Mikhail Chlenov, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Secretary General, and Joseph Zissels the EAJC Chairman of the Board participated in the Moscow celebrations, dedicated to the 40 anniversary of establishment of NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia. NCSJ is a leading Jewish human rights organization in the United States. NCSJ is a strategic EAJC partner since the founding of the Congress.
Organization, called the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, was established in 1971 and actively advocated for the rights of Soviet Jews, including their right to repatriation and emigration. Today NCSJ is a large umbrella organization, comprising nearly 50 national organizations and over 300 local federations, community councils and committees. The NCSJ today mission is to safeguard the individual and communal political rights of Jews living in the former Soviet Union, to secure their religious and political freedoms, to oppose all forms of anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
The NCSJ delegation, headed by the Chairman, Richard Stone, President Alexander Shmukler and CEO Mark Levin visited Moscow and took part in the celebrayions. The delegation held working meetings with local businessmen and Jewish leaders. The EAJC management representatives participated in these meetings.
To commemorate the NCSJ 40 anniversary receptions were held in the residences of ambassadors of Israel and the United States in Moscow. Leaders of major Jewish communal bodies, veterans and activists of the Jewish movement, famous figures of arts and culture were invited at the reception, organized by the Ambassador of Israel to Russia Dorit Golender. The American Ambassador John Byerly’s reception also gathered well-known human rights activists, representatives of government structures, non-governmental organizations and religious denominations. During this reception the NCSJ highest public award was awarded to Vladimir Lukin, the Human Rights Commissioner in Russia, former Russian Ambassador in Washington.
The EAJC President Alexander Machkevitch said in connection with the celebrated date: “On behalf of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress I convey my warmest greetings to our long-term loyal ally. The support that NCSJ gave us when we were still "Jews of silence" cannot be overstated. No less important was the assistance that was provided to us by American brothers in the revival of community and public Jewish life. Today, when Jewish life in the former Soviet Union is actively developing, NCSJ continues to be an indicator of well-being of every community and every Jew individually. It’s some kind of alarm button for us.
It is necessary to emphasize that EAJC will strengthen and develop cooperation with NCSJ, as well as with other major American Jewish institutions in all possible directions. We are confident that the joint work of leading Israeli, American and Eurasian patterns is the key to the well-being of a Jewish state and the Diaspora communities. Together we can work productively against delegitimizing of Israel, against the new anti-Semitism and all forms of defamation".