American Jewish Committee Records, Subject Files

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) was founded in New York in 1906 to defend Jewish civil and religious rights throughout the world. Among the original founders of the AJC were Louis Marshall, Judge Mayer Sulzberger, Jacob Schiff , and Cyrus Adler. At the outset, the AJC consisted of a select group who interceded on behalf of Jews privately and behind-the-scenes, in the traditional style of personal diplomacy. Early AJC efforts included lobbying for a liberal American immigration policy and against the literacy test requirement for immigrants. It campaigned against violations of rights of Jews in Tsarist Russia and worked to secure minority rights for Jews in post-WWI Europe.

In the 1930s the AJC began to widen its membership, and by the 1940s its structure and approach had undergone a fundamental change. The private diplomacy policies gave way to more broad and outspoken public relations and educational programs, including anti-German boycott campaigns and scholarly studies, surveys, and publications on anti-Semitism, Nazi influences in the US, civil and religious rights, and inter-religious and intercultural relations.

During the rise of Nazism and Fascism and the years of World War Two, the AJC intervened before the US and other Allied governments on behalf of the persecuted Jews of Europe. It campaigned against domestic indifference and pro-Nazi sympathies, and encouraged neutral states‘ representatives to allow Jewish immigration and to create safe heavens for Jewish refugees.

After the war, the Committee continued its lobbying activities, public relations and educational programs, monitoring anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry, and promoting intergroup cooperation, cultural diversity, and intercultural education. The AJC supported legislation addressing racial and religious discrimination in employment, education, and housing. The Committee campaigned on behalf of Soviet Jews, as well as for Jewish groups in Syria, Iran and Ethiopia. The AJC also drew attention to the plight of persecuted ethnic and religious groups throughout the world.

The AJC founded the monthly magazine Commentary in 1945 and has co-sponsored the annual publication of the American Jewish Year Book since 1908.

The AJC national headquarters are in New York and it has regional offices throughout the United States, an Israeli office in Jerusalem, and a number of other international offices.