News and Analysis from AJC CEO David Harris

Whatever one’s thoughts about politics today, America is not lurching towards Nazism or Bolshevism. To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand, at a fundamental level, the nature of these totalitarian ideologies and their legacies.

Europe has much to offer, most especially its remarkable experience of postwar peace-building and integration that today is the EU. It could perhaps one day serve as a model for other regions with a long history of conflict and animosity. But that won’t happen unless Europe sheds some of its archaic thinking about the Middle East, acknowledges and embraces the new dynamics at work as reflected in the UAE-Israel deal (and others to follow?), takes a fresh look at its own complex relationship with Israel, and ends its “low expectations” policy towards the Palestinians.

In the midst of seismic global developments, mounting challenges in the United States, and the surge in antisemitism, please join us for a conversation with AJC CEO David Harris, one of the Jewish world’s leading experts on global trends.

AJC CEO David Harris, described by the late Shimon Peres as “foreign minister of the Jewish people,” has been a leading advocate for strengthening Israel’s place in the world. In this program, Harris discusses the complex issues and new opportunities for the Jewish state.

After five days of inspirational speeches and spirited debates, AJC CEO David Harris, whom the late Israeli President Shimon Peres called “the foreign minister of the Jewish people,” closes the historic AJC Virtual Global Forum with a call to action!

In the wake of the unprecedented tragedy of the Holocaust, it was anything but obvious that a Jewish group would seek to engage postwar Germany. But that’s exactly what American Jewish Committee (AJC), alone among global Jewish organizations, did.

Join AJC CEO David Harris as he shares his perspectives on the Six-Day War — and why it still matters 53 years later.

Without an understanding of what happened in the past, it’s impossible to grasp where we are today — and where we are has profound relevance for the region and the world. Fifty-three years ago this week, the Six-Day War broke out.

In these times of profound uncertainty, triggered by the war against the pandemic, one comment keeps coming up in my world: “Where’s Winston Churchill now that we need him?”

In 2000-01, AJC CEO David Harris spent a year in Europe. He was the first American Jewish leader to alert the world to the resurgence of antisemitism there and to identify its multiple sources.

75 years ago, on May 8, 1945, the second world war in Europe ended. AJC CEO David Harris discusses this remarkable journey from the depths of despair to the joy of redemption.

As the world commemorates the Allied victory and recalls the war’s horrors, some are invoking the language of the Nazi era in response to COVID-19 restrictions. How appallingly inappropriate and insensitive!

As we celebrate Israel’s birthday, read this powerful essay by AJC CEO David Harris on the history and meaning of Israel’s remarkable journey.

AJC CEO David Harris shares his personal Jewish story, from the development of Jewish identity to the journey that led him to AJC.

It is as predictable as day follows night. A crisis erupts — pandemic, financial, security — and the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork. Today, with the Coronavirus pandemic, is no different. It is equally foreseeable that, sooner or later, the Jews will be among those blamed. Isn’t the heart of antisemitism, past and present, the assignment to Jews of evil powers and demonic aims?

Watch AJC CEO David Harris's presentation of part two of his two-part firsthand account of some of the key moments of the movement that freed Soviet Jewry and helped bring down the Soviet Union.

Watch AJC CEO David Harris's presentation of part one of his two-part firsthand account of some of the key moments of the movement that freed Soviet Jewry and helped bring down the Soviet Union.

On January 23, we stood together with united resolve in the face of history’s greatest horror, the Holocaust, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where more than 1 million Jews perished. Never Again. Not for Jews. Not for Muslims. Not for any of God’s children.

In the wake of the horrific knife attack on Saturday during a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, N.Y., and following a recent spate of other anti-Semitic assaults in New York City and elsewhere in the United States, we must ask and answer two key questions: “Why now?” and “What can be done to stop such incidents?”

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the antisemitic attack in a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

AJC CEO David Harris responds in a letter to the editor to New York Times editorial on President Trump's executive order on campus antisemitism.

The new CNN survey of attitudes towards Jews in seven countries – Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, and Sweden – raises profound concerns. Jews are an infinitesimal percentage of Europe’s population, but continue to play an outsized role in the European imagination.

AJC CEO David Harris tells Poland’s most visited online news site that the last three U.S. presidents have misread the intentions of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, when German forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, is the history still relevant? Does it have contemporary meaning? Or is it destined to fade away, as the wartime generation of soldiers, eyewitnesses, and survivors reaches the twilight of their lives?

Recorded in Jerusalem specially for AJC Global Forum, AJC CEO David Harris interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

AJC CEO David Harris discussed why all people of good conscience must join together to stand united against hate and violence and celebrate pluralism and diversity at the unveiling of AJC's groundbreaking Community of Conscience initiative.

The limitless potential of the region was on full display during the sixth trilateral summit among Cyprus, Greece, and Israel that took place in Jerusalem last week. The gathering was especially noteworthy because the United States, represented by Secretary of State Pompeo, also participated for the first time.

AJC CEO David Harris writes about his mother, Nelly Harris, who passed away at age 95.

In an op-ed published by The Hill, AJC CEO David Harris shows the importance of the transatlantic relationship.

News reports suggest the U.S. administration is considering a historic decision to redefine who is and is not a Palestinian “refugee.” I hope the reports are true. A change is long overdue and could actually help the search for peace long-term.

IOI is the misguided notion, peddled in the name of Israel's “best interests” by some in the diplomatic, academic, and media worlds, that if only Israel did this or that, peace with the Palestinians would be at hand.

AJC CEO David Harris closes the AJC Global Forum 2018 with a stirring and inspirational message.

In an unscripted moment at AJC Global Forum 2018 in Israel, AJC CEO David Harris took to the podium immediately after an unprecedented speech by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who acknowledged Austria’s responsibility to both the Jewish people and, for the first time, the State of Israel.

Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, written by AJC CEO David Harris, provides a clear and concise picture of Israel’s ongoing struggle for peace and security in a tumultuous region that all too often has denied the very legitimacy of a Jewish state.

The difference between Hamas and Israel couldn’t be greater, yet you wouldn’t know it when listening to some observers.

The recent focus on the Jerusalem issue is a telling reminder that Israel is treated according to a totally different standard than other countries in the international system.

In a Huffington Post op-ed, AJC CEO David Harris criticized Larry David for his “vulgar banalization of the Holocaust” when opening the Saturday Night Live show over the weekend.

For close to two decades, we have been blowing the whistle on the rising tide of antisemitism. When asked the source, our answer has always been the same: Look in three directions – the far left, the far right, and the jihadists.

It’s high time for the international community to wake up to certain Palestinian realities that many would rather avoid.