The Resolutions will be the strongest declarations adopted by the U.S. Congress, acknowledging the rights of Jewish and others refugees that were forced to flee Arab countries. This bi-partisan effort was spearheaded by Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Norm Coleman (R-MN), as well as Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). On the House side, supporters included Congressmen Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) as well as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Michael Ferguson (R-NJ).

For information on how best to make your views known to your Senators and Congressmen, please be in touch with Alexandra Levy, at the B'nai B'rith International - Center for Human Rights and Public Policy in Washington, D.C. at (202) 857-2707 or via chrppintern@bnaibrith.org.

To-date, forty countries have agreed to participate in the International Rights and Redress Campaign, seeking to assert the legitimate rights of former Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Organized by the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) in association with Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), the proposed campaign will record the personal histories of Jewish refugees forced to flee from Arab countries and catalogue the losses of individual and community assets. That comprehensive data is not available today.

With memories fading, and former Jewish refugees from Arab countries passing on each day, this will be the last opportunity to obtain this important record of Jewish history. Without these records, no one will ever be able to credibly and effectively advocate for the rights of Jewish refugees in any (hoped for) Middle East peace negotiations.

The International Rights and Redress Campaign will record and publicize the mass violations of human rights suffered by Jews under Arab regimes (e.g. murder; arbitrary arrest and detention; torture; stripping of citizenship; seizure of property; etc.); and document the loss of extensive individual and communal properties and assets. Once collected, the documentation will be catalogued and preserved by a special unit in Israel's Ministry of Justice, established to compile the legal and factual records necessary to assert the rights of Jews displaced from Arab countries.

WOJAC and JJAC will be assisted in this International Rights and Redress Campaign by virtually all of the major, representative organizations in North and South America, Europe, Israel and South East Asia. To date, the leadership of the following representative, national organizations of Diaspora Jewish communities have agreed to organize the International Rights and Redress Campaign in their respective countries:

• Argentina - Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA)
  
  
• Australia - Executive Council of Australian Jewry
  
  
• Belgium - CCCOJB, Institut Sepharade Europeen
  
  
• Brazil - Confederação Israelita do Brasil
  
  
• Britain - Board of Deputies of British Jews
  
  
• Canada - Canadian Jewish Congress
  
  
• Colombia - Centro Israelita de Bagota
  
  
• Euro-Asian Jewish Congress - representing:
  
  
  • Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Byelorussia, Georgia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, New Zealand, Poland, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan
    
    
• France - Conseil representatif des institutions juives de France (CRIF)

• Guatemala - Comunidad Judía Guatemalteca
  
  
• Honduras - Comunidad de San Pedro Sula
  

• Hungary - B’nai Brith Hungary
  
  
• Israel - World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries
  
  
• Italy - Unione delle Comunita Ebraiche Italiana
  
  
• Mexico - Comite Central de la Comunidad Judia de Mexico
  
  
• Panama - Congreso Judio Panamano
  
  
• Spain - Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE)
  
  
• Sweden - Svensk-Israel-Information - Swedish Israel Information For Israel and      Democracy in the Middle East (FADIM)
  
  
• USA - Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
  
  
• Uruguay - Nueva Congregacion Israelite
  
  
• Venezuela - Congregation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela (CAIV)

All major Jewish organizations are systematically being recruited to participate actively in the US campaign efforts. To date, the following national Jewish organizations have indicated their willingness to participate:

• American Jewish Committee
• American Jewish Congress
• American Sephardi Federation
• Anti Defamation League
• Association of Reform Zionists of America
• B'nai B'rith International
• Central Conference of American Rabbis
• Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
• Hadassah
• Hillel-The Foundation for Campus Jewish Life
• Jewish Community Centers Association
• Jewish Council for Public Affairs
• JIMENA
• Mercaz, the Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement
• National Council of Young Israel
• Rabbinical Assembly
• Rabbinical Council of America
• Union for Reform Judaism
• Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
• United Jewish Communities

The campaign in the United States will be implemented on a city-by-city basis. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) has been instrumental in encouraging Community Relations Councils to spearhead the campaign in their local community.

Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA) has been actively involved in mobilizing and assisting local communities in their public education and registration efforts in the Western part of the United States.

