American Jewish Congress

The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts.

Like the American Jewish Congress, another institution prominent in American Jewish life is the American Jewish Committee. It often goes by the initials AJC. For ease of identification, the two organizations are often referred to as the AJCongress or the AJCommittee.

The Congress suspended its activities and laid off much of its staff on July 13, 2010. It had run out of operating funds due to losses in the Madoff scandal.

History

In 1918, leaders within the American Jewish community, consisting of Jewish, Zionist, and immigrant community organizations, convened the first American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) in Philadelphia's historic Independence Hall. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and others joined to lay the groundwork for a national democratic organization of Jewish leaders from all over the country, to rally for equal rights for all Americans regardless of race, religion or national ancestry.

In addition to its stated goals of equal rights for all, it was founded to broaden Jewish leadership and to present a unified American Jewish position at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. It became effective as a pressure group in 1928 under the leadership of Rabbi Wise, who remained the president and chief spokesperson of the AJCongress until his death in 1949.

The 1930s

Throughout the 1930s, Rabbi Wise, was vocal in his warnings about the dangers of Nazism. When Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, Wise organized a mass protest rally at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. He did this despite strong opposition by the German government, the U.S. State Department, and conservative Jewish organizations such as AJCommittee and B'nai B'rith. The American Jewish Congress continued to organize protest rallies throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In August 1933 the American Jewish Congress led a general boycott of German goods.

In 1934, Daniel Marks was named head of the AJC. He traveled to Germany and brought 5,000 Jews to America.

The 1940s

In August 1942, Rabbi Wise received a cable from Gerhard Riegner, the WJC representative in Switzerland. Riegner reported that the Nazis had planned, and were implementing a policy to exterminate all of European Jewry; the cable also referred specifically to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. After the State Department confirmed the accuracy of the information in the cable, now known as the "Riegner telegram," the AJCongress convened a Joint Emergency Committee. The committee sought to coordinate the major Jewish organizations in the United States to lobby the Roosevelt administration to take increased measures rescuing European Jews.

In December 1942 the American Jewish Congress established a Planning Committee, which sought support for a variety of rescue proposals. The committee was never more than marginally successful in mobilizing American public support for rescue efforts. The most impressive of these projects was another rally at Madison Square Garden. Held on March 1, 1943, the rally drew a crowd of 70,000. Similar rallies were subsequently held in a number of cities throughout the United States.

In August 1943 Rabbi Stephen Wise met Jan Karski.

The 1960s

Rabbi Joachim Prinz (1902–88) was president from 1958 to 1966. He served as a founding chairman of the 1963 March on Washington and spoke at that event.

The 1980s and 1990s

Following its heyday during the 1960s, when many of its activities coincided with the larger American civil rights movement, a drop-off in its membership throughout the 1980s and 1990s ensued. It has since regrouped and is actively engaged in constitutional issues domestically and supporting Israel and challenging anti-Semitism abroad.

The First Amendment

The First Amendment separation of church and state is emphasized at AJCongress naturally and inevitably as part of its insistence that Jews in the United States are not guests but full-fledged citizens by right. Key to accomplishing its mission is the belief, “That only through the assertion of – and defense of – human rights in general, can Jewish rights themselves be guaranteed, that only through the pursuit of social justice for all can it achieve the narrower goal of justice for Jewish Americans.” With that, AJCongress has been involved in hundreds of Civil Rights and religious freedoms cases, before local, Federal and the United States Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Ed. gave AJCongress its public entrée into the field of Constitutional defense agencies.

Charitable choice

AJCongress monitors issues like "charitable choice" proposals, in which federal funds would be given to faith-based institutions to provide social services historically the responsibility of government.

Women's issues

The American Jewish Congress was the first mainstream Jewish organization with a membership of both men and women to devote considerable time, effort and resources to women's issues. The establishment in 1984 o the Commission for Women's Equality (CWE) was a direct result of these activities.

