American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee is a Zionist lobby and political action group which serves as the foreign policy wing of the Israel lobby. It has 33 chapters across the United States, which engage in pro-Israeli/Zionist proselytizing and propaganda.
AJC engages in the following activities:
- Lobbying political leaders; networking
- Organising political action (for voting in Congress, etc.) [1]
- Coalition building (It organises/helps other groups, e.g., Hispanic-Americans, to become more effective lobbyists, and they seek to obtain political advantage from such alliances). [2]
- Send journalists, student leaders, opinion formers, etc., to Israel for a coordinated program educating them on the Israeli perspective. [3]
- Create pressure groups to affect organisations that are seen as hostile to Israel, e.g., UN Watch is such an AJC-instigated project.[4]
- Create organisations to lobby and influence large constituencies about Israel and other AJC pet projects.
- Campaigning against those opposed to Israel, e.g., Hezbollah. [5]
While AIPAC is usually touted to be the main pro-Israeli lobby, or "The Lobby", in reality this is an erroneous appreciation of the Zionist lobby. AIPAC's role is mostly related to influencing the U.S. political scene, but other organisations, e.g., AJC do the same. Some of their activities overlap.
Contents
Overseas Offices/International affiliates
The AJC operates a network of front groups and in tandem with affiliated organisations.
International Partners (Jewish groups)
- Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA)[6]
- Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)[7]
- Shalom (Organization of Jews in Bulgaria)
- Comité Representativo de las Entidades Judías en Chile (CREJ)
- Centro Israelita Sionista de Costa Rica (CISCR)[8]
- Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic
- Romanian Federation of Jewish Communities [9]
- Conseil des Communautés Israelites du Maroc (CCIM)
- Tribuna Israelita (TI)
- Comite Central de la Comunidad Judia de Mexico [10]
- Asociación Judía del Peru
- Association of Religious Jewish Communities of Poland
- Union of Jewish Religious Communities in the Slovak Republic (UZZNO)
- Federacion de Comunidades Israelitas de España (FCIE)
- Communaute Juive de Tunisie (CJT)
- Turkish Jewish Community (TJC)
- Confederación de Asociaciones Israelitas de Venezuela (CAIV)
- European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC)[11]
- European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS)[12]
Partners
Principals
- David A. Harris - Executive Director
- Robert E. Goodkind - President
- Shula Bahat - Associate Executive Director
- Ann Schaffer - Director, Belfer Center for American Pluralism
- Felice D. Gaer - Director, Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
- Steven Bayme - Director, Contemporary Jewish Life
- Noam Marans(Rabbi) - Associate Director, Contemporary Jewish Life
- Jeffrey Sinensky - Director, Domestic Policy and AJC general counsel
- Kenneth Stern, Program Specialist on anti-Semitism and Extremism, Domestic Policy
- David Rosen (Rabbi) - International Director of the Department of Interreligious Affairs & Director of the Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding, Interreligious Affairs
- David Elcott - U.S. Director of Interreligious Affairs
- Eran Lerman - Director, Jerusalem Office
- Beit Moses, Middle East Office of the AJC
- Dina Siegel Vann - Director, Latin American Affairs
- Jacob Kovadloff - Consultant, Latin American Affairs
- Yehudit Barsky - Director, Middle East and International Terrorism
- Jason Isaacson - Director, Office of Government and International Affairs
- Aaron Jacob - Associate Director of International Affairs
- Richard Foltin - Legislative Director and Counsel, Office of Government and International Affairs
- Barry Jacobs - Director of Strategic Studies, Office of Government and International Affairs
- Stanislaw Krajewski AJC Poland office
- Andrew Baker (Rabbi) - Director of International Jewish Affairs
- Roselyn Bell - Director, Publications
- Deidre Berger - Director, Ramer Center for German-Jewish Relations, Berlin
- David Singer - Director, Research
- Sam Kliger - Director, Russian Affairs
- Rebecca Neuwirth - Director of Special Projects [14]
Supporting Israel Herzliya Conference 2008
In 2008, the American Jewish Committee supported the 8th Herzliya Conference in Israel[15].
Strengthening ties to British Jewry
In 2006, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) meeting with members of London's Jewish community in 'an effort to strengthen AJC’s ties to British Jewry'
The report states that:
- 'AJC President E Robert Goodkind led a leadership delegation to London to meet with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the main community organizing body for British Jews, as well as with the Community Service Trust and the newly formed Jewish Leadership Council. The group also met with British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, longtime Jewish community leaders Lord Greville Janner and Sir Trevor Chinn, and with leadership from the Reform, Liberal and Conservative Masorti movements. In addition, the group held meetings with those Members of Parliament who initiated a serious parliamentary investigation of anti-Semitism, and with younger leaders of Conservative Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Israel. AJC Board members Stanley Bergman and Peter Rosenblatt joined Goodkind on the mission. [16]
AJC Weekly News Updates
The News Updates are a valuable source of information on: the personnel involved, the contacts, the coalition building, the networks, the current issues that are important to the organization, and the lobbying effort. The News Updates are held in the Cork PSC PIWP database, and the links below take one to an abstract, comment, and links to related topics and people — these aid in the research of this organization. See lists here:
References
- ↑ 'Reaffirming Our Commitment To Voting Rights', AJC website, 8 November, 2005.
- ↑ 'The American Jewish Committee', AJC website
- ↑ 'AJC on Israel-Diaspora Relations', AJC website
- ↑ 'United Nations', AJC website
- ↑ Muriel Asseraf, 'Prospects for Adding Hezbollah to the EU Terrorist List', AJC website, September, 2007.
- ↑ AMIA website
- ↑ AIJAC website
- ↑ Centro Israelita Sionista de Costa Rica website
- ↑ AJC website, AJC Newsletter, Update 283, 28 November, 2007.
- ↑ Tribuna Israelita website
- ↑ ECJC website
- ↑ EUJS website
- ↑ Ulrich Niemann and Stoyanka Manolcheva, 'Promoting Tolerance Programme 2008 Started in Tbilissi', Friedrich Naumann Foundation website
- ↑ --AJC Principals (5 July 2006)-- Contains members found in other listings too.
- ↑ The Annual Herzliya Conference Series: on the Balance of Israel's National Security (2008) Conference Conclusions. Accessed 12 August, 2008
- ↑ American Jewish Committee London Jewish Community Greets AJC President Update 236, 20 December 2006. Accessed 21 August, 2008.