American Jewish Committee

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a nonprofit advocacy organization and publisher promoting the interests of American Jews. It was founded by wealthy Jews (mostly of German background and active in the Reform movement) in 1906 in the face of murderous pogroms in Russia. It is the oldest and one of the most important voices of Judaism. It sought primarily worked to eliminate the barriers to full Jewish participation in American life and to secure, as far as possible, Jewish equality in other countries. It opposed Zionism until 1967, then did a total turnaround and became a major champion of Israel.

The goals are:

Combating anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry;
Promoting pluralism and shared democratic values;
Supporting Israel's quest for peace and security;
Advocating for energy independence (as opposed to oil from the Middle East;
Strengthening Jewish life.

Its headquarters are in New York, with its Office of Government & International Affairs in Washington, AJC has 29 chapters and 3 independent affiliates in the U.S. and 8 overseas offices. It is not a mass membership organization. In 2007 it raised $57 million and spent $47 million on salaries and other activities; it had an endowment of $93 million. Its CEO is David Harris, the Executive Director.

History

Philanthropy was always a very high communal value among Jews, and AJC leaders in the early days were mindful of their responsibility toward the large numbers of poor Yiddish-speaking East European Jews entering the country. Nevertheless they feared that these not-yet-Americanized masses--bringing with them Old World customs and alien ideologies, holding public rallies and protest meetings instead of working patiently through the existing Jewish establishment--threatened to create the wrong image in the public mind. The AJC did not want the American public to envision American Jewry as a foreign culture transplanted artificially to American shores. The profound fear, repeated over and over, was the risk of evoking an anti-Semitic reaction that would endanger the status of all American Jews. The AJC seeing itself as the natural "steward" of the community, took on the mission of educating the new arrivals in proper Americanism.

The AJC before the Six Day War in 1967 was officially "non-Zionist." Indeed it had long opposed Zionism and only became reconciled to the creation of Israel in 1947-48, when the the U.S. backed the partition of Palestine. As 1967 began the AJC still was the major national Jewish body that was most self-consciously American, most reluctant to acknowledge links to other Jewish communities beyond those of religion and philanthropy, and least willing to subordinate institutional autonomy to the cause of Jewish communal solidarity. That it transformed itself almost overnight into a passionate defender of the Jewish state and, in so doing, shed old inhibitions to espouse Jewish peoplehood was itself a measure of the impact this crisis had on American Jewry as a whole.^[1]

Since 1945 it has published Commentary, focused on political and cultural commentary and analysis of politics and society in the U.S. and the Middle East. Originally liberal, Commentary has moved right and since the 1980s has been the voice of Neoconservatives. Since 1906 it has published the invaluable American Jewish Yearbook, a highly detailed account of Jewish life in the U.S., Israel and the world.

External links

AJC Website
Annual Report 2008
American Jewish Yearbook, complete texts since 1899

American Jewish Committee

Contents

History

External links

See also

Further reading

References

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