Partner Spotlight:
Jewish Community Relations Council for Tucson and Southern Arizona
A JCRC Builds Civic Engagement
The Jewish Community Relations Council for Tucson and Southern Arizona sees a Jewish obligation to make the world a better place – and today, it’s bringing the local community together on issues of American democracy.
“Fixing most anything comes down to civic engagement,” said JCRC Director Lynn Davis. “So how do you build an engaged electorate? How do you create civic engagement? The threats now aren’t just indifference and apathy; they’re more existential.”
To meet this need, the JCRC organized a community roundtable with Over Zero, which uses communication in partnership with community leaders, civil society, and researchers to prevent identity-based violence. They brought in Rachel Brown, who challenged participants to think critically about the intersections of communication, narratives and conflict.
Strategic Priorities: Civic Learning
Network Commitment: The Jewish Community Relations Council for Tucson and Southern Arizona will create a hub for democracy-resilience, civic engagement, and anti-polarization resources, convening the Jewish and broader communities through collaborations, educational opportunities, and public presentations. This work will include a series of “Courageous Conversations” – dinner parties where people of diverse backgrounds and disparate opinions can explore challenging topics in a safe, respectful environment.
Partner since: September 2023
What’s next? The JCRC will expand on their impact with more public collaborations and educational opportunities, including a series of dinner parties called “Courageous Conversations” that will bring together diverse community members to explore challenging topics. Davis worked closely with A More Perfect Union through the commitment design process and affirmed the Jewish Partnership for Democracy as an important ally for building and sharing their effort. David sees it as a vehicle for amplifying work and is especially enthusiastic about sharing it with other members of the partnership.
“We’re looking to be a resource for democracy resilience education,” said Davis. “To raise awareness about threats to the democratic process, and to connect people with tools and resources to empower their communities. The Jewish Partnership for Democracy has the capacity to frame this issue in a way that makes sense for Jewish communal engagement. Democracy is a process, not a product. You have to nurture it so it’s more resilient, less susceptible to attack and doesn’t wither in front of our eyes.”
“In this really diverse setting, we were able to talk about symptoms and strategies for combating identity based violence, and what had been successful in different communities around the world,” said Davis.
Get involved: For information about how your organization can work with A More Perfect Union, contact Terissa Schor Grumer at tsgrumer@jewishdemocracy.org.
Dig into our argument for democracy.
To help you understand our argument, approach, and evidence, we’ve published this brief white paper on the Jewish Imperative to Protect and Strengthen American Democracy.
What is transpartisanship?
We believe that protecting and strengthening American democracy is not a partisan issue.
That's why we pursue our work in a spirit of transpartisanship, which rejects the "us vs. them" mindset that characterizes so many political conversations.
We believe that whatever issues we care about individually – from religious freedom to climate change to fair elections – we all have a stake in American self-governance. Engaging effectively in self-governance requires respect and compromise, and we can only exercise these muscles when we focus on what brings us together rather than what sets us apart.
Ultimately, transpartisanship is both an approach and a commitment – to ourselves, to each other, and to future generations.
