The American Jewish Committee And Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Establish International Link

American Jewish Committee
Tuesday, 8 December 1998

The American Jewish Committee and Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) have established a cooperative association to advance the interests of Argentine and American Jewish communities, as well as the Jewish people generally. Both organizations will retain full autonomy and independence, while collaborating on critical Jewish communal and international policy issues.

Established in 1894, AMIA is a major national institution offering a wide range of communal services, social assistance and educational programs to Argentina's Jewish community, the largest in Latin America. In 1994, the AMIA headquarters building in Buenos Aires was bombed, leaving 86 people dead and another 300 wounded. The unsolved bombing of the AMIA was the deadliest terrorist event in Argentina's history, and resulted in the largest Jewish death toll from terrorism outside Israel since World War II.

Both AJC and AMIA seek to strengthen Jewish communal life; advocate for Jewish concerns in the Western Hemisphere; enhance Israel's security, peace and diplomatic normalization; combat anti-Semitic and other hate groups in their respective societies and strengthen the forces of democratic pluralism; promote education and memory of the Holocaust; counter the influence of Islamic extremism and other movements inimical to the security and welfare of the Jewish people; and encourage greater dialogue and understanding within the Diaspora and between Israelis and Jews in other lands.

AJC and AMIA both strongly believe that these complex issues can be adequately addressed only through a carefully honed strategy based on research and analysis, balance between private diplomacy and public advocacy, and international cooperation among Jewish institutions and communities.

The collaboration between AJC and AMIA will include, but will not be limited to, joint sponsorship of research and publications, conferences, exchange programs, and a link up of respective Web sites.

AJC has a long history of involvement with Argentina and with AMIA. For more than three decades AJC maintained an office in Buenos Aires. After the Buenos Aires office closed in 1977 following right-wing death threats against the AJC director, Jacob Kovadloff, AJC continued to work cooperatively with AMIA on joint activities and publications from its New York headquarters.

Since 1994, the AJC has issued an annual report on the state of the investigations of the unsolved 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 destruction of the AMIA headquarters. Moreover, as a result of generous support from members, AJC was able to make a significant financial contribution to the AMIA's rebuilding efforts after the terrorist attack.

Commenting on the new link between AJC and AMIA, AJC Executive Director David A. Harris said: "We are delighted to have formed an association with AMIA, which will enable us to work even more closely with one of the most important Jewish communities in the world. We are two organizations with substantial congruity between our missions and programmatic approaches," he said, "and we look forward with great anticipation to our collaborative efforts and the contributions they will make to the well-being of our respective constituencies and of world Jewry. "

This is the fourth international agreement of association AJC has forged in recent years, reflecting the agency's growing international presence. In 1994, AJC formed a link with the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, in 1997 with the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Committee (AIJAC), and earlier this year with the Mexico-based Tribuna Israelita.

In addition, AJC maintains offices in Berlin, Jerusalem and Warsaw, and sponsors the Asia and Pacific Rim Institute, based in Washington, DC.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org