AUGUST 6 • 2020 | 19
W
ashtenaw County now has its
own full-fledged local Jewish
Community Relations Council,
courtesy of the Jewish Federation of Greater
Ann Arbor.
When the Federation welcomed their
new executive director Eileen Freed in 2017,
they began to explore a JCRC to facilitate
relations internally and externally with the
community. The beginning phases start-
ed by convening a small working group
of around 10 people to lay out a mission
and a vision. The group also took notes
from other JCRCs around the country that
resembled the Washtenaw/Ann Arbor com-
munity.
Now, what used to be a “work group” has
developed into a full-fledged local JCRC,
with guiding principles and a biweekly
newsletter.
After studying other JCRCs, Federation
realized that they needed to be engaging
with members of their community on what
they believe their JCRC should look like. So
this past year, they began the “Conversations
with Seven” series: community-building
events with individuals in Washtenaw
County. Some participants were affiliated
with Federation, and some were not.
“We had conversations with seven people
who may not know each other and asked
them questions on what it means to be a
Jew today in Washtenaw County,
” Jessica
“Decky” Alexander, chair of the JCRC, told
the JN. “We also asked them a lot of ques-
tions on identity, culture and belonging.
As a result of that, we were able to lay out
guiding principles and a framework that
has allowed the JCRC to realize our poten-
tial.
”
The JCRC’
s main focus is on “fostering
and building relations both within the
Jewish community and beyond with other
cultural, civic and ethnic groups and orga-
nizations, such as the NAACP
, United Way,
other religious organizations and more.
”
Recently, the council held a virtual
candidate forum for Washtenaw County
Prosecutor with Temple Beth Emeth’
s Social
Action Committee and Bend the Arc-Ann
Arbor. Over 190 community members
joined the Zoom conversation with the can-
didates. The JCRC is also working with Rep.
Debbie Dingell’
s office on convening a series
of roundtables for local faith leaders.
“Our JCRC is focused on issues affecting
the local community, such as educational
funding, race relations, policing and bias
and racial/ethnic profiling,
” Alexander said.
“We aim to remain flexible though, so we
can respond to pressing or relevant topics as
they may arise. Currently, we are focused on
the upcoming election and are working with
other organizations around voter registra-
tion and engagement.
”
Alexander was brought in by Federation
to serve as the JCRC’
s chair. Previously,
she worked in partnership with Federation
on local and social issues in Washtenaw
County, involving educational equity and
conversations around policing and bias. In
addition to now leading the JCRC, she is
also a tenured professor at Eastern Michigan
University and sits on the faculty advisory
board in the school’
s Center for Jewish
Studies.
“For someone who lived in this area for a
long time but wasn’
t necessarily part of any
kind of more formal or intentional Jewish
entity, I recognized that there was a space
and a need to do more broad internal rela-
tions among our Jewish community, as well
as external relations,
” Alexander said.
Washtenaw’
s JCRC is not formally affili-
ated with the Metro Detroit JCRC/AJC, but
the two organizations have a working rela-
tionship. Most recently, they participated on
a call together with the NAACP to discuss a
voter initiative.
“Our community is much smaller than
Oakland County. Many Jewish individuals
who arrive and root (even temporarily) in
Washtenaw County are from other places
and bring their own understanding, experi-
ences and backgrounds of what it means to
be Jewish,
” Alexander said. “
As a result, we
are exposed to a diversity of ideas and expe-
riences, which we hope to harness and vali-
date in and through JCRC programming.
”
Moving forward, Alexander said the
JCRC hopes to be a “collaborator, a conve-
ner and a connector” for the Washtenaw
community, as well as “be more intentional
about making our Jewish voices heard on
local issues.
” She wants to ensure that the
Jewish voices in the community are heard,
so she began the biweekly newsletter to
ignite the JCRC’
s guiding principles and
bridge the community to both local and
national issues.
For information, visit jewishannarbor.org/engage-
ment/jewish-community-relations-committee.
Jews in the D
CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER
Group will look to amplify
Jewish voices throughout
the county.
Washtenaw
County
Launches
JCRC
CONVERSATIONS WITH 7 GRAPHIC RECORDING BY YEN AZZARO
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Graphic recordings from the JCRC's event, Conversations with 7.