Advocating for the Jewish people and Israel. Championing a strong transatlantic partnership and democratic values for all.
American Jewish Committee (AJC) was founded in New York in 1906, and it opened the AJC Central Europe office in 2017. Our work is built on four pillars: supporting Jewish communities throughout the region and countering antisemitism; advocating for Israel’s rights in the international arena; promoting democracy, human rights and combating xenophobia and extremism; strengthening the transatlantic community. With more than 30 offices worldwide, plus partnerships with 37 international Jewish community organizations, AJC is an organization with global reach and influence.
AJC Central Europe
The Shapiro Silverberg AJC Central Europe Office was opened in early 2017 in Warsaw, Poland, to advance AJC’s mission in the region. Our office serves seven Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia. We cooperate with local Jewish communities, promote democratic values and transatlantic relations, enhance ties between Central European countries and Israel, and combat antisemitism and extremism.
By supporting democratic transformations in Europe, AJC was always close to Central European countries.
– Former Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Linas Linkevičius, 2018
With its decision to open an office in Warsaw, American Jewish Committee has demonstrated a deep understanding of the important role Central European countries have played historically, geographically, and politically. The seven countries covered by the Shapiro Silverberg AJC Central Europe Office constitute one-fourth of the current membership of the European Union. All of them are also members of NATO and enjoy robust relations with the U.S. and Israel. Amid political uncertainty on the continent, AJC wanted to send clear messages of support to institutions like the EU and NATO. No less importantly, since the fall of communism, these countries have seen a renaissance of Jewish life and a re-examination of their rich and storied Jewish pasts. The region presents strategic opportunities for the Jewish people, Israel, and the transatlantic relationship.
AJC’s Decades-long Involvement
AJC’s engagement with the region is not new. AJC was founded in 1906 in response to a series of pogroms in Russia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Representatives of Eastern and Central European nations first established working relations with AJC as early as before the end of the Great War, before they gained – or regained – formal independence in 1918.
AJC CEO David Harris himself has a long history in the region and his work was central to the emigration of over one million Jews from the Soviet Union. In the 1970s and again in the 1980s, he was detained by Soviet authorities and, on the first occasion, was expelled from the country. In 1987, Harris served as the national coordinator for Freedom Sunday for Soviet Jewry — the 1987 demonstration in Washington that drew over 250,000 participants, the largest Jewish gathering in American history. Harris testified before the United States Congress on several occasions regarding Russian and Soviet affairs. In 1998 David Harris testified in favour of NATO expansion in Central Eastern Europe.
I am convinced that to leave Europe divided at its old cold war boundaries, to ignore the lands to the East, to have NATO members turn their collective backs on Central Europe would be to ignore the lessons of history, the dangers to European and Western security that lurk there.
AJC CEO David Harris, 1997
Who We Are
American Jewish Committee (AJC) is the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, maintaining close working relationships with elected officials, religious leaders, and other decision-makers. Through that engagement and our global presence across six continents, AJC is able to impact policy and opinion on some of the most important issues facing the Jewish people: fighting antisemitism and all forms of hate, strengthening Israel’s place in the world, and defending democratic values.
Staunchly nonpartisan, AJC aims to advance concrete measures, both in the United States and worldwide, that uphold our mission and further our priorities. AJC’s work is strengthened by a community of more than three million engaged advocates who stand with the Jewish people and Israel.
Under both American tax law and Polish electoral law, AJC does not support or oppose candidates for election. Donations do not affect our advocacy strategy.
Our Team
Dr. Sebastian Rejak
Director
Dr. Sebastian Rejak
Director
Dr. Sebastian Rejak joined AJC in 2017 and is the Director of the AJC Central Europe Office. He previously worked for eleven years for the Polish Foreign Ministry in a range of positions covering: Polish-Jewish relations, Israel and Palestine, U.S.-Polish relations. In 2016, he was a member of the interagency Warsaw NATO Summit preparation team. Between 2013-2016 he served as Special Envoy of Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs for Relations with the Jewish Diaspora.
In 2005 he received his Ph.D. in history / sociology from the Graduate School for Social Research (Polish Academy of Sciences). He has published and edited several scholarly articles and books, i.a. “Thinking After the Holocaust: Voices from Poland”, “Jewish Identities in Poland and America: The Impact of the Shoah on Religion and Ethnicity” “Inferno of Choices: Poles and the Holocaust,” and taught courses on Jewish history and Jewish diasporas at the Warsaw School of Economics and the Jagiellonian University.
Dr. Rejak is a member of the Polish Society of Jewish Studies and the Advisory Board of the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies (Oxford University).
Dr. Tomas Kraus
AJC Representative in Czechia
Dr. Tomas Kraus
AJC Representative in Czechia
Born in Prague in 1954, both parents Holocaust survivors
Lawyer – graduate of the Law Faculty of the Charles University; since 1991 the CEO of the Federation of Jewish Communities, dealt with restitution of Jewish property and compensation for Holocaust and Nazi victims on domestic and international political levels, as well as with legislation and various other issues important not only to Czech Jewish community.
Author – writing articles and reviews to various magazines, mainly to Rosh Chodesh monthly; contributing to other media; regular commentator and guest in Czech TV, Czech Radio and other broadcasting stations
Professor – since 90ies teaching at the New York University and others education programs in Prague
Activist – COB of the Center for Documentation of Nazi Looted Art; founding member of the Czech-German Discussion Forum; founder of the European Shoah Legacy Institute; past president of the Society of Christians and Jews; active in several Jewish international organizations
AJC – working with AJC since early 90ies; participated at many AJC conferences and projects, such as “Promoting Tolerance” with Friedrich Naumann Foundation; initiated the AJC association agreement with the Czech Jewish Federation, first of its kind in Europe, etc. Since 2018 official AJC representative for the Czech Republic
Barnabas Turai
Policy Officer, AJC CE Representative in Hungary
Barnabas Turai
Policy Officer, AJC CE Representative in Hungary
Barnabas Turai has been working with AJC Central Europe since October 2019 and he is currently AJC Central Europe Representative in Hungary, while serving as Political Outreach Officer. In his role, Turai is responsible for coordinating and strategizing AJC’s political plan of action in Hungary, while overseeing and initiating programming that strengthens AJC CE’s relations with its partners and emphasizes AJC’s presence in the region.
Turai has previously worked as a journalist, news reporter and foreign news analyst for a CNN affiliated Hungarian broadcast network. As a journalist, he has been chosen for the CNN Journalism Fellowship Program in Atlanta, Georgia. Turai has worked as an Israeli News Correspondent, living and working in Tel Aviv, Israel. He also has interned in the European Parliament, being responsible for Jewish and Israeli Affairs at the office of a Hungarian Member of the European Parliament, assisting the MEP in his work in the Working Group on Antisemitism (WGAS) and in the Delegation for Relations with Israel (D-IL).
Turai has received his bachelor’s diploma from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, majoring in International Relations. He also has a masters’ degree from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel, majoring in Government, Diplomacy and Conflict Management.
Katarzyna Buczek-Pągowska
Office and Events Manager
Our Board
The work of AJC Central Europe is supported and advised by a dedicated group of donors, the AJC Central Europe Institute Board (CEI). These individuals have strong connections to Central Europe and, in many cases, they or their families originated from this region.
Learn more about how you can support our work.