ROAR is a project of the Community Relations Council of the Federation and is sponsored by the Louisville Jewish Coalition for Literacy, an alliance of 11 local groups. We were one of the smallest cities to pilot a plan and yet we produced more volunteers than any other city, save Boston, which is now completing their second year in the program. Hats off to Amy Benovitz and Dell Levy and all our volunteers for showing the rest of the country how it can be done. The JCPA plenum provides a forum for CRCs and other community relations agencies from around the country to bring issues of concern in the United States, in Israel and around the world, before the entire group and develop a consensus position that individual communities then use as a guide for the coming year. No community is bound by the decisions made at the plenum, but most use the resulting document to guide their work in the coming year.
Every community has the opportunity to offer their own issues to the plenum.
This year Louisville brought the plight of the Falash Mura, Ethippian Jewish who in an earlier period converted to Christianity, to the attention of the gathering. Approximately 15,000 members of the Falash Mura community, have migrated to Addis Ababa and Gondar in hopes of obtaining permission to emigrate to Israel. These people, many of whom have relatives in Israel, are not recognized as Jews by the State of Israel and thus are not entitled to automatic citizenship under the Law of Return. Members of the Falash Mura community, especially the children, are living in difficult conditions in Ethiopia. The Louisville CRC recommended that the plenum adopt a more aggressive stance on behalf of the Falash Mura.