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:

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. Production of nefarious propaganda to smear 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, and on occasion the responsibilities are shifted from one to the other. For example, when AIPAC became notorious due to the spying scandals some of its functions were passed to the other zionist organisations to allay public attention. The leadership of these organisations meet on a monthly basis.

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).
• Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Humanitarian Fund
• Israeli Coalition for the Refugees of Darfur and Sudan
• The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute
• 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.

Contact, References and Resources

Resources

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