The Community Relations Service, part of the U.S. Justice Department that bills itself as “America’s peacemaker,” announced a new four-hour long, five-part training program titled “Understanding and building relationships with Jewish communities.”
The free program is “designed to educate law enforcement, schools, religious and secular communities and public and private organizations toward a more positive and supportive engagement with Jewish Americans and communities,” according to the Justice Department.
It added that the training is “informed by current data and peer-reviewed historical research,” and that representatives of “major” U.S. Jewish groups helped produce it.
The program provides “historically accurate” lessons on Jewish identity, belief, practice and values and offers a “clear view” of the harm that Jew-hatred causes, per the department. The initiative also addresses preventing hate crimes and antisemitism and creating a “community engagement plan” that “would build inter-community relationships based on mutual trust, communication and respect.”
The Justice Department announced that it is also working with several U.S. Arab organizations to design a course titled “Engaging and building relationships with Arab Americans.”