The American Jewish Committee (AJC) Global Forum will convene June 10-13 at the ICC Jerusalem. The four-day conference is the signature annual event of AJC, the premier Jewish global advocacy organization.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver the keynote address at the opening plenary session. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will host AJC's Board of Governors. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whose country holds the current EU presidency, and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (via video) will be speaking at other plenary sessions.
AJC has also been a longstanding pioneer in interreligious relations, most recently in advancing Muslim-Jewish relations. In that spirit, the leader of the world's largest Muslim organization, Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Supreme Council in Indonesia, will address the AJC Global Forum, kicking-off his first visit to Israel.
More than 2,100 participants, including hundreds of young Jews, from across the United States and many other countries are expected to attend. It will be the first time in AJC's 112-year history that the conference convenes outside the United States. It also will be the largest ever for an American Jewish advocacy organization in Jerusalem.
Holding the AJC Global Forum in Israel's capital affords opportunities to hear from Israeli leaders across the political spectrum, including MK Tzipi Livni, co-leader of the Zionist Union and head of the Hatnua party; MK Avi Gabbay, head of the Zionist Union; and Naftali Bennett, Israel's Minister of Education and Minister of Diaspora Affairs, and chairman of the Jewish Home party.
The Iranian threat and future of the nuclear deal will be discussed by Emily Landau, Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Arms Control and Regional Security program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS); Meir Javedanfar, Lecturer, Author, and Commentator on Iranian Politics at the IDC; Matthew Levitt, Fromer-Wexler Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Daniel Shapiro, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the INSS.
Throughout the AJC Global Forum, nine individuals, representative of Israel's history, achievements, and diverse population, will share, in TED-talk style, their personal stories.
Photo credit: Snir Kazir
