Board of Governors Meeting - 10.27.2003

 

NCSJ Annual Board of Governors Meeting

Monday, October 27, 2003
10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Washington, D.C.

Honorees:		Featured Speaker:
The Honorable  Carlos Pascual	Representative  Steny Hoyer (D-MD)	Rabbi  Alexander Dukhovny
Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia and former Ambassador to Ukraine	House Minority Whip and former U.S. Helsinki Commissioner	Chief Progressive Rabbi of Kyiv and the Ukraine  Union of Progressive Jewish Congregations

 

 

Briefings on: 
Soviet Jewry Archival Project
Community Initiatives
Jewish Women International/NCSJ Partnership

 

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See highlights from past Board of Governors Meetings:

 

May 5, 2003
December 2002 October 2001 April 2001 December 2000	November 1999 June 1999 March 1999 October 1998

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NCSJ Annual Board of Governors Meeting 
Monday, October 27, 2003
Washington, D.C.

NCSJ’s 2003 Annual Board of Governors meeting, held October 27, honored two longstanding advocates of human rights and of the Soviet Jewry movement, and provided updates on activities to foster Jewish community and combat anti-Semitism in Europe and the former Soviet region. 

Dr. Robert J. Meth, NCSJ Chairman, and Joel M. Schindler, NCSJ President, opened the meeting with an overview of NCSJ activities since spring 2003, including leadership visits to Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia, and NCSJ’s participation in efforts to open a new track for combating anti-Semitism through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Speakers included Representative Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), House Minority Whip and former U.S. Helsinki Commissioner; the Honorable Carlos Pascual, Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia and former Ambassador to Ukraine; and Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny, Chief Progressive Rabbi of Kyiv and of the Ukraine Union of Progressive Jewish Congregations.

Tribute to Rep. Steny Hoyer
Shoshana S. Cardin, former Chair of NCSJ, presented the Torch of Liberty Award to Rep. Steny Hoyer for his years of work to support the free emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union and his strong advocacy on behalf of the State of Israel. Hoyer reflected that “those of us who are non-Jewish need to know, as Martin Luther King said, if there is one of us in prison, if there is one of us without our rights, if there is one of us at risk, then we are all at risk.” 

Having worked with NCSJ to prepare for Congressional human rights missions to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Hoyer thanked NCSJ Executive Director Mark Levin for “keeping the energy and the focus and excitement and the opportunity alive for literally thousands…indeed hundred of thousands, not just Jews.” 

Having recently returned from leading the largest-ever Congressional delegation to Israel, Hoyer reiterated his and his party’s strong commitment to defending the rights of Israel while maintaining dialogue with Palestinian leadership. In Gaza, former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas spoke with the delegation about the wall under construction in the West Bank. Abbas likened the wall to an “Iron Curtain,” and Hoyer countered: “Your analogy is inapt. It’s inapt because the Iron Curtain was constructed to keep prisoners of Soviet citizens, Russians, others. This fence is being built to protect citizens. This fence is being constructed to keep out those who want to come in to destroy.”

Agency Highlights
Jerry Goodman, Executive Director of the National Committee for Labor Israel, and NCSJ’s founding Executive Director, spoke about the creation of a new national Soviet Jewry Archives project. Lori Weinstein, Executive Director of Jewish Women International (JWI), reported on JWI’s partnership with NCSJ on the completed domestic violence program in Russia, and about the two Russian-English domestic resource manuals developed as a result. Ms. Weinstein and Lesley Weiss, NCSJ Director of Community Services and Cultural Affairs, later presented copies of the manuals to Ambassador Carlos Pascual. 

OSCE Update
Then-Ambassador-designate Edward O’Donnell, newly-appointed U.S. Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, spoke about the OSCE process to combat anti-Semitism in Europe, and Holocaust education programming in Europe. Mr. O’Donnell had joined Mark Levin in an October hearing on anti-Semitism before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe, and described “concrete steps” which the United States hopes will be formulated through the OSCE Conference on Anti-Semitism, scheduled for April 28-29, 2004, in Berlin. Among these are increasing European press attention to the issue and creating a tracking system for anti-Semitic crimes to be based in the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Warsaw.

Ambassador O’Donnell will chair a plenary of the 15-nation Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research in December 2003, in Washington. To illustrate the high impact of small U.S.-sponsored programs to promote Holocaust education in Europe, O’Donnell told of a letter he received from a Romanian schoolteacher who taught her students about the Holocaust. Her students, awed and horrified by what they learned, passed the information to their parents. One student’s parents even visited the school afterward to gather more information about Romania’s experience of the Holocaust.

Report from Ukraine
Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny, Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine of the Progressive Jewish Congregations, updated NCSJ on the growth of the Progressive movement in the former Soviet Union, and shared insights into the complexities of Ukraine’s Jewish community. The Progressive Movement sponsors 47 congregations throughout Ukraine.

Ambassador Carlos Pascual 
NCSJ immediate-past-Chairman Harold Paul Luks introduced a longtime friend and colleague of NCSJ, Carlos Pascual, and presented him with NCSJ’s Torch of Liberty Award: 

“Carlos has been present at the creation of some great events that will shape the history of the United States for years to come: the collapse of the Soviet Union, the reemergence of independent states, the creation of Ukraine, the emergence of new countries who have become members of the United Nations. In the midst of these great events, he found time to talk about the mass emigration to Israel and to other countries, to talk about the rebirth of Jewish life, to show the American flag at synagogues and places of Jewish interest, when I think – if some of us had been Ambassador – issues of great importance to the Jewish world may have been swept up and ignored, but Carlos didn’t forget. And for that, Carlos, we are very grateful.”

Ambassador Pascual spoke about his recent experience as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, where “Ukrainians have started to understand and believe that it is okay for them to have a vision of what they want in their lives...to start to promote change in their communities, and to help those communities provide a check and balance on the role of government.” Pascual was optimistic about religious freedom in Ukraine. He noted that the development of health centers, synagogues and community centers by the Jewish community sends the message that “the Jewish people are giving back to the community…causing the wider community to appreciate and accept the Jewish people in a way that we have not seen for decades.” However, he warned that continued difficulties with issues such as restitution, cemetery preservation and internal factionalism necessitate the continued involvement of the American Jewish community and of NCSJ.

Discussing U.S. programs to promote democracy and market viability in the region, Pascual noted that, although U.S. goals for reform are higher than they were in the early 1990s, budget shortfalls have forced the Administration to begin “phasing out” such programs for Russia and Ukraine. Pascual expressed his personal hope and that of the U.S. Government, that with the help of U.S. advocacy and the momentum of Ukrainian society, Ukraine could join Europe and enjoy strengthening democracy in its upcoming presidential election.