After more than 90 years of faithful service to the global Jewish community, the American Jewish Congress is on life support. It’s an unfortunate development, but understandable in a world so different from that in which the AJCongress was born.
The decline of the organization accelerated after its $24 million endowment largely melted away as a result of the Bernie Madoff investment scandal. But with no executive director since 2008 and an ill-defined position of late, a new, vastly reduced role would likely have come anyway.
In 1922, major Jewish leaders such as Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis came together to co-found the AJCongress. Many veterans of the organization thought of it as a great debate society, and it focused on issues such as civil rights, religious freedom, free speech and women’s rights.
Its mission: the betterment of the lot of American Jews, largely through advocacy and legal activism.
Some of the problems that beset the Jewish community in the first half of the 20th century, such as discrimination and anti-Semitism, have largely disappeared from American life. The organization shifted its emphasis to church-state and Israel-related issues, but still struggled to compete with other, better-equipped Jewish institutions.
Headquartered in New York, the AJCongress had a longtime presence in our own backyard, with a regional office in San Francisco. The team here accomplished much, notably in civil rights, school desegregation and First Amendment rights arenas. That office closed in 2001.
Hit hard by the recession and the Madoff losses, the AJCongress reportedly had sought a merger with a more stable organization like the American Jewish Committee or the Anti-Defamation League. So far it has all come to naught.
For AJCongress supporters and laid-off staffers, this is an awful turn of events, and our heart goes out to them. But in a larger context, a barely breathing AJCongress should be viewed as a natural consequence of an evolving Jewish community.
Over its proud history, that community has consistently coalesced to form organizations that are right for their time. Some, such as the ADL and B’nai B’rith, endure. For others, such as United Jewish Appeal and now perhaps the AJCongress, the natural life span runs its course.
The important thing is not the perpetual existence of any single institution, but rather the endurance of that vibrant community, ever responsive to a changing environment.
We salute the American Jewish Congress for so much good work over so many years. It may someday get back on its feet. But meanwhile, we look forward to that work continuing, now in the capable hands of others.