NCSJ Board Elects Richard Stone, Chairman; Alexander Smukler, President

---

Board of Governors Meeting - 12.10.2008

(l.-r) outgoing President Lesley Israel, Chairman Richard Stone, former Chairman Dr. Robert J. Meth, President Alexander Smukler, and outgoing Chairman Ed Robin. Robin and Israel received NCSJ's Agam Torah Award.		Presenting the meeting's keynote speech, Amb. Stephen Sestanovich, Senior Fellow Eurasian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, discussed Russia's role in global affairs and U.S.-Russia bilateral relations.

Speakers also included Dr. Murray Feshbach Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

---

All photos this page by Ron Sachs/CNP.

---

Press Release - 12.12.2008

NCSJ MEETING ELECTS NEW LEADERS

Contact: Mark Levin (202-898-2500)

Washington, D.C.---Richard Stone, of New York City was elected NCSJ Chairman, and Alexander Smukler of Montclair, New Jersey was elected NCSJ President when the NCSJ Board of Governors met in Washington on December 10, 2008.

Richard Stone is the Wilbur H. Friedman Professor of Tax Law at Columbia Law School, and is active in venture capital investing. He first became active in the Soviet Jewry movement in 1971, as co-founder of an organization lobbying on behalf of Soviet Jewry, including the 1975 Jackson-Vanik amendment. In 1973, he visited emigration visa applicants and refuseniks in Siberia and Moscow. He is currently a vice-president of the New York Jewish Community Relations Council and a member of many Jewish organizational boards. His previous leadership experience includes 10 years as Chairman of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregation’s Institute on Public Affairs, and several years as a City University of New York Board Member.

Alexander Smukler is Chairman of the Board of Century 21: Russia, Kazakhstan & the Ukraine. He is President and Founder of the American Foundation for Orphans Abroad, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Jewish Congress. Before emigrating from Russia in 1991, he served as member of the board of the VAAD (Confederation of Jewish Organizations and Communities of the USSR), and Executive Director of both B’nai B'rith of USSR and the Jewish Information Center of Moscow. A former refusenik, and a long-time supporter of NCSJ, he has been an NCSJ Vice-President since 2004.

In his address to the Board, Stone called NCSJ’s mission “vitally important…our most urgent mission is to persuade the world that the hundreds of thousands of Jews left in the former Soviet Union still drastically need our help, and may need it in the future more than we currently think...the tremendous amount of progress we have made could dissipate quickly, especially in this horrendously difficult financial environment. The challenge will be enormous and added to all of our [ongoing] duties of advocacy.”

Smukler said, “I am honored to help lead NCSJ. It is very important for me to take this position as President, in order to continue to support our efforts on behalf of Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union and to continue the struggle to combat hatred against Jews.”

Reflecting on the past two years, outgoing Chairman Ed Robin said “It has been my privilege and pleasure to serve with [outgoing President] Lesley Israel.” Congratulating the incoming Chairman and President, Robin said, “there is tremendous work to be done and I really couldn’t be more pleased to be succeeded by my friend Richard Stone, with the great support he will receive from Sasha Smukler.”

NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia is the mandated central coordinating agency of the organized Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union.

###

---

Strategic Assessment - 12.09.2008

A Look Ahead

These are troubling times. Fragile democratic and philanthropic organizations are under threat throughout Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic and Eurasian republics. The immediate future only promises more dismal economic news as commodity prices sink lower and manufacturing contracts further. Moreover, diplomatic relationships among the countries of the region and between the United States and Russia are uneasy and still reverberating from the consequences of the Russia-Georgia war. In recognition of these troubled times, NCSJ organized a formal strategic assessment meeting on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008, immediately preceding our Board of Governors biannual meeting.

The assessment brought a group of Board members together with Russia experts, community leaders and national agency representatives to examine the current environment and to suggest a future focus and actions.

