New York- The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) will kick-off its 75th Anniversary celebration honoring a seven decades-strong community relations success story at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street, NW, Washington, DC. Beginning with JCPA2019: The Power of the Networkconference, February 9 -12, and a 75th Anniversary Gala, Sunday evening, February 10, JCPA will mark the milestone occasion with hundreds of leaders and activists from around the country.
Created in 1944 as the National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC), today JCPA is a network of 125 Jewish Community Relations Councils across the country and 16 national Jewish organizations, including all the major streams of Judaism. As the hub of the community relations network, JCPA convenes the network to mobilize the grassroots on key issues and advocate for those interests.
The February conference sessions will explore the challenges of collective civic engagement, criminal justice reform (including a screening of the HBO documentary, The Sentence); reframing the immigration conversation; changes in the social safety net and more. Speakers will include Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin; Cindy Shank of The Sentence; Rabbi Jonathan Roos of Temple Sinai; Vicki Zell, Blue Ribbon Task Force on Community Relations; Hannah Evans, Interfaith Immigration Coalition; Mark Hetfield, HIAS; Gidi Grinstein, Reut Institute; and Shae Harris, DC Mayor’s Office for Public Safety and Justice, among others.
A visit to Capital Hill will include a luncheon with members of Congress. Conference co-chairs are Karen Spar Kasner of New York, NY and Shelley Niceley Groff of Miami, FL.
The Gala, co-chaired by Larry and Margo Gold of Atlanta, GA, will recognize and honor the founding organizations, and past chairs and awardees, while acknowledging the accomplishments of the past with a look to the future.
Information regarding the conference and the gala can be found at jewishpublicaffairs.org/JCPA2019