Press Releases and Statements

Forty-one percent of American Jews say their status in the U.S. is less secure compared to a year ago, according to AJC's State of Antisemitism in America Report.

Speaking at a high-level UN event yesterday focused on globalizing efforts to combat antisemitism alongside Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch called on UN leaders to do more to counter antisemitism at the world body.

AJC said while it was commendable for the American Bar Association to pass an antisemitism resolution, it criticized the decision to omit the widely recognized antisemitism definition from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomed the latest French government plan to combat antisemitism. The plan, updated by the Interministerial Delegation for the Fight Against Racism and Antisemitism (DILCRAH) every three years, included several policies recommended by AJC and was presented yesterday by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne to an audience that included AJC leaders in Paris. “DILCRAH has long recognized that antisemitism endangers all of French society, not only Jews. It is essential for the government to have a robust strategy dedicated to confronting antisemitism in all its forms,” said Anne Sophie-Sebban, Director of AJC Paris,

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch issued this statement today on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of when the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was liberated in 1945.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch today told the European Parliament that the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and three Arab nations, was an important historical moment “we can never take for granted.”

Most U.S. adults know when the Holocaust happened and are familiar with Auschwitz, but fewer are cognizant about the number of Jews murdered and how Hitler came to power in Germany, according to a new American Jewish Committee (AJC) public opinion survey. “Lacking knowledge can open pathways to trivialization and denial of the Holocaust that also contribute to rising antisemitism,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch.

Amid rising antisemitism in the United States, data from a new American Jewish Committee (AJC) public opinion survey reveals key information on the state of mind of American Jews following the hostage situation at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas last year. A majority of American Jews—or 54% percent—said they heard a lot or some about the Colleyville crisis. Of those U.S. Jews, 18% percent felt a great deal less safe at the time, 33% felt a fair amount less safe, and 36% felt a little less safe after the eleven-hour hostage crisis. Only 13% of the survey respondents who had heard at least some about the situation said they did not feel less safe.

American Jewish Committee will help lead a groundbreaking effort to train educators and school leaders in the United States about antisemitism and help them develop strategies to address anti-Jewish incidents in their schools.
The initiative comes at a time when antisemitic incidents have risen to alarming levels and most American Jews believe antisemitism is a problem in the U.S.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch praised today’s landmark vote by UN member states to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women, a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). “We applaud the 29 members of the UN's ECOSOC who declared today that they will no longer allow Iran, a country that relentlessly persecutes women and girls, to serve as a member of the Commission on the Status of Women. Its immediate removal for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term corrects a grave mistake,” said Deutch.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch today lauded an announcement by the White House that it would establish an interagency group to coordinate efforts to fight antisemitism and other forms of hate. Its first order of business will be to develop a national strategy to combat antisemitism.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch expressed deep concern regarding the dearth of data in the latest FBI Hate Crimes Report. Issued today, the report provides a woefully inadequate assessment of the reality and extent of hate crimes targeting Jews in the United States.

“The FBI report on hate crimes is among the most anticipated federal government documents. But its shortcomings undermine the gravity of the problem of hate in the United States,” said Deutch.

Following the release of the FBI’s latest Hate Crimes Statistics report, the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC) calls on all law enforcement agencies to transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to submit hate crimes data in order to get more specific information on each incident. The report, which tracks hate crimes in 2021, is missing significant sources of data, including from some of the largest cities across the country such as New York City, Miami-Dade, and Los Angeles.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch thanked the White House for convening a roundtable discussion on combating antisemitism with the heads of U.S. Jewish organizations. The meeting is slated to be held Dec. 7. AJC has long advocated for such a meeting in a time when antisemitism and other hate crimes in the U.S. have dramatically increased in recent years.

“The rampant antisemitism by hiring managers revealed in the survey, if accurate, is not only alarming but also blatantly illegal under federal law,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “Employers may not discriminate on the basis of race or religion. That so many hiring managers reportedly admitted they would willingly violate the civil rights of Jewish job candidates, regardless of their qualifications, is disturbing. Anti-Jewish discrimination has no place in the workplace or anywhere else.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) praised the UN Human Rights Council’s decision to establish an “independent international fact-finding mission” on Iran that will “thoroughly and independently investigate” human rights violations committed by the regime in its deadly crackdown on escalating protests since September 16. “The Human Rights Council was created precisely for addressing the egregious human rights abuses the Iranian regime is committing with impunity,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “Today’s Council decision reflects the international community’s outrage at the regime’s conduct, its commitment to listen to the brave Iranian people, and its determination to hold accountable those responsible for the pervasive violence.”

“The Human Rights Council has a responsibility to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its brazen, violent crackdown on its own citizens. The international community’s credibility is on the line,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “We salute Germany and Iceland for mobilizing 44 countries, including the 17 Council members required to ask Council President Federico Villegas to convene the special session on Iran.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) praised Germany and Iceland for taking the lead in requesting a Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council to address the Iranian regime’s deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters. “The Human Rights Council has a responsibility to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its brazen, violent crackdown on its own citizens. The international community’s credibility is on the line,” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “We salute Germany and Iceland for mobilizing 44 countries, including the 16 Council members required to ask Council President Federico Villegas to convene the special session on Iran.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch today called on Amazon to immediately remove “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” a notorious antisemitic book and film that gained prominence when Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving shared on social media a link to it on the Amazon website. AJC has launched an online petition to Amazon “urging the swift removal of the film and book.” “Effectively combating antisemitism requires corporate leaders to recognize what antisemitism is and to take firm action to confront it,” said Deutch.

Rabbi Andrew Baker, American Jewish Committee Director of International Jewish Affairs, addressed today the Terezin Declaration Conference. The two-day conference, hosted by the Czech government, which holds the EU Presidency, is a follow up to the Prague Holocaust Era Assets Conference in 2009. “Government recognition of Jewish communities’ security needs is not the same as action,” Baker declared in remarks focused on the continuing rise of antisemitism. He also underscored the need “for governments to adopt and employ the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.”