Preserving What They Tried to Silence
Letter from the Executive Director and Board of Directors President
Dear PACC Family,
As we close out 2025, we reflect on a year that underscored why institutions like the Palestinian American Community Center (PACC) matter. Ongoing violence in Gaza and across Palestine deeply affected our community and shaped the environment in which we worked. In moments like these, the need for a place that offers stability, connection, and continuity becomes even clearer.
Throughout this year, PACC continued to grow as a place where people come to reconnect with their Palestinian identity. More than ever, we saw individuals and families turn to PACC to learn, to gather, to organize, and simply to be in community. Through our programs and events, people found language, history, culture, and shared experience—often for the first time, and across generations.
At the same time, we remained focused on building PACC as a strong, lasting institution. In 2025, we strengthened our advocacy and civic engagement work to ensure Palestinian voices remained present and engaged. We expanded cultural and educational programming that centers on Palestinian history and storytelling. We invested in social programs that created consistent spaces of care and belonging. And we continued building toward permanent infrastructure, including the Little Palestine Museum, as a long-term commitment to preserving our history and culture.
What stood out most this year was how consistently our community showed up. Week after week, program after program, PACC was not just hosting events—it was being used, relied on, and shaped by the people it exists to serve. This reaffirmed something we have always believed: PACC is not simply a place to visit. It is an institution our community is actively building together.
None of this would be possible without your support. Your trust, generosity, and continued belief in this work allowed PACC to grow and remain steady during a demanding year. Because of you, PACC continues to be a place where our community can gather with purpose, hold onto identity, and invest in the future.
As we look ahead, our focus remains on deepening impact, strengthening our foundation, and ensuring PACC remains a home for Palestinian identity and community for generations to come.
With gratitude,
Rania Mustafa, Executive Director
Diab Mustafa, Board of Directors President
Impact Story: Building Leaders from Within
Fedah Mohammad
Before joining PACC, Fedah Mohammad felt disconnected and uncertain after graduating during the pandemic. She was searching for community, direction, and a deeper connection to her Palestinian identity. When she first walked through PACC’s doors, that changed.
“The minute I walked into PACC, it felt like home.”
Through PACC’s programs and daily community life, Fedah found more than belonging, she found confidence and purpose. She grew alongside the institution itself, stepping into
Impact Story: PACC Summer Fun
One of the most powerful milestones of the year was PACC Summer Fun, our largest summer program to date. This year, 90 children participated (the highest enrollment in PACC’s history) signaling both community trust and growing demand for high-quality, culturally rooted programming.
For parents, PACC Summer Fun represent something they had long hoped for: a program that was not only meaningful but also organized, professional, and deeply intentional. Many shared pride in knowing their children were part of a space that reflected excellence, care, and Palestinian values.
For the children, PACC Summer Fun offered something even more essential. It was a space to connect with their Palestinian identity, build friendships, express creativity, and experience joy and safety during a challenging year. Through structured learning, cultural activities, and daily community-building, PACC created an environment where children felt seen, supported, and grounded.
PACC Summer Fun is more than a seasonal program. It is a reflection of PACC’s long term commitment to institution building, investing in our youth, supporting families, and ensuring the next generation grows up rooted in culture, confidence, and community.
Building Power and Collective Impact
This year marked a defining chapter for PACC. Through sustained organizing, cultural programming, education, advocacy, and community care, PACC deepened its role as a cornerstone institution becoming locally rooted, community led, and nationally recognized.
Across the year, PACC delivered more than 200 events and programs, reaching people consistently and meaningfully across generations. From small group healing spaces to large scale mobilizations and legislative advocacy, our work reflected both depth and scale meeting immediate needs while building power.
PACC demonstrated massive year round engagement across education, culture, advocacy, and wellness.
Impact at a Glance
200+ events and programs delivered throughout the year
50,000+ attendees and community interactions
70+ outreach and tabling engagements
50+ legislative meetings at the state level
6 lobby days with broad community participation
30+ partner organizations across statewide coalitions
PACC members represented in 37 of 40 legislative districts
An Institution Built for the Long Term
This year affirmed PACC’s role as more than a program provider. We are an institution capable of responding to immediate community needs while building durable infrastructure for impact.
Through education, advocacy, cultural work, coalition-building, and public mobilization, PACC is firmly positioned as a leading Palestinian institution locally and nationally.
Our impact is measured not only in attendance or policy wins, but in the strength of the relationships we build, the leaders we develop, and the collective power we grow.
Together, we are building an organized community capable of shaping its future.
Civic Engagement and Policy Advocacy
PACC significantly expanded its civic engagement and advocacy footprint this year. With over 50 legislative meetings, two advocacy and civic engagement cohorts, and participation in lobby days, community members directly engaged policymakers and shaped public discourse.
