Global Jewish group celebrates new Central Europe office

Associated Press
Poland's chief rabbi Michael Schudrich speaks at a gala celebration marking the opening of an American Jewish Committee office for Central Europe in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 27, 2017. The AJC, a 111-year-old global organization based in New York, has a long history of engagement in the region. It was the first Jewish organization to call for recognizing German unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it supported Central and Eastern European nations as they worked to become democracies and join the European Union and NATO. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Poland's chief rabbi Michael Schudrich speaks at a gala celebration marking the opening of an American Jewish Committee office for Central Europe in Warsaw, Poland, Monday, March 27, 2017. The AJC, a 111-year-old global organization based in New York, has a long history of engagement in the region. It was the first Jewish organization to call for recognizing German unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it supported Central and Eastern European nations as they worked to become democracies and join the European Union and NATO. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The American Jewish Committee, a global Jewish advocacy organization, celebrated the opening of a new Central Europe office on Monday in Warsaw.

The AJC, a 111-year-old organization based in New York, has a long history of engagement in the region.

It was the first Jewish organization to call for recognizing German unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it supported Central and Eastern European nations as they worked to become democracies and join the European Union and NATO.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda welcomed the AJC to Poland, saying that Poles "still remember with gratitude your support for our aspirations."

"I am convinced that this gives an additional boost to the trans-Atlantic cooperation," he said in a message that an aide read out at a gala celebration Monday evening.

The organization says it is committed to supporting democracies in the belief that open, tolerant societies provide greater security to Jews and other minorities.

The new office, based in Warsaw, will work in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Its priorities will include supporting the region's already good ties with Israel and the United States, relationships seen as key to promoting geopolitical security for Jewish people.