Jewish Labor Committee

Israeli President Shimon Peres, center, at Congressional Gold Medal ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite, AP, in the Citizen-Times)

June 26, 2014: Washington, DC -- Israeli President Shimon Peres received the Congressional Gold Medal today in an audience, which included Jewish Labor Committee Acting Executive Director Rita Freedman, filling the Capitol Rotunda.

After a career in public service that began before the State of Israel was founded, the 90-year old will be leaving the presidency in a matter of a few weeks. But he does not intend to give up his quest for peace. The speakers lauding him were Vice President Joe Biden, Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, Congressman Joseph Kennedy III and Senator Kelly Ayotte.

Speaker after speaker recounted how Peres went from being a soldier to a peacemaker, a politician to a statesman, who helped ensure Israel's security and was as indefatigable in his quest for peace, who held almost every official position in Israel, and who worked for justice not only in his home country but throughout the world.

Peres thanked President Obama for standing with Israel, and to the U.S Congress for its unwavering and generous support of Israel. He talked about the challenges we face together: the fight against terrorism and the fight for peace. Security and prosperity are no longer national issues, they are global and must be worked for globally, he explained. And so, together, we must work against terrorism and poverty, fight not only the acts of terror, but also the roots of terror. Religions can play a meaningful role in combating terrorism and restoring hope, and ensuring that terrorism does not high jack faith, he noted.

In the Middle East, he acknowledged, "it is easy to sink into despair," but, he said, he has seen too much in his lifetime and the lifetime of Israel to lose hope. His dream is that the Middle East become a start-up region, just as Israel has become a start-up nation. But to do this, these countries must open up, because without openness and free thinking, there is no new thinking. Two-thirds of the people in the Middle East are under the age of 25, and in this, Peres sees a source of hope, for these young people want free and open expression. The U.S. and Israel have a unique opportunity to offer our values and our dreams and together, put the region on a better course.

Peres said that we must prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapons capability, and that Iran should be judged by its actions, not its words. On behalf of the parents of the three Israeli boys who have been kidnapped, he asked that we all engage in the effort to return them to their families. And he expressed his belief that there is no better solution than a two-state solution: a Jewish state, Israel and an Arab state, Palestine. Peres reiterated his position that Palestinian Authority President Abbas is clearly a partner for peace, a view he said not everyone agreed with, but more are coming to that view. Abbas spoke bravely in Saudi Arabia and in Arabic against the kidnapping of the three youths and against terrorism, but Hamas, Peres said, is clearly not a partner for peace since it supports terror.

Peres ended by saying that he has lived long enough to see the impossible become possible, and that peace is the most possible impossibility, and offered one piece of advice to the United States: "Don't dream small. You are great. So dream big. And work to will those dreams into a new reality for you and all humanity."

Posted by Arieh Lebowitz at 04:45 PM | Permalink

(l-r) Rev. Al Sharpton, President of the National Action Network; Lee Saunders, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and JLC President Stuart Appelbaum at the JLC's awards dinner in New York, June 19th. (Miller Photography)

By Miriam Moster (JTA) Friday, June 20, 2014 -- Al Sharpton hasn't always had the best relationship with the Jewish community.

But on Thursday night, he had a place of honor at the Jewish Labor Committee's annual Human Rights Awards Dinner in New York.

Sharpton addressed the gathering to present the group's Human Rights Award to Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

And Sharpton was in a bridge-building (perhaps even contrite?) mood.

"We that have done things that has led to the division of blacks and Jews have to work vigorously to heal the wounds that we've had in this city and correct the behavior that has divided us, and we say whatever we've done, we've got to do better," Sharpton said.

Back in the 1990s, Sharpton was accused by critics of incitement during the Crown Heights riots and in protests targeting a Jewish-owned store in Harlem that boiled over into a deadly arson and shooting attack. But in recent years, he has achieved a degree of mainstream respectability, mending relations with old adversaries like the late New York mayor Ed Koch, cultivating ties with President Obama and landing a hosting gig on MSNBC.

Stuart Appelbaum, the JLC's president, told JTA that the group decided to invite Sharpton as part of its effort to rebuild the alliance between blacks and Jews.

"[We invited] Reverend Sharpton to speak to a Jewish organization to reestablish the relationship that motivated us for so many decades," said Appelbaum, who is also the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

Appelbaum, in his own address to the gathering, noted that it was the 50th anniversary of Mississippi Freedom Summer, when blacks and Jews worked together to fight for black voting rights. He specifically noted the infamous June 1964 murders in Mississippi of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner -- one black and two Jewish civil rights workers.

Sharpton, speaking immediately after Appelbaum, also noted the close cooperation in the civil rights era. "We must tell black children that Jews died for us and blacks died for Jews," he said.

The dinner marked the 80th anniversary of the JLC, which acts as a bridge between the Jewish community and the labor movement.

Along with Saunders, the evening's other honoree was George Miranda, international vice president at-large of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The other high-profile speaker was Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who has been widely discussed as a possible Democratic presidential candidate.

But perhaps the most famous face in the crowd was former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who did not have any particular place of honor.

Posted by Arieh Lebowitz at 09:19 PM | Permalink