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Friend,
By now, you know that as I turned 80 last year, the Institute marked its 40th anniversary of working to empower and protect Arab Americans.
It’s been a great run, and I’m both proud of what we’ve done and excited about what we are planning to do in the years ahead.
By the way, I’m not retiring, but the mantle has passed to Maya Berry, who is now leading AAI’s day-to-day work. Maya started with us in the mid-1990’s and only left to work as legislative director for the House Minority Whip. She went on to start her own business. I was so blessed when she returned to AAI in 2011. I couldn’t have a better partner in our work, and I am so delighted to watch her take us into this new era with her unique vision and dedication to advancing our shared goals.
So many of you wrote lovely notes in response to Maya’s email about my “big day.” I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you who wrote back and/or sent donations. I also wanted to update you on some of what I’ve been doing so you can get a better idea of just how active I remain.
Over the past few months, I’ve been traveling, speaking, organizing, making media appearances, and writing.
Mid-summer, I traveled to the Carter Center in Atlanta to join with Churches for Middle East Peace in a discussion on how we could better engage Congress on the genocide in Gaza. Out of this discussion, we developed a plan to bring Palestinian Americans with family in Gaza to Washington for meetings with Members of Congress and the media. We felt that it was important to create the opportunity for Palestinians to tell their own stories, to put a face on and give voice to the nightmare they have been forced to endure.
This idea was developed into a program that we launched in mid-October. The group we brought together met with Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and the press.
At summer’s end, I travelled to Minnesota for Democratic Party meetings. While there, I had dinner with Keith Ellison, the state’s Attorney General, and another with Omar Fateh, a Somali American serving in the state’s legislature. He is a rising star in Minnesota politics. I was invited to speak at several conferences and panels. These included: the Asian American Unity Coalition’s “Unity Summit,” the Stimson Center’s round table discussion on Syria, and The National’s panel discussion on the UN’s Special Session on Palestinian Statehood. I also did interviews with the BBC, the Times of London, and a number of Arab media outlets.
In October, in addition to our work with the Palestinian Americans with family in Gaza, I was on CNN and The Intercept and travelled to Syracuse, NY, to speak at Le Moyne on the role of religion in international conflicts.
In November, I travelled to Iowa for four speaking events, including Coe College, University of Iowa, and the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, on a range of topics, including a Veterans Day event, where I spoke on the legacy of World War I - “How the War to End All Wars Set the Stage for a Century of Conflict.” At the end of the month, I returned to my hometown of Utica, NY, where I was invited to raise the Lebanese flag over City Hall for Lebanese Independence Day and to deliver remarks on the importance of immigrants and immigration in building the United States.
In December, I was in Los Angeles for a Democratic National Committee meeting. There, I was appointed to both a working group on the party’s approach to Middle East issues and a task force on party reform issues.
Currently, we are working with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and a number of other organizations to plan a summit in April. That gathering will focus on the continuing crisis in Gaza, the nightmare unfolding in Sudan, and the threat to immigrants and challenges to our democratic freedoms here in the United States.
I’m still writing my weekly column (which I’ve been writing since 1992!). And every Wednesday at 2:00 (Eastern) I have a Zoom session with readers of the column to discuss the issues it raises. If you haven’t already joined the Wednesday “Coffee and Column with Jim,” please consider being with us each week. Community has never been more important, and this is one way you can regularly and easily connect and converse with community in 2026.
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I hope to see you there and thank you for being such a strong part of our work together.
The bottom line: I'm not going anywhere, and neither are the challenges we’re facing. Please stay with us as we continue our work together.
With gratitude,
Jim
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Arab American Institute Foundation
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Washington, DC 20006
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