Community Relations Council: Our Work

Our Focus

These are our four main areas of focus:

Israel 

Holocaust Commemoration 

Government Relations 

Interfaith and Social Justice 

Click here to learn more about what the CRC does.

Yom Hashoah Committee

Contribute to the development of our annual Yom HaShoah event, to commemorate the Holocaust and to memorialize its victims.  

Join our Yom Hashoah Holocaust Committee.

This year’s theme is “Fighting Back.” Our April 21, 2009 ceremony will tell the story of Jewish partisans, including the Bielski brothers.  

Tuvia Bielski, who saved hundreds of Jews of all ages, will be played by Daniel Craig – the new James Bond – in an upcoming film about him and his younger brothers.

Yom HaShoah Holocaust Committee co-chairs :
Marcy Lazar, Clara Kramer

Anyone interested in learning more about our Community Relations Council or to join our Yom HaShoah Committee, please contact our Director of Community Relations at 908-288-2404.

CRC Twinning Program

“Twin-with-a-Survivor” pairs a Holocaust survivor with a student studying for his or her bar or bat mitzvah. The survivor and the student commit to meet at least three times. During these meetings, the survivor tells his or her story and the two get to know each other. The students commit to telling their survivors’ stories at their bar or bat mitzvah ceremonies, and on other occasions well into the future. In this way, what begins as an exchange of information between two people will spread to include family members, friends, and whole congregations as the students learn about and reflect on the events of the Holocaust.   

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CRC Mission

"The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey presents a unified voice for our constituency in Union and Somerset Counties on issues including local, state and national political advocacy. We also advocate for Israel, strengthen inter-faith relations, sponsor community-wide events and hold educational forums. We work to commemorate the Holocaust and convene the community for our annual Holocaust memorial ceremony."

Condemning Terror in Mumbai

Click here to read the Federation/UJC Statement condemning the attacks on Mumbai.

State of New Jersey Proclamation on Darfur

Click here to view.

End Violence Against Women of Darfur

During the past six years of conflict in the African nation of Sudan, more than 2.7 million Darfuri people have been displaced and approximately 4.5 million continue to need humanitarian aid. Today, the genocide continues. As an act of war and humiliation, women and girls are beaten, raped, and branded in alarming numbers by roaming militia.

With the “Purchase Solar Cookers End Violence Against Women of Darfur” Project, New Jersey will adopt a refugee camp in Chad and try to provide all the families there with a solar cooker. Solar cookers use the sun’s energy -- instead of wood fires – to cook food. Women have been leaving the relative safety of refugee camps to search for wood, risking rape and other violent attacks. (Men who venture out of the camps are often murdered.) Once they have solar cookers, they can stay inside the camps, with a measure of relative safety.

Our partner agency in providing the solar cookers, Jewish World Watch, has demonstrated that once the need for women to leave refugee camps is reduced, the amount of violence committed against women and girls falls by over 80%.

The refugee camp we are adopting is the Oure Cassoni Refugee Camp in Chad.  Sponsored by the New Jersey Coalition Responds to the Crisis in Darfur, this offers an opportunity for all NJ citizens to purchase solar cookers and help end violence against women refugees.

Crisis in Darfur

CRC fights to end genocide in Darfur. See Darfur Coalition’s website www.njdarfur.org.