PACC worked in active coalition with more than 30 state organizations, contributing leadership and strategy to major campaigns and action coalitions, including:
Voting Rights Act (VRA) efforts
Opposition to the IHRA definition
Break the Bonds campaigns
Immigration, tenant, and civil rights coalitions
With members active in 37 of New Jersey’s 40 legislative districts, PACC ensured Palestinian voices were present, organized, and influential in policy spaces.
PACC is not just showing up. We are shaping the conversation.
2025 Monthly Milestones: Building an Institution
JAN
PACC began the year by convening the community during a pivotal moment, hosting a press conference marking the temporary ceasefire in Gaza after 465 days of devastation. By holding space together, PACC affirmed its role as a trusted institution where collective grief, truth, and accountability are named and where the community organizes for justice beyond headlines.
February reflected the breadth of PACC’s institutional work: graduating the “Freedom is the Future” cohort, uplifting small businesses through a Winter Souk, and ensuring Palestinian voices were present at CAIR Advocacy Days. Each effort reinforced PACC as a place where leadership is developed, community economies are supported, and civic participation is strengthened.
MAR
FEB
In March, PACC hosted three community iftars designed to deepen relationships and invest in the organization’s future. These gatherings brought different parts of our community together around a shared vision, strengthening trust, growing donor support, and sustaining PACC as a long term institution.
April marked a defining moment in PACC’s advocacy leadership. Following the killing of 14-year-old Palestinian American, Amer Rabee (nephew of PACC Board Member Saleh Rabee) PACC held a press conference and led sustained advocacy efforts demanding accountability. By centering Amer’s story and mobilizing nationally, PACC affirmed its role as a moral anchor and organizing home for the community in moments that demand courage and action. APR
MAY
PACC hosted its 4th Annual Palestine Day on Palestine Way, welcoming over 15,000 people in our largest celebration to date. The event transformed Main Street into a living expression of Palestinian culture, pride, and belonging, demonstrating the power of a permanent institution rooted in community visibility and joy.
June brought Palestine Week 2025, a seven day series of civic, cultural, and educational events that mobilized the community across generations. From Get Out the Vote efforts and advocacy education to cultural nights and citywide flag raisings, PACC showed what it looks like when an institution activates culture, politics, and community together.
JUNE
JULY
In July, we hosted our 6 week PACC Summer Fun Program and celebrated our highest attendance to date with 90 participants! Throughout the summer, children took part in weekly trips, engaging empowerment classes, and meaningful Palestine education sessions. The program was intentionally designed to create a safe and affirming space where kids could be themselves, build confidence, form friendships, and deepen their connection to their identity and community.
August marked one of the most significant milestones in PACC’s history: the completion of the museum’s physical structure. After years of collective effort, the building now stands: a permanent home for Palestinian history, memory, and presence, made possible by sustained community investment.
PACC hosted its first ever Programs Open House, welcoming families, youth, and new community members into one accessible space to explore all of PACC’s offerings. The event reflected PACC’s growth into a multi-generational institution where people can actively choose how they want to connect to their Palestinian identity.
PACC’s work reached a wider public when “Table for All: Palestinian in America,” an NJ PBS episode featuring PACC and our community, was awarded for a New York Emmy Award. This recognition affirmed the importance of Palestinian stories told in our own voices and PACC’s role in making that possible.
NOV
In November, PACC convened its 2025 conference, “Liberation of the Mind for a Free Palestine,” bringing together educators, organizers, students, and community members for a full day of political education and cultural exchange. The conference reinforced PACC as a space for critical thinking, identity formation, and collective strategy.
The year closed with PACC welcoming students from Woodbridge High School for a “Day at PACC.” Through learning, dialogue, and cultural exploration, young people engaged directly with Palestinian history and identity, showing how PACC continues to serve as an entry point for the next generation.
What We Are Building Together
The Little Palestine Museum is not a traditional museum. It is a living, immersive space designed to tell our story on our own terms.
Every room is intentionally shaped to ensure Palestinian history is not only preserved, but experienced. This will be a place where memory becomes tangible, culture is activated, and community gathers.
An Immersive Museum Experience A Community Gathering Space
Through storytelling, digital media, and immersive technology, visitors will engage with lived narratives that honor our past, reflect our present, and affirm our collective resilience.
A Children’s Museum Rooted in Identity
We are building a dedicated, hands on space for children, where learning happens through play, curiosity, and connection.
The museum will serve as a home for our community. A place for dialogue, workshops, cultural events, and collective learning, where history is not only remembered, but actively shaped together.
Gallery Showcases for Palestinian Artists
The museum will feature rotating exhibitions highlighting local, national, and international Palestinian artists. These galleries will celebrate creativity, beauty, resistance, and imagination.
The walls of the Little Palestine Museum are now standing. What comes next is the soul filled with stories, art, voices, and generations of truth.
This is how we ensure Palestinian history endures. Not as memory alone, but as a living legacy.
