After 26 years with the St. Louis Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), the last 12 years serving as Executive Director, Batya Abramson-Goldstein is retiring, effective Oct. 31, 2015. The JCRC, an independent beneficiary agency of Jewish Federation, works within the Jewish and broader communities in St. Louis to enhance cooperation with other religious, racial, ethnic and civic groups and fosters the security of Israel and Jews everywhere.

“Batya Abramson-Goldstein is the consummate community relations professional,” said JCRC President Phyllis Markus. “Always reaching out in a balanced and thoughtful way and listening with an open heart and mind. Her work in the interfaith and intergroup communities is legendary, and her legacy is clearly etched in the many programs that are a result of her vision. Batya works tirelessly and effectively to fulfill the JCRC mission, using core Jewish values to create meaningful relationships in the broader community.  It has been a great personal privilege to work closely with Batya.”

“Batya has done so much to develop, build, and strengthen the relationship between the Jewish community and the broader St. Louis region on a range of critical issues,” said Andrew Rehfeld, president and CEO of Jewish Federation of St. Louis. 

“Her innovative programs developed through the years have gone a long way to foster a broad awareness of our shared humanity, the importance of the pursuit of justice to Jewish life, and an understanding of the centrality of Israel—the land, its people, its culture and its history—to the Jewish people. She is beloved by many in the community and her retirement will be widely felt.”

One program out of the many created by Abramson-Goldstein is the Student-to-Student Program.  This leadership development and prejudice reduction program combats stereotyping while developing leadership among the Jewish teens it engages.  Student-to-Student was initiated in 1992 with only 10 Jewish high school students. Now, 128 Jewish teens participate annually and the program reaches thousands of area high school students in our community. 

“It has been a privilege an honor and a joy to serve as executive director of JCRC and to work with so many wonderful individuals and organizations to build relationships through the power of dialogue,” said Abramson-Goldstein.  “Especially now, the need for building bridges of understanding and respect is vitally important.

Abramson-Goldstein is a past recipient of Jewish Federation’s Fred A. Goldstein Professional Leadership Award, given annually for outstanding innovative achievement in the field of Jewish communal service.  

In 2008, she was awarded Fontbonne University’s Jason Sommer Dedicated Semester Award for “strengthening ties between Fontbonne University (a Catholic institution) and the Jewish community.” She is also a past recipient of the Eden Theological Seminary Interfaith Award and the Interfaith Partnership’s Interfaith Leader of the Year Award, as well as the Athena Leadership Award from the Hellenic Spirit Foundation.