he American Jewish Committee (AJC) is one of the largest advocacy groups in the world. The organization constantly fights for Jewish rights across the globe, whether it’s stopping the spread of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, or fighting for human rights.
On Long Island, the AJC is spreading their message by working with local synagogues, interfaith networks and universities, fighting bigotry and spreading messages of peace. As Eric Post, AJC’s new Long Island regional director, settles into his role, he is prepared to expand the organization’s presence.
How excited are you about this new opportunity?
I grew up in West Hempstead, spent my whole adolescence there and I was very involved in the United Synagogue Youth (USY) movement. I met a lot of the rabbis and professionals I met then 20 years later. I always wanted to return to Long Island. I’ve been with AJC for four years. I interned in the Long Island office of AJC in 2002, and I’ve been engaged for almost 20 years.
How do you plan to work with the universities on Long Island to fight anti-Semitism and also provide Jewish organizations new resources?
As far as pro-Israel organizations go, the campus is a crowded marketplace. AJC doesn’t want to duplicate or compete with other organizations, but we want to add what we can. We bring university presidents and chancellors to Israel. Now, we’re bringing diversity officers, so when a student’s grade is docked or they’re not getting recommendations because they went to a study abroad program in Israel, the first person they contact is the head of diversity. The goal is not to brainwash them or make them pro-Israel advocates.
The goal is to explain to them the complexity of the situation, to explain to them what the Jewish community and Arab community is going through. Now that they’re coming back, they can see why statements are offensive.
We do a lot of coalition building on campus, working with the Latino community, the Muslim community and the Asian American community. We’re very interested in building bridges to fight hate. Anti-Semitism is not just a Jewish problem. What we say is Jews are usually the canaries in the coal mine. When you put the canary down and it doesn’t come up, anti-Semitism is usually the tip of the iceberg. Coalition building around anti-Semitism and hate is very important. We develop relationships with Hillel and Chabad on campuses.
Very specifically, we need help teaching our students how to be advocates. How do we advocate for student groups that want to become advocates with their elected officials?
How difficult is it for you to be the point person to get all of these people to come together?
We’re very fortunate on Long Island to have a strong board. We have about 15 people who have been engaged with AJC. These people jump at opportunities to meet with diplomats and elected officials to build interfaith bridges. We have another layer of people who aren’t on the board, but they’re contributing to AJC and are engaged in our work. When people on Long Island join us in meetings, it’s great. We’re always looking to build new support. We’re doing a lot of events at different synagogues and bringing in AJC experts from around the world.
How does AJC attempt to spread the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
We seek out the leaders from different communities. We’re a leader-to-leader organization. How do we meet with people at the highest levels to disseminate this information? We empower our board members, elected officials and leaders. We have a Translate Hate guide to educate people about anti-Semitism. I think that’s the first step to educate elected officials. Thankfully, on Long Island, we don’t have issues with BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] on campus. You can see the connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism when people call Israel a group of Nazis. It’s a hop, skip and jump from saying Israel doesn’t exist to anti-Semitism. We in the Jewish community get to decide what anti-Semitism is and no one can tell us what constitutes anti-Semitism. When you say Israel doesn’t have the right to be a state, it’s anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
