American Jewish Committee

Read about ten ways AJC served the Jewish people and the world during a difficult year.	Click to View in Browser

As we bring 2020 to a close, we hope for greater peace and unity—both of which we sorely need in the wake of a painful and trying year. A global health crisis. Rising levels of antisemitism and hate. Conspiracies. Division. Fear. But a new year won’t inevitably bring better days. It’s up to us to help ensure it happens. Each one of us has a responsibility to protect the Jewish people, Israel, and our democratic values. AJC enables us to do just that, here in America and around the world.

In this year-in-review edition of AJC Impact, you’ll read about ten ways AJC has been able to drive progress in this most difficult year. This work would not be possible without your support. Please consider making a year-end gift before December 31. Every dollar you donate will be matched, up to a total of $350,000!

History was made this year when Israel established diplomatic relations with four Arab nations—the United Arab Emirates; Bahrain; Sudan; and, just last week, Morocco. These agreements fulfill a vision that AJC has vigilantly pursued for more than a quarter-century. Since our first consultations in 1994, AJC has made frequent visits to the Arabian Gulf and North Africa. We met quietly with Emirati, Bahraini, and Moroccan leaders, as well as senior officials from other countries in the region, and we cultivated ties between Israel and the Arab world. This is an example of how AJC’s effective diplomacy can help forge new paths toward peace. Read AJC’s responses to the agreements with Morocco, the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan.

This year, AJC played a key role in convincing Facebook to ban content that denies or distorts the Holocaust. This was a dramatic shift in company policy and a victory in the fight against antisemitism. In announcing its decision in October, Facebook praised AJC and noted our role in bringing it about. For several years, AJC has engaged directly with Facebook, advocating for a tougher stance against antisemitism. In fact, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg stated: “Our experience with AJC has been that you are people who we can really trust and learn from.” Following Facebook’s decision, Twitter imposed a similar ban on Holocaust denial and YouTube cracked down on the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theory. Read more.

Watch Facebook's Vice President of Content Policy Monika Bickert on an AJC Advocacy Anywhere program, discussing what the company is doing to keep its platform free of antisemitism and hate.

In January, AJC and the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL) led a historic joint visit of Muslim and Jewish leaders to Auschwitz 75 years after its liberation. It was a bold step in AJC’s quest to write a new chapter in Muslim-Jewish relations. Sixty-two Muslim representatives from 28 countries participated, including 25 prominent religious leaders. The mission represented the most senior Islamic leadership delegation to ever visit a Nazi death camp. While knowledge of the Holocaust is deeply deficient throughout the Arab world, AJC is educating influential leaders—an essential step in ensuring that such horrors never happen again. Read the Chicago Tribune article AJC CEO David Harris and MWL Secretary General Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa co-wrote following the visit.

AJC is not only being heard by influential figures in the Muslim world; we’re also reaching vast numbers of people via ‘An al-Yahud, or “About the Jews”—AJC’s Arabic-language video series designed to educate Arabic-speakers about the Jewish people. Watch the videos, which have already reached more than 20 million people in the Middle East and North Africa.

On January 5, in the wake of a surge in antisemitic attacks in the New York area, AJC co-organized the 25,000-person “No Hate, No Fear” march in protest of rising hatred against Jews. AJC designated the following day, January 6, as #JewishandProud Day—a day to celebrate Jewish identity openly in a show of solidarity. AJC’s initiative reached over 200 million people on social media. Jews and non-Jews—including members of Congress, world leaders, and celebrities—participated. This profound public display demonstrated that the Jewish people stand united in the face of antisemitism and that countless allies stand alongside us. Watch AJC CEO David Harris speak at the “No Hate, No Fear” march.

This October, AJC released its first-ever State of Antisemitism in America report—and the alarming results are compelling our leaders to act. Based on parallel surveys of American Jews and the general public on Jew-hatred in America, the report found that while Jews continue to feel vulnerable and under attack in this country, there is a stunning lack of awareness among Americans of the distress felt by their Jewish neighbors. In fact, we found that nearly half of Americans do not even know what antisemitism means. And while nearly nine in ten American Jews say antisemitism is a problem in the U.S. today, only six in ten non-Jewish Americans share that concern. The findings presented in the report should trouble us all. But with this data, AJC is able to more effectively target our education and advocacy efforts to address the world’s oldest hatred. Read the report.

As you read these stories of AJC’s impact in 2020, imagine what the world would be like without AJC. We would all be less safe, Jewish communities would be less secure, and an essential voice championing democracy would be silent. It’s up to each one of us to make sure that never happens. Make a year-end gift to AJC before December 31 and it will be matched, dollar-for-dollar! Your gift will go twice as far to fight antisemitism, defend Israel, and protect the values that unite us. Donate now.

In 2020, AJC continued to urge governments to adopt the Working Definition of Antisemitism. Originally drafted by AJC, and formally adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the definition provides a universal standard for what constitutes antisemitism. With AJC’s help, a growing list of countries have adopted the definition, including eight this year alone. And we have successfully advocated for local and state bodies in America to take this step as well. Learn more.

This year, AJC made major progress in our effort to weaken Hezbollah, the antisemitic and anti-Israel Iranian terror proxy. For two decades, AJC has urged the international community, through public and private advocacy, to designate all of Hezbollah a terror organization. Many countries grant it partial legitimacy by recognizing only its supposed “military wing” as a terrorist entity. But in 2020, nine new nations, including Germany—the most powerful EU member state—joined the list of countries that have banned the terror group in its entirety. Learn more about AJC’s campaign to crack down on Hezbollah terror.

Watch as top policymakers from the U.S. and Europe make the case for banning Hezbollah on an AJC Advocacy Anywhere program.

Jews represent less than 2% of the American population, yet they are the victims of more than 60% of religious-based hate crimes. What’s worse is that this grossly underestimates the real number, since it’s based on voluntary data from local law enforcement agencies. Our leaders cannot combat hate crimes if they don’t understand the scope of the problem. That’s why AJC has continued to lead the charge—in partnership with our interfaith and interethnic allies—to convince Congress to pass the NO HATE Act, which would improve hate crimes reporting. AJC has been instrumental in building bipartisan congressional backing for the bill. With our help, the NO HATE Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, we are pressing the Senate to follow suit. Urge the Senate to act.

For more than a century, AJC has been steadfastly engaged in the unfinished civil rights struggle for full and equal opportunity and protection under the law. That work continued in 2020. Following this year’s tragedies, AJC opened two new domestic offices in Louisville and Minneapolis-St. Paul in memory of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. We built closer ties with the Congressional Black-Jewish Caucus, first launched at AJC Global Forum 2019 in Washington, and held a weeklong Black-Jewish Unity initiative with the National Urban League to bolster understanding and joint advocacy. The campaign, which addressed rising racism and antisemitism, quickly became a widespread statement of partnership and strength. Read more.

Even as the health crisis kept so many of us apart, AJC continued to bring us together—virtually. At the start of the pandemic, we immediately launched Advocacy Anywhere, an online platform that brings high-quality AJC content to you at home. We knew that our work couldn’t stop. Indeed, in many ways, AJC’s mission took on even greater urgency as we saw new waves of antisemitism and hate surface in response to COVID-19. Through Advocacy Anywhere, our community has been able to keep learning and advocating via regular webinars with world leaders, public figures, and expert analysts on a range of topics of concern to the Jewish people. Nearly five million people from more than 65 countries have already tuned in to our programs. View past programs here or register here for an upcoming program.

Take action and support AJC. Donate before December 31, and your gift will be matched!

AJC’s mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world.

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