AJC says perpetrators of Rohingya genocide should be held accountable
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) has welcomed the UN report on genocide committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and urges the UN Security Council to take concrete action to implement the report’s recommendations.
“The horrific attacks against the Rohingya cannot be ignored. It is critical for the international community to seek accountability for perpetrators of these gross human rights violations and abuses,” said Jerry Biederman, Chair of the Administrative Council of AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, comprised of three esteemed human rights experts, including Radhika Coomaraswamy, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Marzuki Darusman, former Indonesian attorney general, released the report one year after Myanmar’s military undertook a brutal campaign against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.
More than 600,000 have fled to neighboring Bangladesh to seek safety from the regime’s mass abuses and atrocities, including burning villages, raping, and killing thousands. The military assaults were allegedly in response to attacks by a Rohingya resistance group, but the report indicates “the nature, scale and organization of the operations suggests a level of preplanning and design” intended to “solve the problem” of the Rohingya by embarking on disproportionate and gruesome “clearance operations” targeting and terrorizing the entire Rohingya population.
“There is sufficient information to warrant the investigation and prosecution of senior officials so that a competent court can determine their liability for genocide in relation to the situation in Rakhine State,” concludes the UN fact-finding mission report. It also recommended that the Rohingya situation in Myanmar be referred to the International Criminal Court to ensure accountability for those responsible for these grave crimes. — From American Jewish Committee
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Mitzner to head state political affairs for group seeking more public funding of nonpublic schools
The Orthodox Union’s Teach Advocacy Network, a nonpartisan organization advocating for equitable funding in nonpublic schools, has named Daniel Mitzner as its new director of state political affairs. In this newly created role, Mitzner will manage policy, community engagement and mobilization in New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, California and Maryland. He will oversee five regional offices where he and his team will initiate and monitor key legislation and advocacy to further the Network’s mission.
Most recently, Mitzner served as director of the Brooklyn, Queens & Staten Island region for The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In that role, he recruited and trained lay leaders on how to build relationships with their elected officials, conducted educational and policy briefings with community members and directed legislative mobilizations.
Mitzner received his law degree from Saint John’s University and his bachelor’s degree from the University at Buffalo where he majored in political science.
“Daniel is a tremendous community organizer with an unapparelled passion for the work we do to bring our fair share of funding to non-public schools. He brings a specific skill set to our team that will enable more involvement from schools, parents and students,” said Teach Advocacy Network’s Executive Director Maury Litwack.
“Teach Advocacy Network was founded in 2013 advocate for equitable government funding in nonpublic schools,” Litwack said. “With a vast network of community leaders, parents and lawmakers across the country, Teach Advocacy is working to keep the costs down of sending children to nonpublic schools. The network has secured $500 million in government aid for nonpublic schools since 2011. Currently, 450 day-schools and yeshivas receive government funding through Teach Advocacy efforts.” —From Teach Advocacy Network
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Manhattan professional learn of JCT’s emphasis on Torah and technology
Approximately 75 young professionals gathered in Manhattan on August 23 to network and to learn more about the trailblazing work of the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT) in an evening organized by the recently launched Young Leadership of Friends of JCT group.
The young leadership initiative was initiated around the time of Friends of JCT’s New York City gala dinner this past May, which featured a keynote address from “Big Bang Theory” star actress and real-life neuroscientist Mayim Bialik. Thanks to the young leadership effort, the annual gala had a higher-than-usual turnout of young professionals as well as attendees hearing about JCT for the first time.
Now, Friends of JCT’s young leadership arm is a more formal group which mostly draws young professionals from New York neighborhoods such as Riverdale and the Upper West Side who work to spread the word about the key academic, technological, and socioeconomic components of the Israeli university’s mission. Last week’s cocktails and hors d’oeuvres event at Congregation Beit Edmond included a presentation by David Sinefeld, a JCT alum and postdoctoral researcher in neurotech at Cornell University who is returning to JCT to teach at its Tal Campus this fall. Sinefeld spoke about the importance of JCT’s dual focus on Torah and science.
In addition to educating some of Israel’s top students, JCT empowers diverse segments of Israeli society to become productive members of the country’s workforce, including many who would otherwise not have the opportunity to pursue academic studies. Over 24 percent of JCT’s students come from Israel’s periphery and 20 percent are new immigrants. There are more than 2,000 Haredi men and women studying among JCT’s student body of 4,500. While about 50 percent of Haredi men in the country were employed by the end of 2017, JCT’s Haredi graduates attain an 89-percent employment rate, including 77 percent in their field of choice.
JCT is also a key driver of women’s empowerment in the science and technology sectors. The college trains 20 percent of Israel’s women engineers. One out of every five Israeli women studying computer science and/or software engineering does so at JCT, and 53 percent of the school’s computer science students are women—18 percent higher than any other Israeli university. — From Jerusalem College of Technology
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Preceding culled from news releases. Send yours to editor@sdjewishworld.com