Program areas at JCRC
Institute for curriculum services (ics)in fy23, ics has delivered 218 in-person and virtual teacher trainings to 4,591 social studies educators. Through post-workshop evaluations, educators indicated:-97% of educators strongly agree or agree that the ics training increased their understanding/awareness of the topic;-95% of educators strongly agree or agree that as a result of the ics training, they felt more confident in their ability to teach the topic;-96% of educators would recommend the ics training to others.in addition, ics has affected 146 changes to strengthen k-12 policy on judaism and Jewish history.
Doug kahn israel travel outreach fundjcrc's israel seminars bring influential elected officials and civic leaders from across and beyond the San Francisco bay area to israel, with the goal of helping them better understand jews, judaism and israel through this hands-on journey. Over 8-10 days of traversing the country, participants meet with professional counterparts, leading thinkers, diplomats, government officials and strategists, and gain an understanding of our Community and of israel beyond what could be learned back at home or through mainstream western media.jcrc held two specialized israel seminars in 2022-23 for 23 bay area Jewish elected officials (march 18-26), and for 10 k-12 education leaders from the bay area (plus 14 from southern California, sponsored separately) (june 28-july 9, 2023). We also organized a six-day trade and cultural mission for San Francisco mayor london breed and 32 Jewish and civic leaders, in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the sf-haifa sister city relationship (may 9-14). In total, jcrc brought 66 elected and civic leaders to israel in 2022-23.in selecting potential israel seminar participants, jcrc identifies people in the diverse bay area Community who can be amplifiers; who will share their experience and what they learned about jews, judaism, zionism and israel; and who will expose their constituencies to Jewish values and aspirations. Following our travels together, jcrc's broad domestic agenda allows us to stay in close relationship with trip participants and alumni, deepening the relationship and creating mutual support on issues of common concern.
Jewish coalition for literacy (jcl)jcl mobilizes volunteer tutors to assist students in grades k-5 attending public elementary schools. We envision a society in which all children, regardless of their circumstances, can read well and gain the literacy tools they need to reach their full potential. The organization was founded in 1999 as part of a national Jewish coalition for literacy movement, which answered the call from president clinton to mobilize volunteers to help children reach grade level in reading by the third grade. This is a critical milestone for ensuring that students achieve school and life success as academic learning increasingly occurs through reading. Since its inception, jcl has: -trained and placed 6,000 Community members as volunteer reading tutors in six bay area counties-reached more than 15,000 children based on partnerships with:-more than 50 schools across six counties and numerous nonprofit partner sites-dozens of synagogues and jccs-more than one hundred Jewish day school students in 5th through 8th grade trained to mentor and read with younger children attending public school-helped thousands of parents improve their children's literacy skills and social-emotional growth-distributed tens of thousands of books to children who otherwise would not have books at home.pre-pandemic, jcl worked with 250 tutors serving 700 children annually. During the past three, covid-impacted school years, we transformed our program to provide online tutor training and tutoring, enabling 100 tutors to work with 130 students. In the 2022-2023 school year, 121 tutors are serving 378 children at dozens of schools and non-profit sites. The hallmark of jcl's approach remains building students' relationship with caring adults by reading aloud together, embarking on a shared learning journey with many avenues for exploring the world. Tutors integrate carefully selected books, art projects, games and their own life experiences into tutoring sessions to pique children's curiosity and sustain their attention. These efforts create a special relationship that also fosters students' literacy and social-emotional growth by providing a safe space to make mistakes, think critically and develop confidence and self-esteem. Tutors and students find immense fulfillment in their weekly encounters, delighting in progress and new discoveries.
Jcrc Community Relations programsin jcrc's external Relations work, we reached a new high of 540 relationships held with bay area elected, civic, ethnic, faith and nonprofit leaders, who now know jcrc's work and can partner with us on important issues. We also grew jcrc's bay area network of Jewish officials (banjo) to more than 60 members, and furthered their leadership on Jewish issues through a region-wide, day-long summit and a specialized jcrc israel seminar.in jcrc's Jewish affairs work, we commissioned a groundbreaking, 828-household survey of bay area Jewish identity, which gave us hard data on how bay area jews view and experience their Jewish identity, their relationship to israel, antisemitism and more. As with our 2021 jcrc consensus statement on antisemitism, information in the survey was incorporated into trainings and workshops for the purpose of educating individuals and groups within and outside of the Jewish Community about Jewish identity, antisemitism and israel.jcrc hired a director of Jewish engagement in fy23, who began building strong, trusted relationships with bay area Jewish communal leaders and organizations, and helped plan and execute jcrc's 27th annual freedom seder, a joyful and participatory celebration that inspires 250 attendees to build bridges and take meaningful action to help solve critical issues facing the bay area.in our partnership and policy work, jcrc led a highly successful march 2023 solidarity mission to new york and Washington, d.c. for 11 asian american pacific islander (aapi) and 10 Jewish leaders from San Francisco. The trip led to the formation of jcrc's first jewish-aapi roundtable, whose members will jointly address antisemitism, anti-aapi hate, Community security, public safety and other issues.in our public education work, jcrc worked toward a fair and inclusive academic and social environment for Jewish students in bay area k-12 schools, by building dozens of relationships with education leaders at the district, county and state levels; engaging with multiple school districts at different stages of implementing ethnic studies; advising education leaders responsible for statewide ethnic studies professional development; and launching a parent initiative to educate, train and empower bay area Jewish parents to advocate for their children with teachers, principals and school boards.