The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts.
Like the American Jewish Congress, another institution prominent in American Jewish life is the American Jewish Committee. It often goes by the initials AJC. For ease of identification, the two organizations are often referred to as the AJCongress or the AJCommittee.
The Congress suspended its activities and laid off much of its staff on July 13, 2010. It had run out of operating funds due to losses in the Madoff scandal.
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Famous quotes containing the words american, jewish and/or congress:
“The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow—one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish or a German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making “ladies” dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
“I have been up to see the Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving.”
—Robert E. Lee (1807–1870)