American Jewish Congress. Northern California Division

Biographical Information

The American Jewish Congress (AJC) was founded in 1916, and reorganized in 1920 and 1938. The groundwork for the Northern California Division was laid in the 1930s by Rabbis Saul White of Beth Sholom and Elliot Burstein of Beth Israel when they organized a boycott of German goods. The Division was officially founded in December 1943. The AJC's mission shifted somewhat over the years but the core was the promotion of "Jewish rights and freedom" within the U.S. and the support of the "Jewish Homeland." The organization's Civil Rights stand broadened over the years from a concern for Jewish Rights (American Jewish Yearbook, 1922) to the "elimination of all forms of racial and religious bigotry" (American Jewish Yearbook, 1995) and was referred to by one member as a Jewish ACLU. One of the AJC's primary money making activities was the sponsoring of tours of Israel and Jewish themed tours to other cultural and religious sites around the world.

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