Your Activism Has Made A Difference In 2006

December 20, 2006

YOUR ACTIVISM HAS MADE A DIFFERENCE IN 2006
Please continue your support of the Simon Wiesenthal Center today.

Your activism, support, and partnership with the Simon Wiesenthal Center made a difference this year.  Your immediate response to our social action campaigns and initiatives have impacted on important issues and policy makers – often within hours of a breaking crisis.  Your involvement in joining with us to combat Holocaust denial, antisemitism, hate crimes, and demanding that governments act to better protect the safety and security of Jews everywhere has yielded important results.

Iran’s Holocaust Denial: Following the Iranian regime’s conference denying the Nazi  Holocaust, the Simon Wiesenthal Center lauded the statement by incoming UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and considered it to be a major blow against the anti-Jewish hate-filled campaign of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  “Denying historical facts especially on such an important subject as the Holocaust is just not acceptable...Nor is it acceptable to call for the elimination of states or people...,” said Secretary General-designate Ban. This statement came in wake of the Center’s emergency petition campaign signed by over 35,000 members and activists urging him to speak out against the Iranian regime. Photo: Rabbi Marvin Hier, SWC Dean & Founder (at podium) at the Center's "Witness To The Truth" 3-city videoconference, which brought together Holocaust survivors from Los Angeles, New York and Toronto to confront Iran's Conference of Holocaust deniers.  

Israel As An Apartheid State: You joined with us once again in protesting to President Jimmy Carter over his outrageous charge that Israel pursues >apartheid policies against the Palestinian people.  Over the years, President Carter has emerged as one of Israel’s harshest critics and in his new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid , he abandons all objectivity and unabashedly acts as a virtual spokesman for the Palestinian cause. Consequently, each and every one of the tens of thousands of individual petitions you signed and sent to us at the Wiesenthal Center were delivered to the headquarters of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: Petitions being boxed up and sent to the Carter Center.

$650,000 Distributed in Israel During Hezbollah War:  Thanks to your generosity, Wiesenthal Center officials delivered much needed aid and  messages of solidarity to beleaguered Israeli civilians in Northern Israel during the 34-day Hezbollah War.  From funds raised through the Center's Israel Emergency Campaign, the Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Mission to Israel distributed 100% of your donations to frontline hospitals, emergency food banks, trauma and rehab centers, shelters under fire, and to Arab and Druze Israeli civilian victims of Hezbollah rockets. Photo: Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav receives a grant on behalf of Haifa Foundation humanitarian projects from SWC Executive Director, Rabbi Meyer May (R) and Rabbi Marvin Hier.

End Divestment from Israel: Thousands of you partnered with us in uniting  with activists within the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) urging the Church to rescind its one-sided, anti-Israel resolutions. Following this and other grass-roots efforts by concerned Christians and Jews, Presbyterian leadership’s imbalanced attempt to punish Israel was dealt a decisive blow by its own membership. Photo: A SWC delegation traveled to PCUSA's General Assembly meeting in Birmingham, Alabama where they urged Presbyterian leaders to rescind their anti-Israel divestment policy. Pictured is SWC Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Dr. Judea Pearl, father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Hamas’ Shocking Victory:   Earlier this year, when the Hamas terrorist organization won a shocking 76 out of 132 seats and gained an absolute majority in the Palestinian Parliament, you responded to our massive campaign to demand that governments in Europe and the Americas, as well as international organizations and religious leaders, effectively isolate Hamas from the world community unless and until it renounces terrorism, Jew-hatred, and recognizes the State of Israel’s fundamental right to exist.  Today, many countries and leaders around the world still refuse to recognize Hamas as anything other than what it is - a terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel. Photo: SWC Latin American Representative Sergio Widder (L) met with Steven Monblatt (R), Executive Secretary of the OAS Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism in Colombia to urge the barring of Hamas leaders and representatives from the region.

With your solidarity, activism, and leadership we will continue to make a difference around the world in the fight against antisemitism, hate, Holocaust denial, terrorism, and in the struggle to ensure the security and safety of Jews everywhere.

Your generous donation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center will ensure that we can continue and expand our dynamic and powerful partnership in 2007.  

Together we can make a difference in these challenging times!

Thank you for your continued support.

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