Jewish Council for Public Affairs

The Jewish Council For Public Affairs (JCPA) states its mission as serving as " representative voice of the organized American Jewish community in addressing the principal mandate of the Jewish community relations field, expressed in three interrelated goals:

1. To safeguard the rights of Jews here and around the world;
2. To dedicate ourselves to the safety and security of the state of Israel;
3. To protect, preserve and promote a just American society, one that is democratic and pluralistic, one that furthers harmonious interreligious, inter ethnic interracial and other intergroup relations."

While it certainly is Zionist, it has a broader focus than organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or Zionist Organization of America. Indeed, it is a partner of Faithful America, an interfaith group concerned with social issues in the United States and the world, associated with the Religious Left.

Formed in 1944 by the Council of Jewish Federations, the forerunner of the United Jewish Communities (UJC), it was originally called the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC). To better reflect its role in the culture, it changed to the current name in 1997.

It has 125 local and 14 national participants:

• American Jewish Congress
• Anti-Defamation League
• B'nai B'rith
• Hadassah
• Hillel Foundation
• Jewish Labor Committee
• Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
• Jewish War Veterans
• National Conference on Soviet Jewry
• National Council of Jewish Women
• National Jewish Coalition for Literacy
• ORT America
• Union for Reform Judaism
• Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
• United Jewish Communities
• United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
• Women's League for Conservative Judaism