The first part of the session was an overview of dominant and emerging issues. Ambassador Stephen Pifer, a senior advisor with the Brookings Institute, presented an analysis of Russian foreign policy goals and U.S. responses. He suggested that understanding the disassociation between Russia's self-image as the guardian of the Region and the reality of multiple self-governing and self-interested republics that populate the Region was necessary for developing effective future policy.

A panel followed Pifer that included NCSJ Executive Director Mark Levin, and Hebert Block and Amos Lev-Ran from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. They addressed an array of issues affecting the Jewish communities of the Region's 15 countries. Throughout the Region, they concluded, democracy has been seriously eroded or threatened, and the economic gains made during the preceding decade have been almost erased by the global economic crisis. The close of Jewish schools and community centers, the increased need for charity, food assistance, and care for the elderly gave a Jewish face to dismal national statistics.

A lunchtime address by Tad Stahnke, Director of Policy and Programs for Human Rights First, focused on the relationship between economic distress and the increasing visibility of "skinheads" in the Region. He emphasized that the targets of hate crimes tended to be the most visibly different members of the population, mostly immigrants. At this time there is no state supported anti-Semitism and NCSJ and its member agencies have been effective voices in calling the states to account for anti-Semitic incidents. However, he also cautioned that further deteriorating economic and political environments are encouraging the growth of extreme nationalism, especially in Russia, which could awaken vitriolic anti-Semitism.

Following the presentations the participants divided into working groups to address three questions: the major challenges facing the countries of the Region; the best means to address the challenges; and ways to strengthen relationships between countries in the Region and Israel. The groups responded to the information presented by the experts, and added their own knowledge and sense of future needs. They concluded:

1. The Region lacks a strong cadre of effective leaders. NCSJ could and should provide an important stimulus for leadership development, especially inter-generational leadership that would strengthen Jewish communities throughout the Region in the face of potential dangers.
   

2. Jewish communities could face greater hostility if circumstances continue to deteriorate and NCSJ needs to remain alert and prepared to act in the face of increased evidence of anti-Semitism.
   

3. The new U.S. administration offers an opportunity to improve U.S.-Russian diplomatic relations and NCSJ has a responsibility to coordinate action among its member agencies and the new Congress and administration in pursuit of this end.
   

4. The economic decline is straining already-depleted philanthropic resources but the needs of the Region are so acute that the U.S. Jewish philanthropic community must redouble its efforts on behalf of the countries in the Region. NCSJ has a special responsibility to insure that charitable efforts are balanced with ongoing efforts for maintaining Jewish security and religious identity.
   

5. NCSJ's mission, which becomes more critical in hard times and which also faces new opportunities with the change in U.S. administration, holds a unique responsibility and is well situated to communicate the situation in the Region to the U.S. Jewish community.

Additional specific suggestions from the groups included the need for greater outreach by NCSJ about its critical mission in the Region among U.S. agencies and members, and a greater stress on the diversity among states and populations in the Region.

A presentation the next day by Dr. Murray Feshbach, about the demographic calamity facing Russia, provided a context and historical background for the strategic assessment's conclusions. Dr. Feshbach's remarks included statistics on mortality rates among adult men, which exceed those in the developing world. Alcoholism and violence, which are decimating the male population, are also resulting in family and social dislocations that feed the growth of gangs and skinhead culture.

In a Region beset by historical anti-Semitism, these critical contemporary demographic and social issues mix with politics and economics to form a uniquely challenging environment. It is an environment in which NCSJ has a role. It is the "go to" organization for 50 member agencies and Jewish communities throughout the Region. NCSJ provides information, access and action to protect and promote positive change that benefits the Region's Jewish communities and contributes to a future society that incorporates human rights, freedom, diversity and religious identity.

---

All photos this page by Ron Sachs/CNP.

---

See highlights from past Board of Governors Meetings:

 

June 2008
December 2007 June 2007 December 2006 June 2006 September 2005 December 2004	June 2004 October 2003 May 2003 December 2002 October 2001 April 2001