London Jewish Community Greets AJC President
In an effort to strengthen AJC's ties to British Jewry, 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 and Labor Friends of Israel. AJC Board members Stanley Bergman and Peter Rosenblatt joined Goodkind on the mission.
Brazilian Jewry Hosts AJC Delegation
An AJC senior leadership delegation visited Rio de Janeiro for a series of meetings with the Brazilian Jewish community. The two-day visit is part of AJC's expanding ties with Jewish communities across Latin America, organized by AJC's Latino and Latin American Institute. In addition to meeting with the Rio de Janeiro Jewish Federation leadership, the AJC delegation visited with the head of the Brazil-Israel friendship group in the Brazilian Senate, the Israeli ambassador to Brazil and Brazil's ambassador to Israel.
ACCESS Holiday Mission to New Orleans
AJC's ACCESS: New Generation Program will return to New Orleans next week with an ethnically mixed group of 40 young professionals to participate in reconstruction efforts and dialogue with students and faculty of Dillard and Xavier universities, and with the Jewish community. ACCESS visited New Orleans last February for a weekend of clean-up projects. AJC's Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund distributed more than $1.2 million to Jewish and Christian houses of worship. Next week's trip is co-sponsored by Birthright Israel's alumni association and the Office of Black Ministry of the Archdiocese of New York. For more information about ACCESS, visit www.ajc.org.
Energy Independence Meetings in Washington
AJC leaders met in Washington with high-ranking Administration and congressional officials to press for bipartisan action aimed at drastically reducing our nation's dependence on foreign energy sources. The group, led by AJC President E. Robert Goodkind, AJC national energy committee chairman Henry Dubinsky, and Richard Foltin, AJC's legislative director and counsel, met with James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; Andrew Karsner, Energy Department Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency; Dennis Fitzgibbons, Democratic staff director and chief counsel of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; and Robert Simon, Democratic staff director of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Farewell Dinner for Kofi Annan
AJC President E. Robert Goodkind hosted at AJC headquarters a private farewell dinner for outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his wife. Annan discussed cooperation with AJC on a number of issues related to anti-Semitism and Israel and answered questions from guests, who included AJC Board members, UN officials and Congresswoman Nita Lowey.
Australian Jewish Students Visit AJC
Seventeen leaders of the Australian Union of Jewish Students came to AJC to meet with Rebecca Neuwirth, director of AJC's ACCESS: New Generation program, to discuss areas of mutual concern and opportunities for cooperation, including increasing participation among young people in Jewish communal life and combating anti-Semitism on university campuses.
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Ari M. Gordon Department of Interreligious Affairs American Jewish Committee 165 E56th St. New York, NY 10022 (212) 751-4000 x266 www.ajc.org www.engagingamerica.org