American Jewish Committee (AJC)

Early History

The American Jewish Committee was founded in 1906 to defend Jewish civil rights in the United States and abroad after a spate of anti-Jewish violence (known as pogroms) in Russia. The AJC initially focused on lobbying the American government to continue to permit immigration from Russia. In the early 1910s, the AJC expanded its goals to broader civil rights protection, which included support for early civil rights and anti-discrimination laws. In the 1930s, the AJC ran education programs to counter Nazi propaganda. After World War II, the AJC became a major proponent of Israel. ³

Policy Views

The American Jewish Committee supports the state of Israel and fights against individuals, movements, and organizations it perceives to be anti-Israel or antisemitic. ⁴

The AJC opposes boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel, claiming that “While many rank and file members of the movement sincerely want peace and are lured in by this human rights façade, BDS leadership in fact seeks nothing less than the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.” ⁴ All then-serving U.S. governors signed the AJC’s “Governors United Against BDS” petition in 2017. ⁵

Antisemitism

The AJC pushes for more government action against antisemitism. The AJC helped establish the U.S. Congressional Bipartisan Taskforce for Combating Antisemitism, encouraged the European Union to appoint a Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism, and formed the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council that works with elected officials. The AJC supports the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism and encourages institutional adoption of it. ⁶

In 2007, the AJC published a controversial essay online entitled, “‘Progressive’ Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism,” which blamed a rise in antisemitism on liberal Jews being critical of Israel: “Perhaps the most surprising — and distressing — feature of this new trend is the very public participation of some Jews in the verbal onslaught against Zionism and the Jewish State. ⁷

In 2016, the AJC partnered with nonprofit group Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to create the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, a community organization made from political and religious leaders from both Jewish and Muslim American communities. According to their website, the goals of the organization include combatting, “the rise in hate crimes, and to promote the positive image of Muslim and Jewish citizens of the United States.” ^{8 9}

The AJC published “The State of Antisemitism in America 2022.” According to their surveys, in 2022, 26 percent of American Jews were victims of antisemitism, 38 percent adjusted their behavior at some point due to fears of antisemitism, and 19 percent felt unsafe attending synagogue. Surveys found that 90 percent of Americans and 87 percent of American Jews believed that the statement “Israel has no right to exist” is antisemitic. The research also found higher rates of antisemitism online than in-person, and that a disproportionate amount of antisemitism was directed at younger Jews. ¹⁰

In 2022, the AJC publicly requested that Amazon remove the book and film Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America from its store. According to the AJC, the book and film “[echo] a longstanding antisemitic accusation common among Black supremacists that claims ‘white’ Jews are ‘not the real Jews’ and terms the six million Jews murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust one of the ‘five major falsehoods.’” The book and film had been controversially promoted by professional basketball player Kyrie Irving. ¹¹

Also in 2022, the AJC, Hillel International, and the American Council on Education hosted the University Presidents Summit on Campus Antisemitism which was attended by representatives from over 40 universities. ^{12 13}

Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights

The AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights supports migrants around the world with legal and logistical assistance. ¹⁴

Ukraine

The AJC supports claims to be the first Jewish organization in the world to have recognized the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union in 1991. ¹⁵

The AJC supports Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion through charity and political advocacy. The AJC supports labelling the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company active in Ukraine and other conflicts, as a foreign terrorist organization. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke at the AJC Global Forum in 2022. ¹⁵

Controversies

In 2022, the American Jewish Committee and 39 other pro-Israel groups wrote an open letter condemning the University of California Berkeley School of Law for permitting nine student groups to enact a policy that bans any speakers that support Israel or Zionism. The policy was brought to national attention by a Jewish Journal op-ed by the former assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education Kenneth Marcus. The letter called the policy “unabashed antisemitism” and accused Berkely Law of “telling its Zionist Jewish students to get used to the idea that there will be certain spaces in which they are not welcome.” ^{16 17}

However, a leaked internal memo at the AJC revealed that the organization was critical of Marcus’s “tactics.” Sara Coodin, the AJC’s director of academic affairs, wrote that the op-ed’s “central claim was inflammatory, resulting in a distorted picture of both this incident and the overall climate for Jewish students on campus.” ¹⁶

The magazine Jewish Currents described the conflict between Marcus and the AJC as illustrating a “strategic tension” between “[hardliners]” like Marcus and organizations with a “softer touch” like the AJC. ¹⁶