Whom do you call to report anti-Semitic incidents? Who usually creates programs of interfaith dialogue?
Who builds coalitions with other religious or ethnic communities to fight discriminatory practices? Who makes the case for Israel’s existence as a Jewish state to local news media and organizations?
In the majority of larger Jewish communities throughout the United States, such functions are most often performed by local Jewish community relations councils, which strive in these and other ways to foster good relations between the Jewish and other religious and ethnic communities and the general community.
And in the majority of larger U.S. Jewish communities, as shown by the membership list on the Web site of the national Jewish Council for Public Affairs, JCRCs are departments of local Jewish federations.
One of the few exceptions is found in Milwaukee. Since its creation in 1938, the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations has been an agency administratively independent of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, though as a constituent MJF agency, it has received its primary funding from the MJF community campaigns.
That situation soon may change. During this past summer, a “work group” of about 10 lay leaders and executives from the MJCCR and MJF has been discussing how the MJCCR can be integrated into the MJF.
Said Keith Lindenbaum, chair of the work group and a vice president of the MJF, as well as a past president of the MJCCR: “In response to the financial challenges facing the community, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation is looking for ways to retain important services and provide them to the Jewish community in the most efficient manner.”
“There are efficiencies to be realized and benefits to be gained by integrating the community relations function with the federation,” he said in a telephone interview on Sept. 17.
Sheryl Primakow is the federation’s director of planning and the MJF staff member overseeing the work group. In a telephone interview, she pointed out ways that JCRC work could be done more efficiently and effectively with the MJCCR as “a core operation” of the MJF, including:
• The absorption of MJCCR’s marketing, infrastructure, and general “business office operations” by the MJF. This would result in a “cost savings to the community,” Primakow said.
• Eliminating some duplications of effort. For example, some of the council’s Israel advocacy work could be done by the MJF’s Israel Center and its Israel emissary, said Primakow.
Lindenbaum added that a federation-run MJCCR would also have access to the MJF’s staff members when needed.
“The work of community relations is often dictated by current events” such as local anti-Semitic incidents or Middle East developments, he said. “An integrated approach provides a greater pool of staff to address and work on potential solutions.”
Ultimately, the work group will produce a “memorandum of understanding” containing details of how this transition will work.
Kathy Heilbronner has been serving as interim executive director of the MJCCR since former executive director Paula Simon retired, effective Aug. 31. (While Simon is not a member of the work group, Lindenbaum said she has “agreed to assist in the transition.”)
In a telephone interview, Heilbronner said that while details are still evolving, it appears likely that the MJCCR will retain its own board, much the way the MJF’s Women’s Division or Jewish Community Foundation do; and that there will be at least one full-time community relations professional staff member.
She emphasized that the work group is taking the time necessary to address issues, and that its process has been “very comprehensive.”
“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Heilbronner said. “The message is we’re really taking our time, trying to anticipate what the issues are, explore what other communities have done, and the challenges posed when the community relations council is part of the federation.”
Judy Kristal, MJCCR president, said “The process has been a collaborative one, with both the MJCCR and the MJF wanting to have as an end result a community relations council that will be able to do the work previously done and that is important to the Jewish community…. I am hopeful that this will be a good thing to do, good for the council in the long run.”
Primakow said she didn’t know when the process will be concluded. “We want to do this right and whatever time it takes, we will give to the process,” she said.
Heilbronner said, “I think people hope” that the process could be concluded “by the end of the calendar year.” She added that the memorandum of understanding would have to be approved by both organizations’ boards before it would take effect.
Among the issues being addressed is the question of taking public positions on political and social issues. In the past, the MJCCR developed positions on such controversial issues as enhanced penalty hate crimes laws and how to teach religion in public schools.
Because the MJCCR was independent of the MJF, MJCCR positions did not necessarily reflect those of the MJF staff or board. In the new structure, however, Primakow acknowledged that if the local JCRC did take a public stand on an issue, such a position would be identified with the MJF.
When asked about this, Lindenbaum said, “My sense is this is not going to be a problem.”
He emphasized that because the MJCCR board contained representatives of nearly all local Jewish organizations, it has “taken a consensus approach to adopting positions that reflect the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community.” He said he believes this approach will continue in the new structure.
Formerly op-ed editor, Leon Cohen has written for The Chronicle for more than 25 years.
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