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The Program

The AJC's EngagingAmerica initiative empowers AJC members and staff to be effective domestic diplomats in an ongoing nationwide project of interethnic and interreligious engagement. Through building knowledge and skills, EngagingAmerica moves the intergroup conversation beyond dialogue to social and political action on behalf of Jews and our neighbors.

Developed by AJC's Department of Interreligious Affairs and Belfer Center for American Pluralism, EngagingAmerica advances three objectives linked to our founding mission:

> Prepare Jewish leaders for intergroup work by providing training in advocacy, coalition-building, and the articulation of Jewish values.
> Insure that our leaders gain the requisite knowledge about the key issues of other groups, core tenets of other faiths, and relevant AJC policy positions.
> Increase public support among ethnic and religious groups for the Jewish community's issues, and in alliance with them, advocate for the issues we share

The Website

www.engagingamerica.org

This website is an integral part of the EngagingAmerica initiative, designed to support and advance our intergroup relations efforts. It is designed as a virtual resource center providing a wide array of information on ethnic, religious and national origin groups across the U.S. with whom AJC and the wider Jewish community engage. Core beliefs and doctrines, demographics and organizations, and the issues on these groups' agendas, as well as AJC policy on intergroup issues, are detailed. At EngagingAmerica.org we provide the voices of the ethnic and religious partners in their own words, supplemented with links to their websites and sourced material.

"In a world where diversity often devolves into conflict EngagingAmerica is a hopeful contribution, a tool for building relationships among America's diverse groups, to help each of us realize the imperative of Leviticus 19:18, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'," says Ann Schaffer, director of AJC's Belfer Center for American Pluralism.  

AJC members registered on this site will have access to the Members Only and other select areas, which provide:

> Analyses and background materials on where our partners stand on current critical issues.
> Approaches to building meaningful and strategic relationships with our ethnic partners.
> Training materials. If you have completed the EngagingAmerica training program, you will be familiar with these materials, although online they are updated regularly.

EngagingAmerica.org is a unique site. We continue to reach out to other ethnic and religious groups as part of our ongoing work in building a better America.