When I became director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, I didn’t fully appreciate its mission’s complexity.
How did its multiple tasks — monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, educating about and advocating for Israel, and advocating for just domestic policy — fit together and serve an overriding goal?
In my first year, I considered the question: Could we remove one of those elements and still have a strong JCRC?
Specifically, could we eliminate the public policy element — which is sometimes controversial within the Jewish community — and still be a force in the broader community?
By the first year’s end, I was wiser. Taking communal positions on social and political issues is key to working effectively in the community-at-large. It also is an essential expression of Judaism’s prophetic charge.
Jewish texts and tradition urge us to embrace debate. Such intellectual engagement is hard-wired into our story, and is a key to Jewish resilience, innovation and achievement. We are charged to question the status quo, disagree with dominant thinking and engage deeply with each other.
That spirit shapes our community’s structure. Not governed by one spiritual or administrative leader, we constitute a chorus of voices.
But we are not merely a collection of individuals: We have a strong collective voice that reflects essential communal values and interests.
That call for a collective voice is built into the Jewish story, partially because of what Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of Great Britain, calls “Judaism’s “simple ethical imperatives.”
“We are here to make a difference, to mend the fractures of the world, one day at the time, one act at a time, for as long as it takes to make it a place of justice and compassion where the lonely are not alone, the poor not without help; where the cry of the vulnerable is heeded and those who are wronged are heard,” he writes in “The Ethics of Responsibility.”
“Through our deeds we express our faith,” says Sacks.
That charge drives most American Jews’ sense of social and political responsibility. And it drives much of the work of the JCRC, which acts as a bridge between the Jewish community and the community-at-large.
We take policy positions because our community has a charge to “extend the boundaries of righteousness and justice in the world” (Genesis 18:19).
Those positions are not just theoretical. We do not live in a vacuum. Whatever befalls our greater community also befalls us.
When our society abandons the aged, Jewish elders suffer. When people with disabilities are neglected, Jews with disabilities struggle. When pollution fills our air, Jewish lungs also blacken.
We also take action when the self-interest is more complex. Consider our opposition to recent bills that would make it easier for schools to maintain race-based mascots and names.
The JCRC with our statewide government affairs office, the Wisconsin Jewish Conference, has taken a lead role for three reasons:
First, we stand against discrimination, regardless of the target.
Second, we stand up for others because we know that — although the mascots and names are problematic because of their effects on Native Americans — it could just as easily be us. Unfettered discrimination does not disappear; it merely changes targets.
Third, we stand up for others when they need us because sometimes we also need friends. We are expected to advocate for self-interest, but how powerful it is when others speak up for us. We need their friendship, and they need ours.
The Jewish community cannot risk removing itself from essential, policy-making conversations. If we are to effectively defend the Jewish community, we must be active in coalitions and efforts to shape our world. Says a political quip, “If you’re not at the table, you’ll be on the menu.”
But how can one organization purport to speak for all Jews? The JCRC does not. Rather, it offers a structure for the Jewish community to convene, raise issues, learn and explore, and then come to consensus.
With a board including representatives from 27 synagogues, agencies and organizations, plus an equal number of at-large members, the JCRC aims to reflect the prevailing views, not majority rule, in the community.
Our positions are often consistent with liberal politics for a simple reason — the Jewish community overwhelmingly and consistently supports programs that serve the poor, elderly, disabled and vulnerable.
Still, with a commitment to free exchange of ideas and open, civil discourse, the JCRC examines each issue with curiosity and openness. We study, analyze, learn from experts with a variety of perspectives and invite input from a diverse array of constituents.
Though the process of developing positions is open and fair, we know that consensus does not mean every community member will agree. However, such disagreement is not a mandate for silence or inaction.
Rather, our community’s diversity requires of us the wisdom to be mindful of our chorus of voices, to communicate respectfully and to artfully hold onto multiple interests simultaneously.
It also requires of us the wisdom to know, in the spirit of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), when to speak and when to be silent; when to lead and when to follow; when to look inward and when to reach out; when to sing as a chorus and when to speak in one clear, loud voice, as one community.
Elana Kahn-Oren is director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
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