Americans for Peace Now

Dear Friend,

One of the first lessons imparted by the Haggadah, the telling of the story of Passover, is that the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years before they could reach the promised land. 
 
The other lesson imparted is that this legacy commands Jews the world over to tell this story, every year, as they gather around the seder table. For we are storytellers.
 
This year, Americans for Peace Now is marking 40 years of working towards securing a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike, and we are going to use this celebration as an opportunity to tell our story.
 
We hope you will join us by making a gift today to support the path to peace we have been paving for 40 years.
For four decades, APN has been bringing together Americans who are committed to the path to peace, with our Israeli partners who are on the ground, every day, fighting for an end to the conflict that has been battering the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
 
Over the coming week of celebration, we are bringing to you the stories of APN’s four chief executives – the directors and CEOs who have shepherded APN from its earliest days through today. 
 
 
Mark Rosenblum was our founding director. He shared these thoughts with us as we prepared this letter:
 
I began my term as the Founder and first Director of Americans for Peace Now with the mindset of hope without delusion. That hope was based, in part, on an electrifying event several months prior to the founding of Shalom Achshav in March 1978. I was visiting my family in Israel and attending a conference. With the help of Philip M. Klutznick—the distinguished community builder, diplomat, philanthropist, American Jewish leader, and father of our current Board Chair, Jim Klutznick—I was able to join the historic trek of President Anwar Sadat to Israel.
 
I had the honor of escorting Sadat as he walked somberly through Yad Vashem, standing by his side as he looked at the photographs of naked Jews being shoved into Nazi gas chambers. He stopped, lowered his head slightly, patted his face with a handkerchief, and rested his head on my shoulder as he shed tears. He apologized and said he was “spent” after his tour at Yad Vashem. He inscribed in a special guestbook: “May God guide our steps toward peace. Let us end all suffering for mankind.” President Sadat thanked me profusely for my time and gave me his personal contact information. I had the honor of being in touch with him a number of times before his tragic assassination on October 6, 1981.
 
The founding of Shalom Achshav several months later was a calculated attempt to help salvage the 1978 Camp David negotiations, which led to the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.
 
Today, Shalom Achshav continues to try to turn the gruesome into the awesome, and combines a sense of urgency with endurance in helping work toward a Palestinian state that lives in peace next to Israel. Wanting to extend that partnership across the ocean, I founded Americans for Peace Now 40 years ago to organize like-minded American Jews to fight for that peaceful future for our Israeli and Palestinian partners and continue the long path to peace for generations to come.
 
 
 
We are grateful to Mark for his initiative and vision in founding APN 40 years ago, and for all that he has done in his lifetime to further the cause of peace. We celebrate his story today, and look forward to a time in our future when we have won the fight for peace. 
 
All of us at APN send you hope, strength and safety as we sit together at our seder tables in the coming days and once again, tell the story of freedom and deliverance. 
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
Hadar Susskind
President and CEO
Americans for Peace Now
 
PS: As you celebrate Passover and the advent of spring and vaccinations, please consider supporting APN’s work to educate and advocate for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. We could not do this work without you.