Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) Presidium Member, Vice President of the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan (ANK), President of the Mitzvah Association of Jewish National Organizations of Kazakhstan Alexander Baron has taken part in the official ANK delegation of the USA, led by Majilis (Republic of Kazakhstan Parliament) PM Yegor Kappel.

The ANK delegation had a meeting with Celeste A. Wallander, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia and Eurasia on the National Security Council, at the White House, and with Richard E. Hoagland, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, former Ambassador to the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The meetings devoted special attention to matters of ethnicity and language in Kazakhstan society, providing tolerance, inter-religious and inter-ethnic concord in the country. The matter of removing the Jackson-Vanik amendment for Kazakhstan was also brought up in connection with the fact that Kazakhstan is soon to join the World Trade Organization.

The ANK delegation had a round table meeting with Jewish leaders from the USA. The meeting was organized by the NCSJ, an old ally of the EAJC. The leaders of the following Jewish organizations took part in the meeting: B’nai B’rith International, Anti-Defamation League, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American Jewish Committee and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Alexander Baron spoke at length about the propitious conditions for Jewish life in Kazakhstan, where there are no manifestations of anti-Semitism. He stressed: “The Jews of Kazakhstan have not felt as if they were on the fringes of Jewish society for many years now, and, thanks to their membership in the EAJC, are in their rightful place in global Jewish society.”