmas Day and make a dif-
ference — so we engaged the Muslim
community to volunteer with us.
Our challenge now is to expand that
outreach. Certainly, we can point to
individual successes and initiatives in
engagement between our Jewish and
African American communities — but in
our community-to-community relation-
ship, we’re not yet where we should be.
We can do so much more.
Jewish continuity: Some of the
toughest issues we face as community
are not JCRC/AJC’s issues alone. Our
community is excellent in so many ways,
but we are influenced by the national
climate, issues like affiliation, assimila-
tion and the role of our institutions in
communal life. How will the next genera-
tion support our institutions? Does it see
a home in its synagogues? Our agency
is not about Jewish continuity, per se.
We can help give Jewish people a voice
and keep individuals in the fold, but how
do we grow and flourish? How do we
afford our day schools, our Jewish camp
experiences, our care for seniors, our
safety nets in place for those in need or
in crisis? What is the American Jewish
relationship to the State of Israel? I think
about these things not just as an agency
director, but as a member of the commu-
nity — as husband and a father, as one
who cares deeply about our future.
Volunteers: Sometimes the challenge
of being part of an organization like ours
is that everyone is drawn to the promise
of the new — the fresh new initiatives
and grassroots projects. Our work is
essential community work, steeped in
our deep and abiding knowledge of the
community. Bookstock, Mitzvah Day, our
literacy programs in the Detroit Public
Schools — these are all legacy programs
run by a legion of volunteers.
To continue our work and to grow, we
need an influx of new volunteers. And
that’s not to dismiss our more seasoned
supporters. We are proud to have six
decades of leadership on our board. That
is something I cherish because we need
the institutional memory of our devoted
volunteers like Micki Grossman and Roz
Blanck along with our new voices whis-
pering in my ear — to keep pushing us
forward. Look for volunteer opportunities
at jcrcajc.org.
By the very nature of my job, every
single day, I’m reminded: It takes a com-
munity. And we’re all in it together. •

David Kurzmann, JCRC/AJC executive director

jn

January 4 • 2018

19