American Jewish Committee

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Dear AJC Friend, Shabbat Shalom. Welcome to the latest edition of AJC Dispatch, bringing you everything you need to know about Israel and the Jewish world from the past week.

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This week, Holocaust history came under assault as opponents to vaccine passports compared them to the Nazis’ persecution of Jews and Poland was falsely maligned for the German Nazis’ murder of three million Polish Jews. But American Jewish Committee (AJC) also celebrated a historic step toward peace as Bahrain opened its diplomatic mission in Israel.

People of the Pod

AJC’s weekly podcast analyzing global affairs through a Jewish lens

Rabbi Heschel's Enduring Legacy on Confronting Injustice; The Late Hank Greenberg on Antisemitism in Baseball

Martin Doblmeier, the filmmaker behind Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham Joshua Heschel Story, discusses the legendary rabbi’s profound impact on the civil rights movement and the relationship between Jews and the Roman Catholic Church. Then, in honor of baseball’s Opening Day, we open AJC's Oral History Library to hear Hank “The Hebrew Hammer” Greenberg recount the antisemitism he faced as a Jewish player in the 1930s and 1940s. LISTEN NOW

JTA | 3-minute read

Some American politicians and activists are making the gross analogy that a proposed vaccine passport is similar to the Nazis’ persecution of Europe’s Jews. READ MORE

AJC responds: “Disagreeing with policies is acceptable. Using offensive Holocaust imagery to push a political agenda is not. There's no comparison between COVID-19 vaccination passports and the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. Period.” (Share on Twitter)

Antisemitic Tropes Have been Proliferating. Can You Spot Them?

Chicago Tribune | 5-minute read

In this column for the Chicago Tribune, AJC’s Manya Brachear Pashman urges everyone to read AJC’s Translate Hate, a glossary of antisemitic terms and modern-day examples. “Antisemitism mutates,” she wrote, “making it next to impossible for lexicographers to keep up and for governments to recognize its many variants.” READ MORE

More News

Auschwitz Museum Says Damage Done by The New Yorker Article

The Washington Post | 4-minute read

The New Yorker amended the specious subtitle of an article examining Holocaust scholarship in Poland this week after AJC CEO David Harris said it created a false impression about the Polish role in the Holocaust. “There are other serious issues with the article in the same vein,” he said, “but this change is a step in the right direction.” READ MORE

AJC CEO David Harris tweeted: “Why The New Yorker chose to publish an incendiary, one-sided assault on Poland implying it, not Germany, was primarily responsible for murder of 3 million Jews - is beyond me.” (Share on Twitter)

AJC analysis: When a Polish judge in February ordered two historians to apologize for an inaccurate paragraph in a book about the Holocaust, AJC explained the case, Poland’s Holocaust Responsibility Law, and Polish-Jewish relations. (View on AJC Global Voice)

Religious Foundations of Arab-Israel Peace

Religion News Service | 4-minute read

As Bahrain opens its new diplomatic mission in Israel, AJC’s Director of International Interreligious Affairs Rabbi David Rosen explains in this moving column for Religion News Service how spiritual bonds fueled the new era of diplomacy for Israel and Arab nations. “Creating a positive climate through interreligious engagement and cooperation is critical,” he writes. READ MORE

AJC congratulates: “History in the making! King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has issued a royal decree establishing the Bahraini diplomatic mission to Israel. We look forward to working with Ambassador Khalid Aljalahma. May the relationship between Bahrain and Israel continue to flourish.” (Share on Twitter)

What did you miss this week?

Advocacy Anywhere is AJC’s online platform bringing you top-quality content during the pandemic. View the Advocacy Anywhere page for information on past and future programs:

Israelis Return to The Polls
Will Israelis go back to the polls for a fifth time? Prominent Israeli experts shared their analysis of what’s next for the Jewish State. Watch

AJC’s Shabbat Table

This week, in AJC’s Shabbat Table, we consider how the bravery that led Nachshon ben Aminadav to wade into the Red Sea, bringing about God's parting of the waters, can inspire today’s activists. We also remember the Jewish American patriot Haym Salomon who helped finance the American revolution against England. READ MORE

Tidings

Baseball’s All Star of David Line Up (The Forward)
Philip Roth’s Complaint (Tablet Magazine)
Heap of Haggadahs (JTA)

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