Paul Rockower, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix (JCRC), is making a quick trip to the nation’s capital this month, but not to see the cherry blossoms. Rather, he is traveling at the invitation of FBI Director Christopher Wray, who is set to honor Rockower for the significant work he has done to protect the local Jewish and other minority communities in Greater Phoenix.
On Friday, April 19, Rockower will receive the Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA), which was created in 1990 to recognize people whose work promoting education and preventing violence has made a difference in their communities.
Fifty-six FBI offices across the country nominate one person every year, but the final decision is Wray’s, and only a handful of nominees receive the award. Rockower is among that handful.
“Our relationship with Paul has been extremely strong,” FBI Phoenix Field Office’s Special Agent in Charge Akil Davis told Jewish News. In Davis’ two years in Phoenix, Rockower has been the FBI’s main point of contact with the Jewish community.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, “the relationship has only grown stronger,” Davis said.
Davis confirmed that after a few recent FBI arrests in Arizona regarding threats to the Jewish community, he and his colleagues relied on Rockower to communicate whatever information they could share with the public.
“Paul has a lot of empathy and emotional intelligence. He understands that when we say, ‘We can’t talk to you about that,’ it’s because we really can’t. Some people might assume ill intent on our part, but Paul trusts us and understands that I will share what I can when I can, and I frequently do share information with him,” Davis said.
“The JCRC has been proud of its work liaising with the FBI to help protect and safeguard the Jewish community, and other vulnerable communities, across Arizona,” Rockower told Jewish News in an email. “To be recognized by such significant partners as the FBI with such a meaningful award is truly an honor.”
In February, Rockower joined several FBI agents, Phoenix and Scottsdale police officers and lawyers from the Department of Justice, Attorney General’s Office and Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to address the Jewish community about identifying and reporting antisemitic incidents. The panel was part of a series of meetings with minority communities in Greater Phoenix and designed to be the beginning of an ongoing conversation.
Rockower didn’t mince words when he exhorted people not to go to social media with their suspicions.
“If you see something, say something but say something to your rabbi or to any of the community organizations that deal with this; don’t say it on social media. Talk to your partners in the community so we can handle it strategically instead of throwing it up on social media without knowing the full context,” he said.
Since taking charge of JCRC more than five years ago, Rockower has quietly assisted individual Jews as well as Jewish organizations with troubling incidents and threats, often connecting them with law enforcement when necessary.
Asian, Black, Latino, LGBTQ and other minority Phoenicians have also found a reliable friend and ally in Rockower and the JCRC.
Whether it’s defending Chinese Americans against hostility during the COVID-19 pandemic, outreach to the Black community after George Floyd’s murder, providing humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers or a host of other examples, Rockower has emphasized JCRC’s role in building “a coalition of faith and ethnic community partners so that everyone is supported in times of need.”
Rockower and the JCRC quite literally secured the Jewish community and other minorities when they played a big role in Arizona’s effort to provide state funding for security assistance to small nonprofit organizations, including synagogues and Jewish organizations, at high risk of terrorist attacks and hate crimes due to their mission or beliefs.
Thanks to their lobbying efforts, the legislation easing the financial burden on these small institutions passed and was signed into law last year.
“My father always told me, ‘If you want to make things 100% better, you have to make 100 things 1% better.’ At JCRC, we believe in creating meaningful steps for change on the ground and this campaign seemed like a positive and practical way to strengthen all vulnerable communities in Arizona,” Rockower told Jewish News as their efforts were underway.
In 2021, Rockower was awarded the Arizona Faith Network’s Arizona Peacemaker in Action Award. Rev. Katie Sexton-Wood, AFN’s executive director and Rockower’s partner in interfaith work, explained that the award is for those “who help to build peace amongst Arizona communities,” and Rockower is someone who personifies the core values of AFN because of his work with “interfaith relationship building and social justice.”
Sexton-Wood said she appreciated the time and energy Rockower spends protecting vulnerable faith communities. “As the FBI has recognized, we celebrate not just an award but a testament to Paul’s steadfast resolve in safeguarding our sacred spaces across diverse faith traditions,” she told Jewish News in an email.
Rockower’s interfaith connections have also helped the FBI in its effort to protect other religious minorities, Davis said.
Threats against faith-based communities across the board have been on an incline since 2020. Since Oct. 7, threats against Muslims have increased just as they have against Jews.
“Paul has been our main broker with some of the outreach to the Muslim community,” Davis said. “He’s the face of the Jewish community but he’s also been a leader in this lane, and he’s done it independently.”
Davis called Rockower’s efforts “priceless.” He and his colleagues feel lucky to have someone of Rockower’s caliber and sympathize with bureaus in other states that lack a similar figure.
“We need a Paul in all 50 states,” Davis said. JN
For more information, visit jcrcphoenix.org.
