American Jewish Committee Houston regional director Rachel Schneider leads the office\u2019s efforts in combating antisemitism. Among AJC\u2019s most important methods have been interfaith and intergroup work.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnity is our strongest defense against hate,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cAntisemitism is just the tip of the iceberg. It\u2019s such an old, old hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Examples of AJC Houston\u2019s community bridge-building efforts include interfaith Seders, a Latino Chanukah celebration and, recently, dinner with a Hindu organization.<\/p>\n
AJC Houston is one of the organization\u2019s smallest chapters, but Schneider has a vision for its growth, especially with Houston attorney Bobby Lapin having recently been elected to a three-year term as AJC\u2019s national president.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder Bobby\u2019s leadership, we can really grow our Houston office,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cBobby is a pillar of the Jewish community. Everybody knows him, everybody loves him, everybody respects him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lapin is working both locally, nationally and internationally on combating antisemitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cAJC, like other Jewish organizations, considers the fight against antisemitism to be one of our absolute primary areas of focus,\u201d Lapin said. \u201cAntisemitism has reared its head in a way that many of us never really anticipated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need vigilance, attention and everyone to lean in to do everything we can to combat it. We have to ensure that our community partners stand toe to toe against antisemitism. Right now, our community is feeling particularly vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lapin, a former member of AJC\u2019s national board of governors, is grateful for the leadership of AJC executive director Ted Deutch, who served as a U.S. congressman from Florida, from 2010 through 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so fortunate to hire Ted Deutch to be our national CEO in October 2022,\u201d Lapin said. \u201cTed had spent a career in Congress, fighting antisemitism and combating anti-Israel initiatives. He was known as someone who could work across the aisle.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause AJC is fiercely nonpartisan, Ted has been such an outstanding and effective advocate for us, because he\u2019s respected throughout government and the diplomatic corridor for someone who can be a trusted partner to ensure the Jewish community can be safe and secure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AJC Houston office also is relatively unique, noted Schneider, because Houston is home to a large consular corps, second nationally only to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are talking with diplomats about global antisemitism trends in their countries and working with them to create real action plans in their countries,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cWe have championed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which the state of Texas has adopted. We have to make sure we\u2019re speaking the same language when we\u2019re combatting antisemitism around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
AJC Houston works with local, state and national elected officials on combating antisemitism and the importance of Holocaust education. To emphasize the importance of Holocaust education, AJC Houston\u2019s leadership recently met with Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our priorities is strengthening Israel\u2019s place in the world,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cAt AJC, we cannot separate our Judaism from our Zionism. They\u2019re one and the same. We push for stronger laws to tackle hate crimes as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although AJC has a Campus Affairs division based in Ann Arbor, Mich., the AJC Houston office works with administrators from local universities and kindergarten through 12th-grade schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen one group is being called out persistently due to their ties to Israel, it is endangering students and their right to get an education at their school,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n
Schneider said AJC Houston has worked to inform educators about Israel through trips there, so they can get a complete picture of the Jewish state. Both Rice University\u2019s Dr. Reginald DesRoches and St. John\u2019s School\u2019s Daniel Alig have traveled with AJC to Israel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American Jewish Committee Houston regional director Rachel Schneider leads the office\u2019s efforts in combating antisemitism. Among AJC\u2019s most…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,60315,60316,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-90668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-interfaith","10":"tag-intergroup-work-is-key-to-ajc-houstons-fight-against-antisemitism","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114912437461693215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}