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National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council Records

 Collection
Identifier: I-172

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of memoranda, meeting minutes, general mailings, conference programs, transcribed speeches, and other material related to the administrative actions of the NCRAC and NJCRAC, its plenary sessions, committees, activities, task forces, correspondence, and publications.

Dates

  • Creation: undated, 1940-1994

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is in English

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.

Use Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility. For more information, contact:

American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY, 10011

email: info@ajhs.org

Historical Note

The National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC) was founded on March 19, 1944 by the Council of Jewish Federations. Its purpose, to improve and safe-guard Jewish communities at home and abroad, to nurture and pursue the ideals of democratic pluralism in the Bill of Rights, and to foster American support for the State of Israel.

To bring its goals to fruition, the NCRAC committed itself to the ideals of equality, freedom, justice, and opportunity. Seeking to defend Jewish communities from anti-Semitism, they sought to establish dialogue with other ethnic, religious, and cultural groups.

The organization reasoned that, by ensuring and developing mutual respect across diverse groups of Americans, each would be allowed to develop freely while participating fully within as citizens of the United States. They also argued that--by being active in their non-Jewish communities, and advocating for the ideals mentioned above--they were upholding the tenets of Judaism and maintaining Jewish tradition.

At the September 9, 1944 inaugural Plenary Session, the representatives of various Jewish organizations established the aims and objectives of the NCRAC: to study, analyze, and evaluate the policies and activities of the national and local agencies; to ascertain the areas of activities of these organizations and to conduct an inventory of their projects; to serve as a co-ordinating and clearance agency for projects and policies, to eliminate duplication and conflict of activities, and to recommend further projects to member agencies; and to seek agreement on and formulate policies.

The Council itself is comprised of independent community councils from across the nation. These councils convene annually as a legislative body, known as the Plenum. At these plenary sessions, issues are debated and policies created in order to provide organized action by the various community councils across the country. Additionally, there are numerous committees and task forces that specifically address areas of concern for the Jewish community.

In the 1960s, the organization was renamed the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC). In 1997, the name changed anew to the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA).

These papers are the creation of the officers and staff of the NJCRAC in carrying out their duties and assignments, in particular two of its executive directors Isaiah Minkoff and Jordan C. Band.

Extent

137 Boxes (68.5 linear feet)

Abstract

This collection documents the activities, administration, planning, proceedings, and correspondence of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, 1944-1994. The collection includes correspondence, programs, minutes, proposals, reports, clippings, press releases, and publications.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in seven series. Series II has two sub-series, and Series IV has three sub-series. All series are arranged alphabetically, and then chronologically.

These collection was processed to both maintain and reflect the original order, while making it adaptable to the addition of future NJCRAC acquisitions. As a result the folder titles represent a hybridization of the original folder title and the new organizational schema.

  1. Series I: General
  2. Series II: Conferences
  3. Sub-series 1: Joint Programs
  4. Sub-series 2: Plenary Sessions
  5. Sub-series 3: Other
  6. Series III: Committees
  7. Series IV: Activities
  8. Series V: Task Forces
  9. Series VI: Correspondence
  10. Series VII: Memoranda
  11. Series VIII: Publications
  12. Series IX: Reports
  13. Series X: Speeches and Addresses
  14. Series XI: Assorted Papers

Acquisition Information

Collection is compiled from three accessions. The first was on Decmeber 19, 1978 by Lily Silbert, NJCRAC Office Supervisor. This accession consisted of sixteen cartons. The second accession was on October 27, 1981 from Robert Segal, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Boston of an unspecified number of boxes. The third accession came on March 31, 1995 from NJCRAC Executive Director, Jordan Band, of nine cartons.

Title
Guide to the Records of National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, 1940-1994 I-172
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Michael D. Montalbano
Date
© 2009
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.
Sponsor
as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation
Edition statement
This version was derived from [filename01ES.xml]

Revision Statements

  • April 2021: EHyman: post-ASpace migration cleanup

Repository Details

Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States