National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council
NJCRAC Joint Program Plan 1994-1995

Guide to Program Planning Of the Constituent Organizations

A voluntary association of Jewish community relations agencies, the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, founded in 1944, by the Council of Jewish Federations, is the instrument through which its constituency of 13 national and 117 community Jewish agencies jointly determine: the issues of concern; what positions they should take on them; how they can most effectively carry out those positions; which of the issues should be given priority attention in the coming year.

Joint program planning is a year-round process requiring the cooperation and participation of both national and community agencies. Jointly, the member agencies of the NJCRAC pool ideas, information and experience. The annual Joint Program Plan represents the judgements and recommendations that emerge from this process.

Jewish community relations activities are directed toward protecting and enhancing conditions conducive to the creative continuity and well-being of the Jewish community. Such conditions can be achieved only within a social framework committed to democratic pluralism; freedom of religion, thought, expression, and association; the wall of separation between church and state; equal rights; justice and opportunity; and, a climate in which differences among groups are accepted and respected, and in which each is free to cultivate its own distinctive values while participating fully in the general life of the society, History has bred in Jews the deep conviction that such conditions, which accord with ethical and religious values derived from Judaism and Jewish tradition, afford Jews and all others the best opportunity to enjoy secure and meaningful lives. Through a broad, coordinated program of activity, Jewish community relations agencies give a high priority to fostering American support for Israel; aiding endangered overseas Jewish communities; combating anti-Semitism at home and abroad; protecting democratic constraints, particularly the Bill of Rights; and fostering a plural democratic society in the United States.

In determining priorities and allocating resources the NJCRAC and its member agencies use the following criteria: The nature and extent of threats to Jews as individuals and/or as a Jewish community at home and abroad; the nature and extent of threats to the American democratic process; the impact of changing conditions on the goals and policies of the Jewish community about particular issues; the efficacy of remedies in resolving issues; and, the priority concerns of allies.

All member agencies are autonomous. Each engages in those aspects of community relations work that it deems appropriate to its goals and commensurate with its resources. On occasion, the agencies may agree that, for most effective use of available resources, a particular task should be undertaken by one of them. Responsibility for such tasks is then assigned by mutual agreement among those agencies on a case-by-case basis. Those phases of program planning requiring the concerted impact of multiple influences and forces are the common responsibility of all agencies, national and local.

In implementing programmatic activities, national and local agencies play complementary roles. NJCRAC policy provides that national agencies recognize that local Jewish community relations committees and councils (CRCs) are central bodies with primary responsibility for local community relations policy and programming. Accordingly, national agencies are expected to encourage their constituents to participate in Programs conducted with the approval of the local CRCs, to make their services available to the CRCs, and to encourage formation of CRCs where they do not already exist.

NJCRAC policy also provides for recognition by CRCs that national agencies are channels through which local community relations programs can be facilitated; for CRC cooperation in programs of local affiliates of national agencies; and for respect by CRCs for the fundamental philosophies of national agencies, which should not be asked to compromise those philosophies.

Requests for consultations on means of implementing Joint Program Plan recommendations within a local community setting are given prompt attention by NJCRAC task forces and staff. As the situation requires, these consultations may take the form of correspondence, telephone contacts, or field visits. The task forces and other deliberative units of the NJCRAC meet regularly throughout the year to review developments and, consonant with Joint Program Plan positions, formulate recommendations for its guidance of member agencies.

Purpose of Joint Program Plan

The National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council's annual Joint Program Plan is a product of the Jewish community relations field's national planning process. It is designed to serve as an advisory guide to member agencies in their own program planning. Each agency may accept or reject, modify or expand any of the Plan's recommendations according to each agency's particular roles, scope, concerns, resources, priorities, and needs.

