JCRC

Commemorating the Tree of Life Tragedy with Dr. Beth Kissileff
2020-10-25 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
On October 27, 2018, three congregations were holding their morning Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood when a lone gunman entered the building and opened fire. He killed eleven people and injured six more in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. The story made international headlines for weeks following the shooting, but Pittsburgh and the local Jewish community could not simply move on when the news cycle did.

The essays in this anthology, written by local journalists, academics, spiritual leaders, and other community members, reveal a city’s attempts to come to terms with an unfathomable horror.
Join us via Zoom as Dr. Kissilef discusses this soon-to-be-published anthology.
Please contact lrappaport@bethelsynagogue.org for Zoom information for this event

Campaign Chronicles: Covering Minnesota in 2020
2020-10-21 19:00 - 20:00
Star Tribune political reporters Brianna Biersbach and Torey Van Oot, and Mesabi Tribune editor Jerry Burnes, will join JCRC’s Ethan Roberts and JCA’s Carin Mrotz for an inside look at where the election stands in its final days.
We will go behind the headlines to explore the shifts and trends shaping the key issues and contests that will determine Minnesota’s — and the nation’s — political future.
Register via Zoom

Presented by: Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), Jewish Community Action (JCA), National Council of Jewish Women – Minnesota (NCJW), and TC Jewfolk.

Virtual Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival
2020-10-15 - 2020-11-01
The JCRC is proud to sponsor two films at the Virtual Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival: The Tattooed Torah and Sister/Stranger.
Please visit the Film Festival website for more information.
The Tattooed Torah is an animated short film, adapted from the beloved children’s book by Marvell Ginsburg that has been a powerful resource for Holocaust education for children.
Sister/Stranger: Two women, one Muslim and one Jewish, dare to believe they can join hands to stop hate. They ask women across the U.S. to overcome a history of distrust and go from strangers to sisters, and unite against the rising tide of hate in America.

Welcome the Stranger: Acting on a Jewish Imperative
2020-10-07 18:30 - 20:00
What are synagogues, government agencies, and social service nonprofits doing to support refugee and asylum-seeking populations in our communities? How can I get involved to offer my time, talent, or funds to make a difference in newcomers’ lives?
This two-part program will include an educational panel discussion, moderated by Temple Israel member and American Refugee podcast host Sam Graber, followed by presentations from local organizations that provide resettlement, legal aid, housing, and other services to immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
Panelists:
Robert Aronson, Immigration attorney and HIAS board chair
Michele Garnett McKenzie, Deputy Director, Director of Advocacy, The Advocates for Human Rights
Rabbi Sim Glaser, Temple Israel
Michelle Rivero, Director of Minneapolis’ Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs
Guest Organizational Presenters:
Pastor Daniel Romero, Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration
SJ Holsteen, International Association for Refugees
Christian Ledesma, Wellstone International High School
Presented by: Adath Jeshurun Congregation, Bet Shalom Congregation, Beth El Synagogue, HIAS, Jewish Community Action, Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis, Jewish Family Service of St. Paul, JCRC of Minnesota and the Dakotas, Mayim Rabim, Mount Zion Temple, National Council of Jewish Women Minnesota, Shir Tikvah, St. Paul Jewish Federation, Temple Israel, Zioness Twin Cities

2020 Annual Meeting
2020-10-01 19:30 - 21:00
At our 2020 Annual Meeting, we will thank Marty Chester for his service as Board President and will induct Judy Cook as our incoming Board President for 2020-2022.
We will also learn about the COVID-19 situation, recent regional peace developments, and other current events in Israel from Muki Jankelowitz, tour guide for the JCRC Israel Study Tours for Minnesota Legislators and Community Leaders.
Please RSVP via Zoom

Security and Antiracsim
2020-09-28 17:10 - 18:00
JCRC is proud to partner with Adath Jeshurun as part fo its Yom Kippur programming for this conversation about their commitments to security and antiracism.
Visit Adath’s live stream site to view the program live. After the broadcast, the event will be available at adathjeshurun.org/antiracism.

