WE THANK OUR BOARD FOR THEIR CONTINUED LEADERSHIP AND
WELCOME
So grateful we acted when we did.
MITCH SIEGLER
San Diego AJC Board President
In 2021, several members of our San Diego Jewish community had become increasingly concerned about the increase in antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, including in our backyard.
We knew that San Diego could not truly be America’ s Finest City with anti-Israel elected officials and candidates for office in our city, municipalities and county races, anti-Israel opeds in the Union-Tribune or false, antisemitic and ideological curricula in our K-12 schools.
We surveyed the landscape and, after considerable research, decided in early 2022 that American Jewish Committee, a 118-year-old national organization, could be an important component of our San Diego Jewish community infrastructure.( Side note, AJC had a San Diego office prior to 2008 but had not been in our community for 15 years.)
We held our initial event in April 2022, held a follow-up event headlined by AJC’ s new CEO, Ted Deutch, in December 2022, opened our office in January 2023 and really took off in March 2023 when the indefatigable Sara Brown joined as our Regional Director and began leading the charge for this work in San Diego. Sara brings positivity, resilience, vision and leadership to her work each day.
At the time, of course, none of us could imagine the horrific events of October 7th or the explosion of antisemitism and anti-Israel vitriol unleashed in its wake.
We are grateful for the support so many of our local elected officials and community leaders have shown for the Jewish community and Israel during the past 14 months and realize that we have much work to do in three areas we identified as our strategic priorities these first two years:
• with government relations and strengthening relationships with elected officials and candidates for office;
• with building allyships( starting with our Latino-Jewish Coalition and expanding to others; and
• in education, fighting back against hateful“ oppressor / oppressed” narratives which exclude and vilify Jews and Israel in our schools.
I’ m grateful for the support and leadership of our extraordinary AJC San Diego Board, several of whom were part of our original 2021 brainstorming group and many of whom joined us in January 2022 at the outset of our work.
Special thanks to Alan Viterbi for his willingness to help lead AJC San Diego to new heights. Alan is an extraordinary communicator and a key leader in our community and I’ m certain he will provide inspired leadership at a critically important time.
We could not have launched our office or done any of this vital work without the generosity of our founding and major donors – the individuals and families that had the vision to see how important it was that we strengthen and support our San Diego Jewish community.
My friends, there’ s much work to be done – for our community, for our kids and grandchildren. It’ s our“ shift” and I’ m grateful that we launched AJC San Diego when we did and especially that so many of you lean in to support this important work. We will need your continued support in the months and years ahead.
WE THANK OUR BOARD FOR THEIR CONTINUED LEADERSHIP AND
WELCOME OUR NEW BOARD MEMBERS!
Mitch Siegler, Board President Alan Viterbi, Incoming Board President January 2025
David Bark David Ellman Eileen Glasser Wesley Naomi Harris
Wayne Harris Joanna Herman Raquel Kramer Robin Layton
Sharon Rosen Leib David Michan Tad Parzen Lorne Polger
Stacy Rosenberg Jeff Schindler Jerry Turk