Press Releases and Statements

American Jewish Committee (AJC) polls of the general and Muslim populations in Germany show widespread recognition of the gravity of antisemitism in Germany.

College and university presidents and diversity officers from across North America learned best practices and new tactics to improve the campus climate for Jewish students this week at the University Presidents Summit on Campus Antisemitism. Presented by Hillel International and American Jewish Committee (AJC), in collaboration with the American Council on Education (ACE), the Summit helped higher education leaders grappling with the multi-faceted challenge of campus antisemitism, from how to define antisemitism to the special role of diversity officers as champions of all students experiencing discrimination.

American Jewish Committee, the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, today launched on social media three videos featuring American Jews sharing how rising antisemitism has impacted them. They also speak powerfully about the importance of asserting proudly their Jewish identity to combat Jew-hatred. The video series is the latest initiative of AJC’s national campaign to raise awareness of the severity of rising antisemitism in the United States.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) is horrified by Russia’s indiscriminate missile attacks on Kyiv that today killed at least five people and severely damaged the Babi Yar memorial. At this site, Nazi Germans murdered more than 100,000 people, primarily Jews, and for decades the Soviets refused to erect a proper memorial to honor the victims.

“While belated apologies are welcome, any elected official willfully using the ‘Jew them down’ phrase is contributing to the spread of a classic antisemitic trope. Certainly, there are plentiful words and phrases in the English language to use in making a point in the state legislature without succumbing to traditional, derogatory references to Jews,” said Melanie Maron Pell.

Extensive surveys of France’s Jewish, Muslim, and general populations reveal the extent of unabated antisemitism threatening the country’s Jewish population, the largest in Europe. The three surveys were conducted by IFOP, a leading polling firm, for AJC in partnership with Fondapol, a major French think tank. 85% of French Jews say antisemitism is a widespread phenomenon in France today, and 73% say it has been increasing over the past ten years. In contrast, only 64% of the general population see antisemitism prevalent and rising.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism will host a virtual briefing for members of Congress and congressional staff on Thursday, January 27. Holly Huffnagle, AJC’s U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism will present to the Task Force the findings of AJC’s 2021 State of Antisemitism in America Report and discuss concrete recommendations on addressing the problem.

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.

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 praised New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s decision to pull pension fund investments out of Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s. The ice cream maker announced in July that it would cease selling its products in the West Bank. “Comptroller DiNapoli has demonstrated that boycotting Israel has consequences,” said Marc Stern, AJC Chief Legal Officer. “Unilever’s failure to undo Ben & Jerry’s misguided decision to stop selling its ice cream in the West Bank contravenes state government laws across the United States.”

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) applauds the preliminary determination by the New Jersey Department of Treasury’s Division of Investment that Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company, Unilever, have engaged in a boycott of Israel. Under New Jersey’s 2016 law on Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS), state pension funds must divest from investments in any business that engages in boycotts of Israel.