Press Releases and Statements

American Jewish Committee welcomes the U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold more than a century of legal precedent that any child born on U.S. soil is a citizen regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

On this solemn fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) stand united with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in remembrance, resolve, and moral clarity, and continue to call for sustained international support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

AJC Los Angeles is grateful for the work of the FBI, U.S. Department of Justice, and other law enforcement agencies that led to today’s arrest of four people and the thwarting of a plot to bomb multiple locations in the Los Angeles area. This coordinated effort is one that should be modeled across the nation.

American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, welcomes today's unanimous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization. The ruling upholds a 2019 law that allows American victims of Palestinian terrorists to file civil lawsuits against terrorist organizations in American courts. In partnership with 13 other Jewish organizations, AJC submitted a brief to the court in February urging the Court to rule as it did today.

As the world marks the third anniversary of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and its sustained campaign of human rights violations and war crimes, American Jewish Committee (AJC) reaffirms unwavering solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

Christen Broecker, a leading expert with substantial experience pressing governments and international organizations to more effectively address serious human rights crises around the world and counter religious intolerance and discrimination, has been named Director of American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI).

Felice Gaer Baran, an internationally renowned human rights expert who for more than four decades brought life and practical significance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international commitments to prevent grave human rights abuses around the world, died on November 9, 2024 in New York City, following a lengthy battle with metastatic breast cancer. She was 78. At the time of her death, she was the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI).

The world community must not waver in its support of Ukraine in its fight against the brutal and unprovoked invasion by Russia, now in its third year. In his address today to the UN General Assembly, President Zelensky made a compelling case for a just peace. Ukraine deserves nothing less.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomes today’s announcement that 16 journalists, human rights defenders, and others who Russia wrongly detained have been released and allowed to leave Russia as a result of a multi-country agreement. Among those released today is American reporter Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who spent 16 months in detention on fabricated charges of espionage before being convicted in a sham trial last month and sentenced to 16 years in prison. AJC has called for his release since Russian authorities arrested him on March 29, 2023.

For years and with impunity, the Iranian regime has egregiously violated international agreements restricting its nuclear program. Today’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors vote to censure the Islamic Republic of Iran for its failure to comply with inspections and lack of cooperation with the agency is a welcome step to hold the regime accountable.

Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, one of the world’s leading experts on Holocaust denial, today lamented the ‘“tidal wave of antisemitism” since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and expressed shock at the numerous attempts to deny the atrocities committed during the terror attack. 

American Jewish Committee welcomed today’s decision upholding Meta’s prohibition of and policy for removing Holocaust denial content by the Oversight Board, an independent entity established by Meta.

American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) and the United Nations Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide brought together senior diplomats this week to mark 75 years since the signing of the Genocide Convention, including representatives from Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the event, several of the diplomatic leaders called for greater political will to confront ongoing signs that communities that have previously experienced genocide continue to face hatred and violence, noting rising global antisemitism and anti-Muslim bigotry.

American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) this week issued a new call to action: Global Leaders, Experts Must Reject Surging Antisemitism Worldwide and Affirm Jews’ Equal Rights. The appeal provides examples from 25 countries of incidents of antisemitic hate speech, discrimination, and physical attacks against Jews and Jewish sites that have occurred since Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel.

American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, today welcomed the House of Representatives’ unanimous passage of H.Res.599, a resolution urging the European Union (EU) to declare all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Like Hamas, Hezbollah is backed by Iran – financially and materially.

American Jewish Committee, the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, today urged California Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond to ensure public funds will not support an ethnic studies organization or its affiliates that attempt to justify or promote violence and terrorism.

Following Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi’s address today to the United Nations General Assembly, American Jewish Committee condemned Iran’s record of rampant human rights abuses and support for anti-Israel terror groups, and reiterated its calls for the international community to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons capability. President Raisi’s address comes just over a year after the murder of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested by Iran’s morality police for not properly wearing a hijab, on the heels of the barring of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from sites in Iran, and less than a month before key sanctions are set to expire on the regime’s ballistic missile program.

AJC CEO Ted Deutch issued a statement today following the Aug. 26 racially motivated shooting rampage in Jacksonville, FL, which left three people dead.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch today observed the 29th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and vowed the global Jewish community would not rest until those responsible are brought to justice.

The American Society of International Law (ASIL) has honored Felice Gaer, Director of American Jewish Committee’s (AJC’s) Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, with the organization’s 2023 Honorary Member Award. The award was presented to Gaer today at ASIL’s annual meeting in recognition of her “critically important contributions” to the development, interpretation, and implementation of international human rights law, including in the areas of prevention of torture, women’s human rights and freedom of religion or belief.