Program materials on the 2,500 year history of Mizrahi Jewry and their subsequent displacement from Arab countries is being prepared that would be targeting governments, the media, Jewish organizations, synagogues and Jewish day schools in all Diaspora Jewish communities. The materials will be genric in nature, thereby allowing each Jewish community entity (e.g. Synagogues, Schools, JCCs, Jewish organizational chapters – Hadassah, B’nai B'rith, etc.) to run their own programs for their constituent members.

For more information on these materials and to obtain copies, please be in touch with Shelomo Alfassa at alfassa@justiceforjews.com.

Mr. Shelomo Alfassa has joined JJAC as U.S. Director of the International Rights and Redress Campaign. Mr. Alfassa founded the International Sephardic Leadership Council and is the editor of the award winning International Sephardic Journal. Previously, he served as Director of Research and Development for Sephardic House at the Center for Jewish History and as a consultant to the American Sephardi Federation. For four years he served as a vice-president of the New York based Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture and was a staff consultant for the Sephardic Educational Center in Jerusalem.

At a recent meeting in Brussels, some thirty delegates from 7 countries agreed on the need to ensure that their governments support rights for Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

Countries represented at the Brussels meeting included Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Brazil, Israel, and the United States. Among the community leaders in attendance were Roger Cukierman, president of Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF); Flo Kaufmann, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; Prof. Dr. Julien Klener, President, Consistoire Central de Belgique; and Philippe Markiewicz, president of the Comite de Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique (CCOJB).

In a meeting with members of the delegation, Ms. Frederique Ries, a member of the European Parliament representing Belgium, said she would work to put the issue on the E.U. agenda. 'Although this was not a new issue to me, most Parliament members will be unaware that there were in fact more Jewish refugees than Palestinian refugees,' Ries said. 'This is a question of justice, and I welcome the representations that have been made to put this on the agenda.'

Additional meetings were held with the following Members the European Parliament and officials of the Kingdon of Begium:

Thereafter, a meeting was held with senior Foreign Ministry officials in Moscow. At the request of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) prepared and submitted a comprehensive historical and legal dossier on this issue for the Ministry's review.

Efforts are being made to raise this issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov.

Each year, the UN debates and adopts several resolutions on the ‘rights’ of Palestinian refugees without any reference to the rights of Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries.

Efforts are being made to ensure that, in the upcoming Fall 2006 session of the UN, the rights of Jewish refugees will be introduced into the discussion of any resolutions dealing with 'Middle East Refugees'.

Extensive efforts are being made to educate public opinion on the rights of Jewish refugees in Arab countries. In addition to regular coverage in the media, public education efforts include providing briefings for communal leadership and public education programs.

Stan Urman attended the 10th Meeting of Latin American and Carribean Jewish Institutions and Communities’ Leaders, held in Mars del Plata, Argentina. There he addressed over 1,000 people from Jewish communities throughout Latin and South America. As a result, an additional eight countries agreed to participate in the International Rights and Redress Campaign.

Stan Urman recently met with Jewish communal leadership in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston and three communities in South Florida. At each venue, Urman spoke at leadership meetings of the federation, Rabbis, Boards of Education and local Jewish organizations. In each case, the communal leadership agreed to organize and synchronize the local campaign - both the public education programs and the collection of personal histories - coincident with the International Rights and Redress Campaign that will be launched worldwide in November of 2006.

The International Rights and Redress Campaign has entered into a strategic partnership with The David Project to educate the public on the history and rights of Jews from Arab countries through the screening of the film entitled “The Forgotten Refugees”.

To date, the film has been broadcast on Public Television stations in San Francisco and Norfolk, VA. Moreover, the film and lecture series has been presented at over 100 venues in ciities across the United States including:

• To over 200 members of the Republican Jewish Coalition:
• To students at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University;
• To combined audiences of over 2,000 people, during Shabbat services at five different Sephardic Synagogues in Brooklyn;
• To the Syrian Jewish community in Deal, New Jersey at both the Hillel High School and the Magen David Synagogue;
• To over 300 people at the Eli Wiesel Center at Boston .