Estonia

American Jewish Committee was one of the first voices welcoming the Baltic states back into the western fold. AJC was very persistent in this effort. In August 1991, AJC CEO David Harris wrote to President George H. W. Bush:

“We believe that our country should be among the vanguard of States to welcome Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – formally and diplomatically – to the community of nations,”

In 2002, over a decade after gaining independence, AJC supported Estonia’s admission into NATO.

Estonia has experienced a revival of Jewish life best exemplified by the opening in Tallinn of a Jewish school in 1990 and a new synagogue in 2007. Other landmark achievements are the Estonian Jewish Museum, the Memory Gallery, and the Community Kindergarten “Aviv”, which opened in the last fifteen years. This is especially heart-warming considering the Estonian Jewish community’s unspeakable suffering: Their state was the first to be declared Judenfrei in December 1941.

AJC CEO David Harris and AJC Central Europe Acting Director meeting with
former Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Urmas Reinsalu

After the opening of AJC’s regional office in Warsaw, a delegation of AJC leaders visited Estonia to meet with the Estonian President and the Jewish Community of Estonia with whom AJC has a formal partnership agreement. Our Warsaw and Brussels based offices regularly engage Estonian officials on key issues.

AJC welcomed Estonia’s announcement to impose sanctions on Hezbollah in October 2020, effectively designating it in its entirety as a terrorist organization.

In 2021, after the new Estonian government had been sworn in, the Shapiro Silverberg AJC Central Europe office held several meetings with Estonian diplomats and the Jewish community to discuss the new political environment.

An AJC delegation meets with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid in Tallinn after the opening of the Shapiro Silverberg Central Europe Office.