JCRC Bay Area envisions an inclusive Jewish community where people from across the political spectrum can meaningfully discuss challenging topics, and inspire and empower one another, leading to a stronger and more vital Jewish community. Launched in 2011, the Year of Civil Discourse (YCD) Initiative was designed to elevate the level of discourse when discussing polarizing issues within our community. YCD provided Jewish community members, institutions, and leaders with the tools to have respectful, vibrant, engaging conversations about Israel and emerging controversial issues.
JCRC continues to utilize the principles of civil discourse in our internal decision-making and consensus building processes with our membership. We also continue to model civil discourse in our interfaith and interethnic relationship building and in our work with civic and elected leaders. We firmly believe that civil discourse is necessary to strengthen our democracy and to address the issues that divide us.
If you are interested in bringing civil discourse to your organization, we recommend looking into these resources:
- Resetting the Table: Courageous Communication Across Divides
- National Institute For Civil Discourse – Engaging Differences Constructively (arizona.edu)
VIDEO: Find our more about our work in civil discourse by watching JCRC: Celebrating Civility.
