American Jewish Congress
Organisation logo
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| Founded | 1918 1953 |
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| Registration no. | 13-1679610 (EIN) |
| Purpose | "Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy - using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts." |
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Key people
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Jack Rosen (President), Richard Gordon (Chairman), Herb London (Vice President), Bruce Blakeman (V.P.) , Ben Chouake (Secretary), Eli Verschleiser (Treasurer) |
| Website | http://www.ajcongress.org/ |
The American Jewish Congress is 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.
The American Jewish Congress was founded in 1918, and represented a "populist counterbalance to the American Jewish Committee, which was dominated by the wealthy and conservative German-Jewish establishment." 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.
Through its emphasis on human rights for all Americans; on protection by government of the weakest among us; and on a just society based on civil law and the Jewish concept of Tzedek—righteousness—the American Jewish Congress has made its mark to a remarkable degree on American society in general and Jewish well-being in particular.
The head of the AJC is Jack Rosen.
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 the 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.
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Wikipedia