For 74 years, the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee has been working to eliminate injustice and discrimination at home and abroad. Only three people have guided the agency during that time: Sidney Lawrence, David Goldstein and, for the last 20 years, Marvin Szneler. JCRB|AJC will soon have a new leader as Szneler has chosen to step away and begin a new chapter in his career this month.
Much has changed during the past 20 years, yet Szneler said at least one thing hasn’t.
“We still have barriers to break down,” he said. “We still need to be careful how the Jewish community is perceived by the general community. It is very important so that hostility doesn’t appear against the Jewish community. We’ve learned what everyone else has learned, that injustice against others could mean injustice against us.”
The son of Holocaust survivors and a member of the JCRB|AJC board before he became its director, Szneler has lived with the results of injustice or led efforts to fight it his entire life. The last 20 years have reinforced what he already knew: Good community relations is vital. He explained the importance of good community relations often when he spoke to groups such as confirmation classes.
“In the ‘40s we couldn’t save our brothers and sisters across the water, so agencies like ours, which was formed in 1944, were created around the country. These agencies stood with other people on justice issues, mainly their issues,” he noted.
A few decades later, Szneler continued, the plight of Jews in the former Soviet Union proved that the alliances created by agencies such as JCRB|AJC were important for Jewish causes as well.
“When we learned that there were millions of Jews suffering religious persecution in the former Soviet Union, the community relations field was able to spearhead the effort to get them out because they had built relationships with elected officials and other faith and minority groups. I’m told when there were rallies in Kansas City we didn’t stand alone; there were other religious leaders and other minority leaders standing with us to say, ‘Let our people go.’ To me that was the lesson of why community relations is needed.”
Because there is a perception that community relations isn’t as important as it once was, Szneler said that through the years JCRB|AJC has been dramatically downsized based on three things:
There’s no more anti-Semitism.
Israel is on the cusp of peace.
The Jews are out of the Soviet Union.
“Because of these three things, leaders in the community thought community relations is not needed. We see now that’s not exactly the way the world has played out.”
Even with its diminished size, Szneler said, “I’m very proud the JCRB|AJC has continued to represent the Jewish community in urban affairs and is a voice against injustice for all.”
He is gratified that JCRB|AJC has been able to establish and nurture relationships with a wide range of the Kansas City community.
“Many denominations, many minority groups, many elected officials, many school districts, all regardless of their political positions, gave us a platform to regularly share Jewish concerns — Israel, anti-Semitism or justice issues like immigration that are core values of the Jewish community.”
Overall, Szneler believes relations between the Jewish community and others have improved over the past 20 years.
“The inclusion of Christian voices on behalf of Israel have brought together many denominations that were not at the same table 20 years ago. Twelve or 13 years ago we did a Gathering trip to Israel with over 120 participants from a dozen denominations.
“The evangelical community became very involved with JCRB|AJC because of the hard work Rabbi Alan Cohen did ... to embrace the evangelical community while maneuvering around evangelizing and messianic Christians,” Szneler said.
In addition to the trip, Szneler said JCRB|AJC organized dialogues regarding the fair treatment of Israel with Presbyterians, Methodists, Disciples of Christ, Roman Catholics and Episcopalians.
“We held several clergy institutes that drew many denominations that would not have come together otherwise, and I was very proud of that,” he said.
JCRB|AJC continues to co-present the Greater Kansas City Martin Luther King, Jr., Interfaith Service at Community Christian Church along with The Southern Christian Leadership Conference .
“This is unique in the country and I’m very proud that David Goldstein and Judy Hellman created this partnership decades ago and Judy continues to co-chair the event.”
Another annual JCRB|AJC event Szneler has worked on is the Civic Service Dinner where the Henry W. Bloch Human Relations Award is presented.
“The mission statement of that dinner is to remind civic leaders to do justice while at the same time reminding the general community in Kansas City that the Jewish community still cares deeply about justice,” he said.
Through the years JCRB|AJC has hosted scores of community events. One of the most successful was a visit from Israeli Ambassador Rafi Barak.
“It was soon after the Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem in 2001, and it was the first time in over 25 years an Israeli official had visited Kansas City,” Szneler said. “It drew over 1,000 people. The event gave the community a way to show solidarity with Israel.”
During Szneler’s tenure, Ambassadors Danny Ayalon and Michael Oren also visited Kansas City.
More recently, following the 2014 shooting in the Jewish community where three people were killed who were not Jewish, JCRB|AJC helped organize a women’s dialogue group with the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection called Strangers No More.
“Surprisingly this group gets stronger every year. Participants find it very worthwhile bringing people together,” Szneler said.
Developing relationships with local and national officials and building bridges with other minority and religious groups is something Szneler has done well over the past two decades, said Michael Abrams, a former board chair of the JCRB|AJC. He added Szneler’s work in improving Jewish-Catholic relations and his most recent work with the local Muslim community is something other organizations around the country emulate.
“What most do not know and cannot appreciate is the quiet work Marvin did behind the scenes in times of crisis to solve problems with leaders across Kansas and Missouri whose relationships he cultivated over the years,” Abrams said. “Most area politicians and public and private school administrators had Marvin’s cell phone number on their speed dial. Marvin knew that the most important goal was to solve problems with dignity and to avoid unnecessary grandstanding. Marvin’s manner of quiet, persistent and diplomatic advocacy was a privilege to observe and I hope an example to be followed.”
During his tenure at JCRB|AJC, Szneler served several organizations in the Greater Kansas City area, including the board of directors of St. Luke’s South Hospital and Kansas City Inner City Pioneers, as an officer of Civil Rights Consortium and Overland Park Civil Service Commission, a member of Mayor Kay Barnes’ Race Relations Task Force in Kansas City, Missouri, and a member of the Overland Park Police Department Racial Profiling/Operation Vanguard Task Force.
In addition to his service to the community, Szneler has been recognized by the FBI with the Director’s Community Leadership Award; received an annual service award from the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue (a Muslim national organization); and was named Volunteer of the Year by the Overland Park Police Department.
As he moves on to what he hopes is another position that works for justice in the community, Szneler continues to believe every Jewish person represents the Jewish community and plays an important role in community relations. But he is “very concerned about the threat to traditional Jewish core values.”
“As our Jewish community has moved to the right politically on issues like immigration reform, taxation and education, I’m concerned whether our traditional values will change,” Szneler said, noting that the high rate of intermarriage is affecting core Jewish values as well.
In his work over the years, Szneler learned that a lot of Jewish people don’t know why many Jewish organizations were originally created, or still needed today.
“Few people my age and younger understand why there is a Menorah hospital or a JFS or a JCC, etc.” he said. “Those were created out of a need because Jews were not welcome elsewhere. We didn’t do it because we wanted to outdo anybody else. We did it because we weren’t welcome. For example, Jewish physicians were not able to practice medicine at other hospitals.”
One of the “most cherished pieces” of Szneler’s employment with JCRB|AJC is the privilege of getting to know people who were among those who broke barriers and built bridges 50 and 60 years ago, including Bert Berkley, Morton Sosland, Judge Howard Sachs and Harvey Fried.
“I learned they have the respect of the civic community for doing what they did, not only the Jewish community.”