Jewish Labor Committee

The Jewish Labor Committee is pleased to announce that Sybil Sanchez has been named the organization's Executive Director. Ms. Sanchez succeeded the organization's Acting Director, Rosalind Spigel.
With a background in Jewish communal organizing, strategic advocacy, and international work, Sanchez was selected “in order to build on our organization's unique contribution to workers' rights and Jewish concerns and to help us move forward during this unique moment in American history,” said JLC President Stuart Appelbaum. “She will lead us through changing times as new Federal legislation, such as the Employee Free Choice Act, is advanced within the new Congress and Administration.”

“JLC is known for our advocacy in defense of workers’ rights locally, nationally and internationally and for bringing Jews and labor together in diverse ways, from organizing labor delegations to Israel, coordinating anti-boycott campaigns to convening labor seders to raise awareness of our shared interests,” Appelbaum said. “Ms. Sanchez will not only strengthen the Jewish - labor connection but also expand our capacity to utilize new ways of reaching out.”
“It is an honor to join the Jewish Labor Committee,” Sanchez added. “As we look to promote workers’ rights, so too do we seek to strengthen our connections with Israel and internationally around issues central to the Jewish community and the trade union movement. Many within the Jewish community care deeply about the state of working men and women and I look forward to working with them in my new capacity.”
Ms. Sanchez, the immediate past director of United Nations affairs of B'nai B'rith International and a graduate of the UJA-Federation of New York’s Muehlstein Institute for Jewish Professional Leadership, brings to the position a decade of human rights and Jewish communal experience. She holds a masters degree in international affairs from Columbia University and has previously worked for the United Nations and overseas in the Balkans. She speaks Hebrew, French, and Serbo-Croatian.

Posted by Arieh Lebowitz at 03:22 PM | Permalink

January 9, 2009: The Jewish Labor Committee deeply mourns the loss of innocent life and expresses its sorrow for the suffering in the escalation of violence in Gaza and Israel.

Hamas has sent thousands of rockets of different ranges over the border into Israel, including those that can strike Israeli cities as far as Ashdod. These attacks have been launched by Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and has over two years violated the de facto cessation of hostilities with Israel.

Israel has taken great lengths to avoid this sort of escalation, including an appeal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Arab television to stop the firing of rockets and mortar shells so that a military response could be avoided. No country can be expected to tolerate continuous and unrelenting attacks against its civilian population. With a terrorist group engaged in active warfare and an international community that failed to intervene, and with Hamas formally ending the cease fire that it regularly violated, Israel was left with no choice but to defend itself and dismantle Hamas's ability to launch more missiles.

Hamas's deliberate placement of its rocket launchers and operations facilities in and close to mosques, schools, and homes, even though Gaza is densely populated, endangered Palestinian civilians and tragically resulted in increased numbers of civilian casualties.

We are encouraged that Israel is continuing to supply humanitarian aid of food, water and medicine into Gaza, and to allow relief agencies to supply material to the suffering people of Gaza. These efforts must be expanded as much as possible under the circumstances.

The Jewish Labor Committee affirms its support for the working-men and women in Israel and Palestine and their labor unions who seek a peaceful life for themselves and their families. We note the Histadrut and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions for their cooperative programs across the Green Line and their work together toward peace. We support efforts of Palestinian and Israeli trade unionists to maintain contact in the midst of this crisis despite living under personal threat and witnessing the death and injury of their friends and family.

We urge increased engagement of trade unions with their counterparts on all sides of this conflict to improve the lives of working people in Israel and Gaza, build grassroots trust, and enhance the peace process.

After nearly eight years of disengagement, on the part of the current U.S. Administration, we urge the incoming Obama administration to actively engage in the peace process in order to help bring about a two-state solution and a lasting and just peace.

Posted by Arieh Lebowitz at 04:52 PM | Permalink