Euroasian Jewish News

Visit of Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Leadership dele-gation to Kazakhstan / Cooperation with

A series of official events of international significance, with the objective of developing interac-tion of East with West, rapprochement between various parts of the world Jewish community and strengthening the global Jewish-Islamic dialogue, were held from February 12 to 16, 2003, in the city of Almaty in southern Kazakhstan. The international Conference for Peace and Harmony (an inter-governmental summit of Central-Asian states), an initiative of President Noursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan, who led the Kazakhstan delegation, was held in Almaty on February 13, 2003.
The Conference also involved official delegations from Kyrgyzstan led by President Askar Akaev, from Tajikistan led by President Emomali Rahmonov, and from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Turkey, led by their Ministers for Foreign Affairs.
Other Conference attendees included a number of heads of Jewish organizations and communities, members of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC), led by Alexander Machkevich, Michael Chlenov and Josef Zissels, and leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (Conference of Presidents) led by Mortimer Zuckerman and Malcolm Hoenlein. Major international Jew-ish organizations which also participated in the Conference included the World Jewish Congress (WJC), represented by its Secretary General Avi Beker, the National Conference for Soviet Jewry (NCSJ)*, rep-resented by its Executive Director Mark Levin, and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) represented by its Director of International Relations, Andrew Baker. The Ambassador of Israel to Kazakhstan was amongst diplomats who, with the delegations and a sizable media contingent, journalists filled the auditorium to capacity.
* The EAJC Public Relations and Media Department offers its apologies to the National Confer-ence for Soviet Jews (NCSJ) and personally to its Executive Director M. Levin, for omitting from an ear-lier release reference the key role of the NCSJ and Marc Levin in assisting the EAJC delegation to the USA in February 2003.

EAJC Public Relations and Media Department