Paul Murphy and Amegy Bank will be honored with the Chapter's Institute of Human Relations Award on Wed., Nov. 5 and the four co-chairs are recruiting a special tribute committee.  Co-chairs Barry Lewis, Steve Stephens, Mike Morgan, and Michael Plank are being joined by tribute committee members Amegy Bank,
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Carin Barth, Gary Glesby, David Goldstein, David Heaney, John W. Johnson,Margolis, Phipps & Wright, P.C., Merfish Pipe & Supply/Gerald Merfish /Rochelle Jacobson, John Nau/Silver Eagle Distributors, Elizabeth and Gary Petersen, David Solomon, Matthew Khourie/Trammell Crow Company, and Triple S Steel/Tracy and Gary Stein.
 

Iran's nuclear weapons program topped the agenda in AJC meetings with presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers gathered in New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly. Meetings, overwhelmingly private, with 70 countries and other officials included so far the presidents of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Senegal and Ukraine; the prime minister of India; and the foreign ministers of Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Estonia, Ghana, Kuwait, Macedonia, Morocco, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia and Uganda. The EU Special Representative to the Middle East also visited AJC for an extensive conversation. 

 

Protesting Iranian President Ahmadinejad at UN
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, AJC protested the scheduled address by the UN General Assembly President, Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, at a dinner honoring the Iranian leader. The GA president "has put the credibility of the United Nations into question," wrote AJC. Read Letter.  AJC called on UN member states to condemn Ahmadinejad's speech, rife with anti-Semitic stereotypes, to the GA. Read news release.

 

President Nicolas Sarkozy has honored the director of AJC France, Valerie Hoffenberg, with the Légion d'Honneur, France's highest decoration. The award was presented at an Élysée Palace ceremony. Applauding Hoffenberg's significant contributions as director of the American Jewish Committee office in Paris, Sarkozy said, "AJC is the most effective, most influential and the most respected of American Jewish organizations." Read press release.

 

AJC's Latino and Latin American Institute presented its Gesher Award to Raul Yzaguirre, who headed the National Council of La Raza for 30 years, in recognition of his leadership and commitment to strengthening relations between Hispanics and Jews in the U.S. Many leaders from the Jewish and Latino communities, including a number of Project Interchange alumni, attended the event at the Israeli Embassy, the annual Latino-Jewish reception in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Tom Kahn, the new chair of the Latino and Latin American Institute, presented the award.