MEET JUAN DIRCIE by Ron Duncan Hart

March 28, 2025

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Juan Dircie recently, the new Director of the Jewish Community Relations Coalition of New Mexico and quickly realized that he brings a rich background of experience in Jewish community non-profit work. His engaging personality and quick smile immediately puts one at ease, as he explains that he is ready to listen and learn about the New Mexico Jewish community. The more we talked, the more I learned about his rich background of Jewish life. 

Juan was born to a traditional Jewish family in Buenos Aires, the largest Jewish community in South America, which is known for its active Jewish life. His father is from a Sephardic family from Syria and his mother is of a German Ashkenazi family, and both were born in Argentina. Along with his two siblings, he attended the Jewish day school, learning Jewish history and culture.

From Buenos Aires he went to Israel to study at Hebrew University, earning a B.A. in International Relations then doing graduate work on Jewish education in the Diaspora. Back in Buenos Aires he was a professor of Jewish social studies and history of the Jewish people with the Argentine-Hebrew Bar-Ilan University. From there he took a job as case manager with Jewish Community Services of South Florida in Miami and then took a position with the American Jewish Committee where he eventually became the Deputy Director for the Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs until 2022. For the next couple of years, he served as Director for Latin America, Spain, and Portugal for the American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

Through those positions over the years, he developed his leadership skills supporting Israel and combating antisemitism. After realizing that there was an inadequate presence of Jewish interests in the mass media in Miami, he help develop a program addressing that and became an active spokesperson on radio and television communicating Jewish messages across greater Miami. His multi-lingual skills in English, Spanish, and Hebrew served him well as a spokesperson to different audiences.

With the rise in antisemitism after COVID and its shocking growth in 2024, he said that he wanted to be in an organization where he could help directly address those issues, and the position at the JCRC-NM was a perfect opportunity to do that. With a large Spanish speaking community in New Mexico, he thinks that it is important to reach out to that community about the common interests of Jews and Latinos. He also thinks it is important to develop the communications between Israel and those of us in the Diaspora. He mentioned that we need to be well informed about Israel, and Israelis need to understand us in America. Israel is critical because it is the heart of Jewish identity and goes back centuries, not just starting in 1948. 

The internal dynamics in the Jewish community and the need to strengthen the ties between all Jewish organizations and individuals in New Mexico are also a priority for him. With more than 20 years of working with Jewish communal organizations, he brings maturity and experience to the demands of the newly established JCRC-NM as it transitions from a lay led organization to one with a full-time professional director. His experience working with interfaith organizations and community leaders will be needed as the JCRC-NM develops its plans for working with state and local leaders and the Jewish leadership, representing Jewish interests and values in the New Mexico.

He made a compelling argument about the importance of ensuring the safety of Jews, particularly Jewish students at universities. Jews should feel free to express their identity without fear of negative reactions from others. He stressed that one of the key focuses must be the safety of the Jewish community, and we should work toward restoring the sense of security we once had. He emphasized that everyone should be able to walk down the street wearing a kippah or a Jewish star without fear. He pointed out that the hate speech we’ve witnessed over the past year is completely unacceptable and has no place in our democratic dialogue. No minority group—including Hispanic or Latino individuals,  Americans Indian, African Americans, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and Jews—should ever have to endure such hostility.

The Jewish Community Relations Council – NM was started two years  ago, and during this initial stage of organizing and fund-raising its co-chairs have been Lonnie Zarum Zandan and Jane Wishner. With the collaboration of an advisory committee they have been developing ideas about how the organization could function best in representing the Jewish community of New Mexico. Now, with the hiring of Mr. Juan Dircie as a professional director, the organization is taking a major step forward.

Mr. Dircie said that he was impressed with the diversity that exists in New Mexico, and he is anxious to learn more about the cultural richness of the state and its people. He welcomes productive dialogue and invites people to communicate with him about events relevant to the Jewish community. His email is juand@jccabq.org, and he can be seen speaking in person at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C09SY5-L2MQ .

Ron Duncan Hart is the Director of The Institute for Tolerance Studies, which includes the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series, The Jewish Learning Channel with videos of all past lectures, and the Institute for Tolerance Studies extensive Digital Library of books and history of and about Judaism and other religions.

Ron's articles won top awards in the NM Press Women Contest for Jews and the Crisis of the Religious Right in America, and for Jews and Christian Nationalism. Read more in "New Mexico Jewish Journal celebrates our first birthday! And sweeps NM Press Women Communications Contest!"

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