Board of Governors - 04.23.2001

 

 

NCSJ Board of Governors Meeting

Linda Spillers/CNP

(l.-r.) NCSJ Executive Director Mark B. Levin, Chairman Harold Paul Luks, former Chairs Shoshana Cardin and Denis C. Braham, former President Howard E. Sachs, President Robert J. Meth

The NCSJ Board of Governors met April 23 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.  At the session, NCSJ honored Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) with the Torch of Liberty Award and paid tribute to former NCSJ Chairman Denis C. Braham.  Seth Winnick, Director of Russian Affairs at the Department of State, provided an off-the-record briefing.  Michael Lewan, Chairman of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, with which NCSJ has worked closely, also addressed the meeting. 

Among those participating were the top professionals of NCSJ member agencies, including Daniel S. Mariaschin of B’nai B’rith, Hannah Rosenthal of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and Gail Rubinson of Jewish Women International.

NCSJ Chairman Harold Paul Luks reported on developments in the successor states of the former Soviet Union, including the situation of Russian Jewish leader and media entrepreneur Vladimir Goussinsky, whose legal fight against a Russian warrant had just finished successfully in Spain. He also reviewed increased Russian government interference in communal affairs, the first war-crimes conviction in the former Soviet Union, Passover celebrations across the successor states, and NCSJ’s outreach to the new U.S. administration.

Dr. Robert J. Meth, NCSJ President, described NCSJ’s community work over the past few months, including a State Department-funded leadership training project to combat domestic violence in Russia, the second advocacy seminar in Moscow with students from the Texas and Moscow Hillels, and a review of NCSJ’s outreach to member agencies, communities, media, and governments.

Torch of Liberty Award
April 23, 2001                

Ron Sachs /CNP

NCSJ Executive Director Mark B. Levin (right) presenting Torch of Liberty Award to Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-OR)

Executive Director Mark Levin presented the NCSJ Torch of Liberty Award to Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR), who he called “a great friend not only of the organization but more importantly, of the movement” and one of “few in Washington over the last few years who have worked so energetically, so consistently, and so creatively on behalf of religious freedom at home and abroad.” The Award is presented “in recognition of visionary leadership in foreign affairs and principled promotion of human rights and religious freedom.”

Sen. Smith responded with remarks on the state of civil liberties in Russia, commenting that “Mr Putin’s Russia is a mixed bag at best.”  He explained that anti-Semitism is “so important a barometer of the human condition. . .[because] if they treat [Jews] badly, then someone else is next, but it starts with the Jewish people, and it has, I suppose, ever since the time of Abraham. . . .”

Braham Tribute  
April 23, 2001 

Ron Sachs /CNP

Former NCSJ President Howard E. Sachs (right) presenting tribute to former NCSJ Chairman Denis C. Braham

Former NCSJ President Howard E. Sachs presented an Agam Torah to former NCSJ Chairman Denis C. Braham for his service to the movement.  “Denis has never lost sight of what it means to be an advocate for our issues, of the effect that they have on the lives of people,” Sachs said in presenting the award.  “I learned that he can always be counted on both in mind in body…to come up with the right answer to complicated questions and always put our cause above his personal and professional life.”     

Denis Braham accepted the Torah with thanks: “It has always been a privilege for me, not just in the role of being Chairman, but just being a member of this organization to help do the work that all of us in this room have done, and many others who have come before us who are not in this room...the goal has never changed, in all the years of the history of this movement.  The goal has been to help those who need our help and those who still need our help.  While immigration continues, the challenge is no less there today than it was 20 years ago – the circumstances are different.”

Briefings  
April 23, 2001

Ron Sachs /CNP

(l.-r.) Seth Winnick, Director of Russian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, with NCSJ Chairman Harold Paul Luks

Seth Winnick, Director of Russian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, presented an off-the-record briefing on U.S.-Russian relations and the issues facing the administration of President George W. Bush, as well as the U.S. perspective on Russian politics and civil rights.

Michael Lewan described the work of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad and the source of his own interest in this work.  “We care about those buildings, monuments and memorials, those sacred places that were so very important to Jews and non-Jews alike,” Lewan said.  “The Nazis knew and their Communists successors followed that example:  They understood that if you that if you extinguish faith then hope vanishes too.” 

The Commission was established by act of Congress “to encourage the preservation and protection of the cemeteries, monuments, and historic buildings associated with the foreign heritage of United States citizens.”  The Commission has arranged bilateral cultural agreements with several countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, and Ukraine. 

Robert Meth noted, “It is in this context that Michael, his fellow commissioners and the Commission staff have played a critical role in NCSJ’s efforts to address issues of preservation and restoration, as well as the restitution of communal property.  Beyond the results of the Commission’s work in general, our direct interactions with Michael and his colleagues have significantly advanced our work on a whole range of issues.”

Ron Sachs /CNP

(l.-r.) NCSJ President Robert J. Meth with Michael Lewan, Chairman of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad