Last June, AJC, together with Americans United for Separation of Church and State and others, filed an amicus brief regarding a Utah town's refusal to erect a Summum monument. Read editorial

 

AJC Hosts NAACP Head 
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous visited AJC headquarters. The conversation focused on issues of common concern to the African American and Jewish communities and areas for possible cooperation. Jealous invited AJC to participate in next year's NAACP centennial celebration.

Chinese Middle East Expert Visits AJC 
Professor Pan Guang, director of the Shanghai Center for International Studies, discussed China and the Middle East at AJC headquarters. Pan is China's leading expert on the Jewish people and Israel. AJC maintains an ongoing dialogue with China, and AJC President Richard J. Sideman led an AJC delegation to Beijing earlier this year. The National Committee on US-China Relations co-hosted the meeting with AJC.

International Catholic-Jewish Conference Discusses Pope Pius XII
Discussion of Pope Pius XII was central to the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee (IJCIC) conference in Budapest, co-chaired by Rabbi David Rosen, AJC's international director of interreligious affairs, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. "We reiterate our commitment to a relationship based on mutual respect and sensitivity," Kasper and Rosen said in a joint statement. The meeting came a week after Rosen led an international Jewish delegation to meet with Pope Benedict XVI.

Preparing for Durban Review Conference
AJC has released two reports as part of its advocacy in preparation of the Durban Review Conference in April in Geneva. Durban Diaries, by Jöelle Fiss, is a first-hand account of what happened to a group of young Jews at the 2001 World Conference against Racism, and how to prevent a repeat next year.  UN Watch, AJC's affiliate in Geneva, has issued a critical assessment of the preparatory meetings, Shattering the Red Lines: The Durban II Draft Declaration. UN WATCH director Hillel Neuer will be in Houston on Wednesday evening, Dec. 10 to discuss "60 years after the UN Declaration of Human Rights" in the first AJC Crucial Issues Series forum with World Affairs Council Houston.

Hailing German Investigator's Request for Demjanjuk
"We are pleased with this new development in the Demjanjuk saga," said AJC, after Kurt Schrimm, Germany's chief Nazi war crimes investigator, announced he would seek the extradition of John Demjanjuk. Schrimm said he has new evidence that Demjanjuk had personally led Jews to the gas chambers at the Sobibor death camp in Poland in 1943.

Congratulating New Zealand Prime Minister-elect John Key
"As friends of New Zealand and strong supporters of U.S.-New Zealand cooperation, we express our congratulations on your party's victory in national elections and your elevation to the post of Prime Minister," AJC wrote in a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister-elect John Key. Through its Asia Pacific Institute, founded 20 years ago, AJC is active in the region. AJC also works with the New Zealand Jewish community.