Excerpts from AJC's Weekly Update: August 15, 2007
Project Interchange Brings Indian Muslims to Israel
A delegation of Indian Muslim leaders arrived in Israel today for an unprecedented visit to advance interreligious dialogue and peace. The six-day visit is sponsored by AJC's Project Interchange, in coordination with AIJAC (Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council), an AJC international partner. The delegation "com[es] with the message of peace and goodwill from Indian Muslims who believe in the Indian tradition of resolving issues through dialogue and peaceful means," said Hazrat Maulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi, president of the All-India Association of Imams and Mosques, and leader of 500,000 imams across India. The Israel visit follows a trip to India earlier this year by AJC's Rabbi David Rosen, along with Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger and a delegation of chief rabbis from around the world.
New at ajcwire
Steven Bayme, AJC's director of Contemporary Jewish Life, discusses Noah Feldman's New York Times Magazine article on Modern Orthodoxy and intermarriage, noting that "minority faith communities require boundaries to sustain themselves. Failure to create boundaries, including encouraging endogamy, which all the major Jewish religious movements support, imperils cultural distinctiveness." READ BLOG at: ajcblog.org/2007/08/14/commentary-on-noah-feldman/
Ari Gordon, AJC's assistant director of interreligious affairs, explores the growing trend among the world's religions to take action on climate change and energy security. READ BLOG at: ajcblog.org/2007/08/13/%e2%80%9ccaring-for-creation%e2%80%9d-gains-speed/
Polish-Jewish American Exchange Program
A delegation of Polish young leaders visited AJC in Chicago, New York and Washington as part of the 11th annual Polish-Jewish American Exchange Program. The program, coordinated by AJC with the Forum for Dialogue Among Nations in Poland, involved meetings with Administration officials, Jewish and Polish-American leaders, and a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The exchange program is part of AJC's longstanding relationship with Poland.
College Presidents Continue to Join Statement on British Boycott
Forty-six more presidents of American colleges and universities have joined the national effort to endorse Columbia University President Lee Bollinger's statement denouncing United Kingdom's University and College Union decision to promote a boycott of Israeli educational institutions. They join the original list of 286 presidents, published in a full-page New York Times ad on August 8. The list is updated daily on AJC's website. Any president who wishes to join should send an email to Harold Shapiro, president emeritus of Princeton University, at shapiroh@ajc.org.
Quest for Peace in Swedish, Portuguese
AJC's Quest for Peace booklet, highlighting Israel's sixty-year effort to make peace with her Arab neighbors, has been translated by the Israeli embassy in Stockholm into Swedish. The publication, which has been distributed by Israeli officials worldwide and is currently being printed in Portuguese for the Israeli embassy in Brazil, can be downloaded at www.ajc.org
AJC Radio Message: Changing Energy Habits
"While our troops put their lives on the line, many of us go about business as usual," says David Harris in his commentary on the CBS radio network. "What can we do? Above all, change our energy habits. Dependence on oil from hostile countries is our nation's Achilles' heel. There are no two ways about it. It's so painfully obvious." LISTEN at: www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=838485&ct=4269893
Ari M. Gordon Assistant Director Department of Interreligious Affairs American Jewish Committee 165 E56th St. New York, NY 10022 (212) 891-6768 (212) 751-4000 x266 www.ajc.org www.engagingamerica.org