The year 2022 marked the 60th anniversary of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). In 1962, when the JCRC was founded (as the Jewish Community Council), Birmingham was in the midst of an ongoing struggle for civil and human rights, and our community leaders recognized the need and urgency for the Jewish community to react; to be able to speak in a collective voice in response to the unspeakable violence that was affecting every aspect of our city. Birmingham had earned the notorious moniker of “Bombingham,” and between the late 1940s and the mid-1960s, more than 40 bombings took place in the city. The Jewish community was targeted when, in April 1958, a bomb was planted outside Temple Beth-El. Miraculously, the bomb did not detonate, but Jewish community leaders were concerned about the lackluster investigations by the FBI as Birmingham’s bombings went unsolved and white supremacists seemingly had the power of the government and police behind them.

The first official meeting was held on June 19, 1962, and the inaugural Executive Committee included Alex Rittenbaum, President; Emil Hess and Robert Loeb, Vice Presidents; Joe Brown, Treasurer, and Max Kimerling, Secretary. Additional Executive Committee members included Harry Asman, Rabbi Seymour Atlas, Jerome A. Cooper, William P. Engel, Rabbi Milton Grafman, Harold E. Katz, Esther Lee Kimerling, Rabbi Abraham J. Mesch, Mayer Newfield, James L. Permutt, Dora Roth, Mervyn H. Sterne, Dorothy Unger, and Dr. Leon Weinstein, (then President of the United Jewish Fund, predecessor to the Birmingham Jewish Federation). President Alex Rittenbaum wrote the new members, “I am confident that with your leadership our newly formed Jewish Community Council will be an effective means of dealing with our community problems.”

In its early years, the JCC addressed issues such as prayer and Bible reading in schools (Robert Loeb chaired the Church-State Committee), and JCC members worked behind the scenes to secure the acceptance of Jewish students at Indian Springs School in ­­­1959. The JCC also led a campaign against the activities of the National State’s Rights Party (NSRP), a racist and antisemitic hate group headquartered in Birmingham. In 1964, according to a letter from the JCC to the Birmingham Jewish community, the NSRP had “become bolder in its pronouncements of the Jew-Communist Menace” and had increased the distribution of their publication, the “Thunderbolt,” to approximately 35,000 issues per month. In response, the JCC planned an “all-out campaign to arouse public indignation” with the “cooperation of public officials, newspapers, civic organizations, and civic leaders.” The JCC's work over the next decade was pivotal in protecting the interests of Birmingham's and Alabama's Jewish communities.

The Jewish Community Council became a committee of the Birmingham Jewish Federation in 1976, with Rita Kimerling as President, and the name was changed to the Jewish Community Relations Committee (JCRC). The JCRC continued the work of not only responding to antisemitism but also hosting educational and outreach programs for both the Jewish and broader community. In 2001, the BJF hired a full-time JCRC Director, and the JCRC expanded its reach to building bridges to the broader community, especially in times of crisis in Israel. The JCRC sought to educate and expose community members to the social ills that continue to plague our state, such as sales tax on groceries, overincarceration, and anti-immigration legislation. In 2009, the JCRC took a busload of young professionals to the Black Belt to speak with foot soldiers from the Civil Rights Movement and to learn firsthand about generational poverty as a result of systemic racism in Alabama. The JCRC also formed Sisters/Chaverim, a group for Jewish and Black women, originally to host dialogue sessions on social issues. This group ultimately transformed into a unique group of friends, attending wine tastings, hosting book talks, and dancing together at their annual “Chrisma-kwanza-kah” celebration. Sisters/Chaverim was lauded by The Birmingham Urban League and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and replicated by the New Orleans Jewish Federation.

From 2012-2020, there was no full-time professional or working committee for the JCRC, but under the leadership of BJF CEO Danny Cohn, the JCRC became a high priority of the Federation’s work. Prior Director Joyce Shevin returned to the JCRC in 2020 to re-energize and restructure the Council, re-establish relationships with our area schools, and strengthen relationships with other faith-based and community organizations. In 2024, Margaret Norman began as the new Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, with Sarah Schaeffer as JCRC Chair.

Though over 60 years have passed, our mission today is still very much like what our founders perceived in 1962: building bridges of understanding within our Jewish community and to our broader community, combating antisemitism, and advocating for public policy and social justice issues important to our Birmingham Jewish community.