Institute on Jewish Communities to Be Established by Aj Committee

A new institute devoted to the study and reporting of Jewish communities around the world will soon begin operation under the aegis of the American Jewish Committee. The announcement was made by Bertram H. Gold, executive vice-president, at the closing session of the annual meeting of the top policy-making National Executive Council. The Morris and Adele Bergreen Institute for Foreign Studies and Publications will conduct a program of research, publications, and seminars, and serve as a gathering point where scholars and professionals can work together to establish a long-range planning center in world Jewish affairs, Gold said.

The Institute has been established under a grant from Mr. and Mrs. Bergreen, New York corporate attorneys actively involved in leadership of the AJCommittee for many years. Bergreen is currently national treasurer and chairman of the National Foreign Affairs Commission. Mrs. Bergreen is a member of the New York and Westchester Women’s Campaign Boards of AJC. The first project of the Bergreen Institute, which will be administered by the Committee’s Foreign Affairs Department, under the direction of Dr. Seymour P. Lachman, will be the publication of a new quarterly magazine dealing with Jewish interests abroad, Gold stated. The first issue of the magazine, to be called “Present Tense,” is expected in late 1973.

The Bergreen Institute plans to initiate socioeconomic studies of the Jewish communities in Mexico. Central America, and South America, Gold continued. These studies are intended to provide direction to the work of the AJCommittee in the Latin American countries, where the organization maintains offices in Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

Bergreen explained the reason for establishing the Institute is that “even today, 27 years after the Second World War, there is a lack of systematic and cohesive study of world Jewry that could develop programs of thought and action. The need for such an institute is imperative, particularly in view of the continuing threat to Israel, the difficulties of assessing accurately the mood of great and small power politics, and the desire to preserve Jewish identity in the diaspora.”