 | EngagingAmerica.org launches  AJC has launched a new website, www.EngagingAmerica.org, to support and advance our intergroup relations efforts. This virtual resource center is rich with information about religious and ethnic groups across the U.S. with whom AJC and the wider Jewish community engage. "In a world where diversity often devolves into conflict EngagingAmerica is a tool for building relationships among America's diverse groups, to help each of us realize the imperative of Leviticus 19:18, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'," says Ann Schaffer, director of AJC's Belfer Center for American Pluralism, who developed the site in cooperation with David Elcott, U.S. director of interreligious affairs. The website is the latest initiative in AJC’s Engaging American program, which empowers AJC members and staff to be effective domestic diplomats in an ongoing nationwide project of interethnic and interreligious engagement. AJC members who register at www.EngagingAmerica.org will also have access to Members Only and other select areas, including training materials used in workshops that have already taken place in a number of cities across the country.
New York Gala Celebrates AJC Centennial The AJC Centennial will be celebrated in New York tonight at a gala dinner honoring philanthropists Alan C. Greenberg and Leslie H. Wexner. They will receive AJC’s Herbert H. Lehman Centennial Leadership Award. Keynote speaker is the Hon. Rudolph W. Giuliani. The dinner will be the single most successful event in AJC history, with more than $7.2 million raised.
Jewish World According to A.B. Yehoshua, Others  The passionate debate begun at the opening session of AJC’s Symposium on the Jewish Future earlier this month continues on the opinion pages of Israeli media. In a lengthy interview with Haaretz, Ambassador Alfred Moses, honorary AJC president and chair of the AJC Centennial Committee, responded to controversial remarks about Jewish identity and Israel-Diaspora relations made by Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua at the symposium, which took place on the eve of AJC’s 100th Annual Meeting. Read the Moses interview. See other views. The conversation about issues that shape modern Jewish identity and the Jewish future continued with a series of panels comprised of Judaism’s best contemporary thinkers. All sessions are available online. Watch the Symposium.
President’s Congratulations on AJC’s Centennial  President Bush wrote to AJC a letter of thanks for welcoming him to our centennial dinner in Washington on May 4. “I was honored to celebrate such an important milestone with you and am grateful for the American Jewish Committee’s century of tireless service in freedom’s cause and ongoing commitment to social justice,” wrote the president, who delivered an important speech that evening. Read the president's speech.
Kofi Annan Sends Thanks In a letter to AJC, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan offered congratulations again to AJC on its centennial celebration and appreciation for the warm welcome extended to him and his wife at the May 4 gala dinner in Washington, D.C. “The United Nations and the American Jewish Committee have long shared important ideals and principles which provide a foundation for a healthy and constructive relationship,” Annan wrote. “I very much appreciated the opportunity to address your organization’s members, as my predecessor Dag Hammaskjold did half a century ago, and to have an opportunity to reach out to the Jewish community. I sincerely hope our two organizations can build closer ties in the coming years.”
AJC Letter to Polish President In a letter to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, AJC raised concerns about the country’s newly appointed Minister of Education, Roman Giertych, who represents an anti-Semitic political party. “Education and remembrance are among those matters which are at the center of the Polish-Jewish relationship,” wrote AJC Executive Director David Harris. “Understanding our shared history and teaching it accurately and objectively to successive generations of Poles and Jews have been a key to advancing the common dialogue, as well as creating a better appreciation for Poland among Jews in America, Israel and worldwide. I greatly fear that, given Mr. Giertych’s record, this new appointment could threaten to undo much of the progress that has been made.”
AJC Float to Ride in Salute to Israel Parade 
To celebrate AJC’s Centennial and to salute Israel, AJC will have a beautifully designed float in the annual New York parade. AJC members and family in the New York area are welcome to join us in the march on Fifth Avenue. We will gather on Sunday, June 4, at 12:30 pm, on West 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, and then proceed uptown with our float. Following the parade, join us for a picnic in Central Park at Cedar Hill, near East 79th Street.
AJC Archives Website – 100 Years a Click Away  Explore AJC history online at www.ajcarchives.org, our new interactive website launched at the 100th Annual Meeting. Anyone with a computer can access the treasure chest of materials in print, on film, and tape that are located in AJC’s archives. Harnessing the latest technologies to tell the AJC story online, more than 75,000 pages of material, as well as 40 films and 16 historical radio broadcasts, have been digitized, and presented in a user-friendly, colorful format that is fully searchable.
Mideast Briefing In his weekly analysis of political developments in Israel and the Middle East Eran Lerman, director of AJC’s Jerusalem office, offered a preview of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to Washington and meeting with President Bush. Read the Mideast Briefing.
Wallenberg Briefing on Capitol Hill AJC, in conjunction with the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, held a briefing on Capitol Hill on "The Mystery of Raoul Wallenberg: Hero of the Holocaust." The session, chaired by Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), included as speakers Mrs. Annette Lantos, who has been a leader, together with Congressman Lantos, in the search for answers about the heroic Swedish diplomat's disappearance, the ambassadors to the U.S. from Sweden and Hungary, and Professor William Korey, a leading expert on Wallenberg, whose writings on the subject include two publications issued by AJC. Richard Foltin, AJC Legislative Director and Counsel, detailed the role his mother, who survived the war living under false papers in Budapest, played as part of the Jewish underground to which Wallenberg looked for assistance in his mission, including distribution of the fake protective passports created by Wallenberg to save Jews slated for destruction.
AJC Joins French Foreign Minister’s Visit to Israel Valerie Hoffenberg, AJC’s representative in Paris, was invited by French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to be part of his official delegation that visited Israel last week.
Take Action Now - AJC Advocacy Center Visit www.ajc.org/advocacy and let your government officials know where you stand. Current action items include Protect Voting Rights; Stop Iran’s Nuclear Arms Drive; Fix Our Broken Immigration System; Prevent U.S. Aid to Hamas; Stand Against Hatred. The Advocacy Center provides background materials on each issue and makes its simple to send letters to government officials.
In the Media
The New York Sun published a letter by David Harris on Melanie Phillips, the British journalist who received AJC’s Mass Media Award earlier this month at our 100th Annual Meeting. Read Letter.
The Cincinnati Post published a letter by Barbara Glueck, director of AJC’s Cincinnati Chapter, on the immigration debate.
UN Watch's statement protesting the exclusion of Israel from any of the new UN Human Rights Council's five regional groups was reported on by Spain's news agency EFE, Le Temps, Le Courrier, Swissinfo of Switzerland , and the Press Trust of India.
The Oregonian quoted Emily Gottfried in an article on Darfur.
Reuters quoted Rabbi David Rosen, AJC’s international director of interreligious affairs, in an article on the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Auschwitz.
BBC quoted Felice Gaer, director of AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute, who also serves on the UN Committee Against Torture, in a story about the committee’s recent meeting in Geneva. | |
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