The Letters Project: Conversing Across Narratives
2020-09-01 - 2020-12-01
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas is running a letter-writing contest based on Yossi Klein Halevi’s book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor: With an Extensive Epilogue of Palestinian Responses
Enter our high school contest (ages 14-18), our post-high school contest (ages 18-22), or our young adult contest (ages 22-30).
There will be three prize winners in each age group!
Three Cash prizes per age group: $360 for Overall Best, $180 each for Most Creative and Most Insightful
To be eligible for the contest, writers must do the following:

Read the book
Write a letter from your perspective to the author responding to the author of the book
Submit your letter.
Participate in one of our JCRC moderated conversations in December.

Prompt: Write a letter to Yossi Klein Halevi from your perspective.
Suggestions to get you thinking:

What did you learn from the book?
What do you understand in a new way after reading the book?
What surprised you?
What ideas were challenging for you?
What are the most important things you will remember from this book?

We hope that these questions will guide your letter to Yossi. We want to read something unique from your perspective. Reading the book, writing the letter, and engaging in a substantive conversation will be excellent preparation for conversations about Israel you are likely to encounter going forward.
Timeline:

Contest begins September 1, 2020
Letters are due by December 1, 2020
Facilitated conversations will take place in December. You will have a few different dates/times to choose from.
Winner will be announced

Living Room Learning: A Reckoning with Race
2020-08-06 12:30 - 13:30
A Reckoning with Race: The Mapping Prejudice Project
The Mapping Prejudice Project is mapping racial covenants in the Twin Cities. Racial covenants are clauses–a couple of lines of text–that were embedded into property deeds to bar people who were not white from buying or even occupying the parcels of land to which they were attached.
The project just finished the map of Hennepin County and has turned its attention to Ramsey County.
Covenants were made illegal by the 1968 Fair Housing Act. But their legacy continues today in the Twin Cities, which has some of the largest racial disparities in the country. The Mapping Prejudice Project is designed to reveal the “racism behind these racial disparities,” in the words of Ibram Kendi. It illuminates how structural racism shaped the urban landscape, blocking African Americans from critical avenues for housing stability and wealth accumulation.
Delegard will narrate this history and describe the innovative methodologies used in this work. Together we will explore the question of next steps to address the damage wrought by these policies.
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Kirsten Delegard is the Director and one of the co-founders of the Mapping Prejudice Project, which is located in the Borchert Map Library at the University of Minnesota. She is a third generation Minneapolitan and public historian. To explore the complex history of her hometown, she established Mapping Prejudice as well as the Historyapolis Project.
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Living Room Learning is a webinar series produced by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. All JCRC webinars are free and open to the public.

Living Room Learning: The Times of Israel
2020-05-07 12:30 - 13:30
What’s happening in Israel? From the dynamic political situation to the COVID-19 pandemic — and its impact on Israeli families, the economy, and security situation — few people are better equipped to analyze these issues than David Horovitz and Sarah Tuttle-Singer.
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Since The Times of Israel launched in February 2012, it has gradually established itself as the leading source of evenhanded and non-partisan journalism on Israel, the region and the Jewish world. In 2019, the site averaged over 5 million unique users each month and over 25 million monthly page views.
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Presented by the Jewish Community Relations Council: Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC) in partnership with the Israel Center of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, St. Paul Jewish Federation, and TC Jewfolk.
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Living Room Learning is a webinar series produced by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. All JCRC webinars are free and open to the public. We hope these webinars provide opportunities for our constituents to learn and engage with relevant topics during these challenging times.
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Living Room Learn: Legendary Journalist Lori Sturdevant
2020-04-30 12:30 - 13:30
Join JCRC Executive Director Steve Hunegs for a conversation with legendary journalist Lori Sturdevant about how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the 2020 election cycle and how journalists are covering this most unusual election. Steve and Lori will look back on her distinguished career as a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist writing about Minnesota government and politics since 1978.
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Introductory remarks and audience Q&A facilitated by Dr. Elisia Cohen, Director of the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota.
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Presented by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC) in partnership with the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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Living Room Learning is a webinar series produced by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. All JCRC webinars are free and open to the public. We hope these webinars provide opportunities for our constituents to learn and engage with relevant topics during these challenging times.

Living Room Learning: Amb. Dennis Ross
2020-04-03 12:30 - 13:30
Join Steve Hunegs and veteran diplomat Ambassador Dennis Ross for a conversation about the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on the Middle East, and the rapidly shifting sands in Israeli politics.
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Living Room Learning is a webinar series produced by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. All JCRC webinars are free and open to the public. We hope these webinars provide opportunities for our constituents to learn and engage with important topics during these challenging times.