In recent years, CWE has turned its attention to the ethical, legal and medical issues arising from research revealing that Ashkenazi Jewish women have higher than expected frequencies of gene mutations predisposing them to breast and ovarian cancer. The 1996 conference, Understanding the Genetics of Breast Cancer: Implications for Treatment, Policy and Advocacy, organized by national CWE, has been duplicated by AJCongress regions nationwide. In 2000, CWE presented Cancer Genetics in the Ashkenazi Community, to explore medical breakthroughs since the first conference as well as new developments in genetic testing. This follow-up conference was distinctly more upbeat than its predecessor, both in terms of medical preventive measures and in regard to legislation to ensure privacy and eliminate discrimination based on testing.

Interfaith

The AJC has participated in interfaith dialogue with the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

Controversies

Israel Singer

In the fall of 2007, the AJCongress announced that it had retained the services of Rabbi Israel Singer, the former secretary general of the World Jewish Congress - who left the agency after claims of financial irregularities were levied following an investigation by the New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and followed up by accusations from WJC founder Edgar Bronfman about alleged theft. Jack Rosen, AJCongress' chairman has been accused of keeping the appointment from the agency's board and breaching protocol in doing so. At a December 2007 meeting of the Board's Executive Committee, Rosen was put on the spot and challenged by fellow board members who opposed the association with Rabbi Singer. Rosen has since indicated that he let Singer go, but as of January 2008, Singer has claimed it to be untrue.

Ms. Magazine

On January 10, 2008, the American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) released an official statement critical of Ms. magazine's refusal to accept a full page advertisement honoring three prominent Israeli women: Dorit Beinisch (president of the Supreme Court of Israel), Tzipi Livni (Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel), and Dalia Itzik (speaker of the Knesset). The AJC press release states: "...'What other conclusion can we reach,' asked Richard Gordon, President of AJCongress, 'except that the publishers − and if the publishers are right, a significant number of Ms. Magazine readers − are so hostile to Israel that they do not even want to see an ad that says something positive about Israel?'...'Clearly Ms. has changed a great deal from the days when AJCongress members and leaders of the AJCongress' Commission for Women’s Equality − including Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug and Ms. co-founder Letty Pogrebin − were at the forefront of the Women's Movement that led to the creation of Ms. Magazine.'

Katherine Spillar, executive editor of Ms. magazine responded to the AJCongress on Ms. magazine's website, denying an anti-Israel bias, stating that: "Ms. magazine has been criticized for not running an ad submitted by the American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) featuring the photographs of three prominent Israeli women leaders with the statement 'This is Israel.' She argued that the proposed advertisement was inconsistent with the magazine's policy to accept only 'mission-driven advertisements from primarily non-profit, non-partisan organizations', suggesting that the advertisement could have been perceived 'as favoring certain political parties within Israel over other parties, but also with its slogan “This is Israel,” the ad implied that women in Israel hold equal positions of power with men.' Spillar stated that the magazine had 'covered the Israeli feminist movement and women leaders in Israel ... eleven times' in its last four years of issues.

In its press release, AJCongress claims that Ms. therefore must be 'hostile to Israel'. This is untrue and unfair... Indeed Israeli writers have reported in the pages of Ms. on the continuing efforts of the Israeli feminist movement to combat discrimination and achieve a larger voice for women in the country’s political arena.' "[19] She also levelled her own criticism: "...In a feature length story in the Spring 2006 issue of Ms., Israeli feminist scholar/activist Alice Shalvi catalogued the ongoing struggles to rectify such inequalities, including increasing women’s representation in elected office and at the table negotiating for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Women only comprise 14% of the Israeli Knesset, placing Israel 74th in the world for women’s representation in government.

Location of materials for research on the American Jewish Congress

The Western Jewish History Center, of the Judah L. Magnes Museum, in Berkeley, California has a large collection of historical records and documents from the Northern California Division of the American Jewish Congress. Additionally, The American Jewish Historical Society has a large collection of archival records related to the American Jewish Congress. The American Jewish Historical Society is also engaged in a National Endowment for the Humanities  funded project to process additional records related to the AJCongress Commission for Legal and Social Action and Commission for Women's Equality.