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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 (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.”

A federal court ruled that an anti-BDS law that required companies doing business with the state of Arkansas to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel was constitutional.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomes the publication by the UN Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, of a new policy paper on combating Holocaust and genocide denial. The paper was produced in collaboration with AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI). “Holocaust denial is rooted in antisemitism,” emphasizes Nderitu in the policy paper’s foreword, adding that her office is also “extremely worried about the increasingly frequent distortions of the Holocaust’s scope and intentionality.” Nderitu emphasizes that denying the facts of the Holocaust and other genocides generates fear among victims, “constitutes a warning sign of societal fragility” and “can inspire and fuel hatred of, or even incite violence against, communities that previously experienced atrocity crimes.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) applauded the UN General Assembly decision to suspend Russia’s membership on the UN Human Rights Council. “Today’s momentous vote to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council is a principled action reflecting the grave concern shared by many governments about the gross, systematic violations of human rights that Russian forces have committed during the invasion of Ukraine,” said Felice Gaer, Director of AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights.