Press Releases and Statements

As Muslims and Jews committed to our communities and our country, we stand in partnership to condemn the heinous act of targeted violence at the Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

For the 14th consecutive year, Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC’s Director of International Jewish Affairs, will serve as Personal Representative on Combating Antisemitism for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Baker’s appointment was announced by Zbigniew Rau, Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, who assumed the post of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office this month.

Leaders of the JCRC of Greater Washington, the ADL Washington, D.C., and American Jewish Committee (AJC) met Monday evening with Dr. Lewis Ferebee, Chancellor of the DC Public Schools, and Rev. Thomas Bowen, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Religious Affairs, to discuss the horrific incident at Watkins Elementary School involving a school librarian who allegedly instructed third grade students to reenact the elements of the Holocaust.

After the launch of the Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) inter-parliamentary group in the EU Parliament in July 2019, the first national chapter opened on October 13 in the Austrian parliament, under the leadership of Chair MP Martin Engelberg and the support of lawmakers from the Greens, the Social-Democrats and NEOS, the liberal party.

Hillel International and American Jewish Committee (AJC), in collaboration with the American Council on Education (ACE), will bring together college and university leaders from across the United States for a two-day summit on the unprecedented increase in antisemitic activity and the marginalization of Jewish students on campus. The February summit will be hosted by New York University.

A satirical news show and an interfaith coalition of high school students dedicated to fighting hate are among the winning projects from the groundbreaking American Jewish Committee (AJC) Disrupt Antisemitism initiative, the first incubator to fund innovative ideas by young American Jews to combat antisemitism. “Bold new ideas are critical to combat the growing threats to Jews in the U.S.,” said Meggie Wyschogrod Fredman, Director of AJC’s Alexander Young Leadership Department. “The creative thinking of Jewish innovators will help the rising generation of American Jews lead us in fighting hate.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) today released its 2021 State of Antisemitism in America report based on new national polling of the U.S. Jewish and general adult populations. The surveys, the largest and most comprehensive of their kind ever conducted, confirm that hatred of Jews remains a severe problem in the United States, requiring urgent attention—and that American Jews and the U.S. general public view the problem very differently.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) President Harriet Schleifer today addressed the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism. Schleifer stressed that “any genuine effort to remember the Holocaust and its victims must be coupled with the present-day fight against antisemitism.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomed a Texas court’s decision to recommend a new trial for Randy Halprin, a Jewish prisoner on death row who has long claimed that the judge presiding over his trial was inherently biased against Jews and other minorities. “The court reached the only possible result, that the original judge’s long uncontested and undisguised bigotry made it essential that Randy Halprin be granted a new trial,” said AJC Chief Legal Officer Marc Stern. “The district court’s recommendation that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals order a new trial is a vindication of core American principles of impartiality in American jurisprudence.”

“The EU should be applauded for taking this significant step toward combatting antisemitism in Europe and abroad amid the dramatic surge of Jew hatred within living memory of the Holocaust,” said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, the EU office of AJC, the global Jewish advocacy organization. “It is reassuring to see that the strategy aims at tackling antisemitism whether it originates from the far-right, the far-left, Islamists or mainstream society and clearly identifies “Israel-related antisemitism” as a major problem. As the Commission notes, it is in fact ‘the most common form of antisemitism encountered online by Jews in Europe today.’”

American Jewish Committee (AJC), the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, congratulates Fernando Lottenberg on his appointment as the first Organization of American States (OAS) Commissioner for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism. Creation of the position was initially announced by OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro at the AJC 2021 Global Forum in June.

A Spanish language edition of Translate Hate, American Jewish Committee’s widely-used glossary of common antisemitic terms and tropes, is now available at Traduciendo el Odio. “Better informing Spanish speakers across the United States and around the world about hateful rhetoric and images targeting Jews is vitally important to the global fight against antisemitism,” said Dina Siegel Vann, Director of AJC’s Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomes the introduction today of a resolution in the U.S. Senate urging the European Union to designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terror organization. The bipartisan resolution was introduced by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

In an unprecedented transatlantic initiative, 313 cross-party lawmakers from Europe, North America, and Israel urged EU countries and democracies worldwide to help end the discrimination against Israel at the United Nations. Spearheaded by AJC’s Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI), the interparliamentary statement comes ahead of tomorrow’s opening of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) announced today the individuals who will serve on the Disrupt Antisemitism awards committee.

“We are delighted that young Jewish leaders, and Jewish innovators, in the business, media and tech industries, have agreed to review and select the most innovative ideas to combat Jew-hatred,” said Meggie Wyschogrod Fredman, Director of AJC’s Alexander Young Leadership Department.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) is deeply troubled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2020 hate crime statistics, released yesterday, which showed that overall hate crimes were up and crimes targeting Jews comprised 54.9% of all religious bias crimes last year.

Led by American Jewish Committee (AJC), Secretaries of State from across the country participated today in a virtual training on combating misinformation and disinformation through the lens of antisemitism.

Mayors and key staff participating in today’s training gained a deeper understanding of the range of antisemitic conspiracies, tropes, and symbols; the multiple sources of antisemitism emanating from the right, left and religious extremists; and concrete steps that can be taken on the local level to protect Jews and promote pluralism.

“Jews are threatened in America, around the world, and facing a growing vehemence online,” said Meggie Wyschogrod Fredman, Director of AJC’s Alexander Young Leadership Department. “Addressing Jew-hatred calls for bold change and big ideas driven by us, the rising generation of Jews. It’s time to Disrupt Antisemitism.”

“The Biden Administration has chosen wisely in appointing Deborah Lipstadt to fill this ambassadorial post, so vital to U.S. leadership in fighting antisemitism,” said AJC CEO David Harris. “Professor Lipstadt is one of this country’s, indeed the world’s, foremost experts on modern antisemitism, its constant morphing and multiple sources, and the current challenges to confronting it. AJC has been honored to work closely with her for years, and we eagerly look forward to partnering to advance the envoy office’s mission.”