American Jewish Committee

United States organisation (IRS EIN 13-5563393), also recorded as the American Jewish Committee (AJC)

American Jewish Committee
Type	501(c)(3) organisation
Registration ID	IRS EIN 13-5563393
Location	New York, New York, United States
Website	https://www.ajc.org/

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:

1. Lobbying political leaders; networking
2. Organising political action (for voting in Congress, etc.)
3. 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).
4. Send journalists, student leaders, opinion formers, etc., to Israel for a coordinated program educating them on the Israeli perspective.
5. Create pressure groups to affect organisations that are seen as hostile to Israel, e.g., UN Watch is such an AJC-instigated project.
6. Create organisations to lobby and influence large constituencies about Israel and other AJC pet projects.
7. Campaigning against those opposed to Israel, e.g., Hezbollah.

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.

Overseas Offices/International affiliates

The AJC operates a network of front groups and in tandem with affiliated organisations.

Affiliated or AJC Instigated projects

• Africa Institute
• Asia and Pacific Rim Institute
• Belfer Center for American Pluralism
• Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
• Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies, co-founded by AJC and Saint Leo University in Florida.
• Commentary Magazine AJC's flagship publication, considered "the intellectual home of the neoconservative movement" (in Feb. 2007 AJC announced that Commentary would be published by another zionist organisation).
• European Forum on Antisemitism
• Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Humanitarian Fund
• Israeli Coalition for the Refugees of Darfur and Sudan
• Koppelman Institute on American Jewish-Israeli Affairs
• Latino and Latin American Institute
• Lawrence & Lee Ramer Center for German-Jewish Relations Berlin
• Martin Kimmel Young Leadership Institute
• Project Interchange
• Ramer Center for German-Jewish Relations
• Thanks to Scandinavia
• Transatlantic Institute Brussels
• UN Watch Geneva
• Z Word

International Partners (Jewish groups)

• Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA)
• Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC)
• Shalom (Organization of Jews in Bulgaria)
• Comité Representativo de las Entidades Judías en Chile (CREJ)
• Centro Israelita Sionista de Costa Rica (CISCR)
• Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic
• Romanian Federation of Jewish Communities
• Conseil des Communautés Israelites du Maroc (CCIM)
• Tribuna Israelita (TI)
• Comite Central de la Comunidad Judia de Mexico
• 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)
• European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS)

Partners

• Friedrich Naumann Foundation

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

Supporting Israel Herzliya Conference 2008

In 2008, the American Jewish Committee supported the 8th Herzliya Conference in Israel.

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.

Official site and recent IRS records

The official website, at https://www.ajc.org/, uses the heading AJC and the name-form American Jewish Committee (AJC). The official Who We Are page states: “AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people.” It further states: “American Jewish Committee (AJC) creates trusted partnerships with leaders around the world to ensure Jews and Israel are safe and thriving.” The same official page records that “AJC engages leaders in more than 110 countries through 40 offices and dozens of partnerships with Jewish communities worldwide.” Those official name-forms and wordings, including the official figure of 40 offices, are stated as the official page gives them and are not collapsed with earlier published wording on this page, including the 33 chapters recorded above.

The official Who We Are page also states: “AJC is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. AJC neither supports nor opposes candidates for elective office.” The official 501(c)3 wording is stated as the official page gives it and is not collapsed with the official Internal Revenue Service 501(c)(3) designation recorded below.

The official Leadership page, under the heading “AJC CEO and President,” records Ted Deutch as Chief Executive Officer, Edward and Sandra Meyer Office of the CEO, and Robert E. Lapin as National President. The same official page records Melanie B. Nelkin as Chair of the Board of Governors, and Curtis Lane as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Those official titles and name-forms are stated as the official page gives them and are not collapsed with one another, or with the officer titles and name-forms on the official IRS extracts below.

Official Internal Revenue Service records compiled by ProPublica list the organisation as American Jewish Committee, of New York, New York, with employer identification number 13-5563393, a tax exemption issued in November 1929, and designation as a 501(c)(3) organisation in the category Civil Rights, Social Action, Advocacy / Civil Rights, Advocacy for Specific Groups (NTEE). The official November 1929 tax-exemption date is stated as the compilation gives it and is not collapsed with earlier published wording on this page.

For the fiscal year ending December 2024, filed on 3 October 2025, the official Form 990 extract records revenue of $126,680,875, expenses of $102,290,971, contributions of $115,608,816, total assets of $334,912,804, total liabilities of $27,282,502 and net assets of $307,630,302. The same extract names Theodore Deutch as Chief Executive Officer, with compensation of $735,841 and other compensation of $237,492; Michael L Tichnor as President, with compensation of $0; Robert E Lapin as Chair, Board Of Governors, with compensation of $0; and Steven J Wisch as Chair, Board Of Trustees, with compensation of $0. For the fiscal year ending December 2023, filed on 7 October 2024, the extract records revenue of $88,083,675, expenses of $82,678,117, contributions of $83,041,093, total assets of $298,419,414, total liabilities of $31,593,670 and net assets of $266,825,744, and again names Theodore Deutch as Chief Executive Officer, with compensation of $628,835 and other compensation of $227,322, and Michael L Tichnor as President, with compensation of $0. Those official titles, name-forms, dates and figures are all stated as the extracts give them and are not collapsed with one another or with the later official Leadership titles recorded above.

Contact, References and Resources

Resources

American Jewish Committee - excerpt from Lee O'Brien, American Jewish Organizations and Israel, 1986

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:

• AJC News releases 2006
• AJC News releases 2007
• AJC News releases 2008