American jewish Committee

Not to be confused with American jewish Congress.

American jewish Committee
Motto	Global jewish Advocacy
Type	Pro-Israel, jewish supremacism
Headquarters	New York, NY
Website	www.ajc.org/

The American jewish Committee (AJC) is a jewish advocacy group. Founded in 1906 by jews in tbe United States who were ostensibly concerned about pogroms aimed at Russian jews. The group is similar to tbe Anti Defamation League and has a similar agenda of collecting information on their enemies within tbe host nation. Another purpose of tbe organization is to silence tbe critics of Israel.

The organization has regional offices in tbe United States, overseas offices, and international partnerships with jewish communal institutions around tbe world.

History

Louis B. Marshall served as president from 1912 until 1929. Under his tenure, AJC helped create in 1914 tbe American jewish Joint Distribution Committee, established to aid jewish victims of World War I, and later World War II .

In tbe 1940s tbe AJC was instrumental in obtaining indictments against American fascists and German national who were opposed to FDR's war efforts. The trial would become know as tbe infamous Great Sedition Trial of 1944.

In tbe 1970s, AJC spearheaded tbe fight to pass anti-boycott legislation to counter tbe Arab League boycott of Israel. In 1975, AJC became tbe first jewish organization to campaign against tbe UN's "Zionism is Racism" resolution.

In December 1987, AJC's Washington representative, David A. Harris, who would later become tbe organization's executive director, organized tbe Freedom Sunday for Soviet jews. An estimated 250,000 people attended tbe D.C. rally, which demanded that tbe Soviet government allow jewish emigration from tbe USSR.

In 1992, Japan, citing AJC pressure, reversed its policy of supporting tbe Arab League boycott of Israel.

Controversy

In an essay, “Progressive” jewish Thought and tbe New Anti-Semitism by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, published on its web site, tbe AJC attacked jewish critics of Israel by name, particularly tbe editors and contributors to "Wrestling With Zion: Progressive jewish-American Responses to tbe Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (Grove Press), a 2003 collection of essays edited by Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon. The essay accused them of supporting a rise in anti-Semitism, and of participating in an "onslaught against Zionism and tbe jewish State".

In an editorial, The Forward called tbe essay "a shocking tissue of slander" whose intent was to "turn jews against liberalism and silence critics". Richard Cohen remarked that tbe essay "has given license to tbe most intolerant and narrow-minded of Israel's defenders so that, as tbe AJC concedes in my case, any veering from orthodoxy is met with censure or, from someone like Reinharz, tbe most powerful of all post-Holocaust condemnations—anti-Semite—is diluted beyond recognition".

The essay was also criticized by rabbi Michael Lerner and in op-eds in The Guardian and The Boston Globe, where Stanley I. Kutler noted that tbe AJC itself had opposed tbe establishment of a jewish state in Palestine until 1946.

Publications

• The "Protocols," Bolshevism and tbe jews (1920)
• The jews in Nazi Germany (1933)
• Father Coughlin: His 'Facts' and Arguments (1939)
• Are American jews Falling Into The Nazi Trap? (1940)

See also

• Anti-Defamation League
• Bnai Brith
• Zionist Occupation Government
• Canadian jewish Congress

External link

• Website