Each Plan is derived from the total experience, study, analysis, and projections that comprised the NJCRAC's coordinating process in the period between publication of the preceding Plan in June 1993 and adoption of the current document in April 1994. The Joint Program Plan seeks to identify and appraise changing conditions and trends that have occurred during the year as a basis for projecting their potential impact on Jewish community relations goals and concerns in the year ahead. It is in light of such assessments that priorities and strategic goals for the next 12 months are determined. These broad judgements allow the field to tailor a collective national response to changing conditions. Thus, the Plan that results from this process identifies long-term patterns from which specific events emerge, enabling the field to better anticipate subsequent developments.

The joint Program Plan is geared to how NJCRAC policies may be affected in the year ahead by changing conditions. The Joint Program Plan is not a statement of NJCRAC policies as such, nor is it a recapitulation of positions adopted in previous years. Policies previously adopted by the NJCRAC continue in effect until amended or superseded by the actions of the NJCRAC Executive Committee or the Plenum. Those policies are the given of the ongoing joint programming process, which culminates in the publication of the Plan. In setting forth strategic goals, the Plan does not spell out specific programs to achieve those goals. Such guidance is given in memoranda that flow from deliberations and recommendations made by the NJCRAC task forces in the course of the year. Nor does the Plan reiterate basic Jewish traditions and values that underlie the commitment of NJCRAC constituents to the social ideas derived from those values and traditions. It is assumed that those to whom the Plan is principally addressed are fully cognizant of these matrices of Jewish thought and actions and are moved by them.

How the Plan is Formulated

The process for formulating and adopting the Joint Program Plan begins in early November and concludes with Joint Program Plan Committee action in April. This extended process is designed to assure continuing examination and re-examination of changing conditions.

Beginning more than three months prior to the February 1994 Policy Conference (Plenary Session), "propositions," which serve as drafts of Joint Program Plan material, were prepared by NJCRAC staff. These drafts were derived from all the deliberative processes conducted by the NJCRAC during the preceding year. The drafts were then circulated to the NJCRAC's total membership, including Plenary Session delegates, more than two months before the Plenum. Each "proposition" assessed the impact of changing conditions on specific NJCRAC policies, anticipated developments that would either advance or undermine these policies, and projected strategic goals for the coming twelve-month period. All member agencies were urged to study and discuss the "propositions" with a view toward formulating ideas for presentations to the Plenum. Member organizations were asked to identify in writing, prior to the Plenary Session, those items they felt required consideration and resolution by the Plenum. Two sessions were convened during the Plenum for this specific purpose. At each session there was open discussion and action on "propositions" identified as requiring debate.

Based on the discussion and action of the Plenum, a draft of the plan was reviewed by the Joint Program Plan Committee, co-chaired by Frederick N. Frank of Pittsburgh and Dr. Stephen Stone of Springfield, Illinois. The Committee is comprised of the chairpersons of NJCRAC task forces, principal executives of the 13 national member agencies, and lay and professional representatives of a number of local Jewish community relations councils and committees.

The Joint Program Plan also includes an introductory "Overview" section, setting forth on a highly selective basis those urgent, overriding concerns which call for the allocation of substantial resources by the entire network of national and local agencies comprising the NJCRAC.

The Overview has a separate formulation process. It was framed by a subcommittee of the Joint Program Plan Committee, which based its assessment of priorities on the deliberations of the Plenum and of the Joint Program Plan Committee, and on the criteria for determining priorities recommended by the NJCRAC Review Committee. The Overview was then reviewed and adopted by the Joint Program Plan Committee at its April 1994 meeting. It appears as the opening segment of this 1994-1995 Joint Program Plan.

The Joint Program Plan is organized on the basis of the NJCRAC's task force structure and the subsections in each major area of concern demarcate "Changing Conditions," "Background," and "Priority Strategic Goals" for the coming year in each of the subject areas discussed. Subsections under "Continuing and Urgent" also reflect current areas of concern based on longstanding NJCRAC positions.

The Joint Program Plan for 1994-95 appears herein as adopted, together with such dissents, exceptions, and qualifications as expressed by some individual agencies.