How do we nurture community relationships when some of the most vocal public perspectives pit communities against one another? How can Jewish lay and professional leaders commit to our roles as bridge-builders so the American Jewish community may continue our long-standing dedication to democracy and live up to the values that secure a future for all Americans? (Scroll down to watch full recording).
On Wednesday, May 14, 2025, the Jews of Color Initiative (JoCI) and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) hosted a powerful dialogue on Jewish Community Relations and Multiracial Coalitions: Strategies for a Secure Future. Ilana Kaufman, JoCI’s CEO and Founder, and Amy Spitalnik, CEO of the JCPA, addressed some of the most pressing points of tension obscuring our path to multiracial coalitions today.
In a conversation facilitated by Christina Jefferson (JoCI Board Chair, Repair the World and JCRC Bay Area Board Member, and Senior Director of Inclusion and Culture at the San Francisco 49ers), Kaufman and Spitalnik identified three key strategies that will enable the Jewish community to better tend to the multiracial, multifaith coalitions that have been integral to Jewish safety and security throughout American history.
1. Complicate Binaries and Resist Narratives That Isolate Communities
Polarization post October 7, 2023, debates around the place of Jewish history in ethnic studies programs, and increasing threats to the fundamental rights of many Americans cast a public perception that a secure Jewish future is at odds with the objectives of multiracial America. In reality, this could not be further from the truth.
Though some of the loudest voices in public discourse are driven by binary thinking, Spitalnik says that ”there is no Jewish safety in America without inclusive, multiracial, multifaith democracy, and there’s no inclusive, multiracial, multifaith democracy without Jewish safety.”
Jewish communal relations professionals “need to be able to talk honestly and openly” about communal tension points, Kaufman says, even—and perhaps especially—when we find ourselves “in the sticky spaces, in the complicated spaces, in the uncomfortable spaces…and [in the] unknown.”
Rather than buying into binary narratives that flatten the identities, histories, fears, and needs of diverse communities, we should explore how to build and nurture coalitions rooted in our shared values.
2. Affirm Your Commitment to Bridging The Most Challenging Communal Divides
We must take seriously our responsibility and obligation to serve communities with opposing perspectives. “We need to have an intense comfort in being the connective tissue, the thread…that holds the people who have the most divergent points of view from us because we are the connectors for our community,” Kaufman said.
Wrestling with complexity is a central tenet of Judaism. We must apply this communal value to Jews of differing perspectives and our non-Jewish partners and allies. Turning inward and withdrawing from challenging relationships with communities who have been our long-standing allies will not secure the future of American Jews. We need to continue engaging in difficult conversations that value open dialogue and in which all parties respectfully listen to each other.
3. Revitalize Our Communal Trainings, Socio-Political Education, and Strategic Competencies
While impressive work is being done across the Jewish community to more deeply engage with the complexity of today’s key issues—including with JCRCs and local Federations—we need to consider how to strengthen our learning opportunities for communal relations professionals to best meet the needs of our evolving world.
Communal relations professionals should:
- Create opportunities to explore long-term pedagogy and approaches to training incoming leaders
- Engage in more complex historical and socio-political education to improve strategic competencies
- Affirm the interconnectedness of American Jews—in all our diversity—to communities whose fates are undeniably intertwined with our own
- Explore collaborative problem solving, such as think tanks, storyboarding, and experimentation of prototypes that measure success in securing a safe future for Jews of all backgrounds as well as our non-Jewish partners.
WATCH THE FULL RECORDED WEBINAR:
“We hope this is the beginning of a longer, really digging-in conversation of who we are, how we affect communities around us, how we can continue to be part of the big democracy that we all know we want to be a part of,” Christina Jefferson said. “We just invite you to continue this, to not let it go, to lean in, to really understand what it means to be a Jew in this country and we can all be a part of…that future we want to build.”