(JTA) — The Jewish Council for Public Affairs adopted four emergency resolutions related to the coronavirus crisis in a special voting session.
It is the first time that a special voting session of the JCPA Delegates Assembly, made up of nearly 100 representatives of local Jewish community relations councils and national Jewish agencies, has been held in the organization’s 75-year history.
The resolutions, which the JCPA said in a statement “respond to the extraordinary challenges of this time and the critical issues raised by intergroup coalition partners during the COVID-19 crisis,” are titled Immigration Concerns During a Pandemic; Criminal Justice Reform During a Pandemic; Voting Rights and Elections During a Pandemic; and Principles for Responding to a Public Health Crisis.
The resolutions call for changes in immigration detention, decriminalization and enforcement; for reducing the numbers held in prisons and jails, known as decarceration; and for vote by mail and early in-person voting. The Assembly also passed, for the first time, a resolution on handling pandemics.
The JCPA is the umbrella body that sets consensus on issues for American Jewish public policy.
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