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Civic and Government Advocacy

CARMA works closely with Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey's community relations council (JCRC), which advocates with state, local, and national civic and elected leaders to enable them to better recognize and respond to the needs of the communities they serve. JCRC advocacy efforts include:

Local Engagement

  • Building interfaith/multicultural relationships based on shared values and goals and facilitating educational dialogue aimed at stemming hate, bias and bigotry

  • Convening thought leadership and crafting solutions to address issues that arise in the community

  • Communicating and collaborating with local, state and national legislators to address issues regarding antisemitism and identity-based hate; outcomes include (among others):

    • Federal Jabara-Heyer No Hate Act funded at $10M, up from $5, giving law enforcement better resources to identify and punish those who commit hate crimes

    • NJ Holocaust education bill became law, aimed at improving Holocaust and genocide education in NJ public schools

    • Guardrails put in place to ensure securities ratings agencies do not hold Israel to different standards

    • NJ Nonprofit Security Grant Program signed into law to fund security enhancement for all faith communities

    • Seeing Human series facilitated multi-ethnic conversations to build bridges stemming hate, bias, and bigotry

    • Omnibus spending bill doubling budget for State Department Antisemitism Envoy and Department of Homeland Security terrorism prevention grants

Applying the U.S. Strategy to Counter Antisemitism in Our Local Community

  • Calling on state and local governments to support and work with local and regional Holocaust education centers and museums educating students and teachers

  • Calling on state and local governments to consider using materials published by Jewish organizations to help students

    • identify antisemitic tropes, words, and symbols that often hide in plain sight

    • learn how biases can lead to acts of hate, discrimination, and violence

  • Calling on schools and colleges to treat antisemitism with the same seriousness as other forms of hate

  • Calling on Jewish civil society to intensify their activities and efforts to combat hate, discrimination, and bias faced by other communities

    • Local Jewish communities should join multi-faith, interracial, cross-class coalitions and campaigns to help build deeper and stronger relationships both within the Jewish community and between Jews and non-Jews who work in solidarity against hate, violence, and on other issues affecting their communities