In the News
JNS featured quotes from an interview with B’nai B’rith International CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin in its coverage of major Jewish organizations’ meetings with top world leaders and diplomats in New York City during the 79th U.N. General Assembly.
Once each year, the world’s top leaders and diplomats converge on New York City for the U.N. General Assembly.
While the speeches in the General Assembly hall usually seize the headlines, much of the more consequential business takes place in the conference rooms and cafeterias, where delegations hold bilateral talks with long-standing and emerging partners.
It is no different for the international Jewish community, which holds a diplomatic blitz of its own each September as well to push its priorities, explore potential partnerships and put out fires in trouble spots around the world.
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The Combat Antisemitism Movement, in partnership with the Center for Jewish Impact and B’nai B’rith International, hosted Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on the evening of Sept. 26 to pay tribute to him and his country for their steadfast defense and protection of the national Jewish population, including during the Holocaust.
“I think especially here in the United States, the Jewish community is facing unprecedented rises in antisemitism since Oct. 7, and people are looking around and wondering where our traditional allies are,” Arthur Maserjian, chief of staff at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, told JNS. “And we wanted to take this opportunity during the U.N. week to really recognize the allyship and friendship of the prime minister of Albania and the people of Albania for their support for the Jewish community over history, really, and at this moment in time.”
The event featured a broad mix of the diplomatic community, including U.N. missions, local consulates and CAM’s partner organizations, which include Christian, Muslim and other Jewish organizations.
“We had a diverse group of people coming out to honor not only the prime minister for his work, but this message of unity and solidarity,” said Maserjian.
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‘A laundry list of arrows’
Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, said his organization met with countries that “are more than problematic.”
That included Belgium, Spain and Norway, with B’nai B’rith raising the issues of those countries’ support for a recent Palestinian-drafted U.N. General Assembly resolution; the Israeli issues before both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court; and antisemitism issues within each state.
Mariaschin called it “a laundry list of arrows that are being sent into Israel.”
He said when those countries were confronted, “they would come back about humanitarian law. They would come back about Israel has a right to defend itself, but it’s how it defends itself. All of the arguments that we’ve heard over the past year from these incessant critics is what we got back on the other side.”
On the flip side, B’nai B’rith also met with Czechs, during which “we expressed our appreciation for their long-standing and their consistent voting patterns at the U.N.”
He also said the group met with some erstwhile partners of Israel who are still problematic when it comes to the issue of Holocaust restitution.
B’nai B’rith works in tandem during U.N. General Assembly week with a consortium, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations, the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry and the World Jewish Congress.
The group, Mariaschin said, rotates who is in the chair for each meeting and divides up the questions, “so it’s a cooperative, collaborative effort. The Jewish community is stronger when we act in tandem in these situations, especially at the U.N.”
Ultimately, Mariaschin told JNS that the purpose of meeting with critics is not necessarily to change their votes overnight.
“The most important part of this is really speaking truth to power,” he said. “It’s the opportunity in one week to engage not only with Israel’s friends but also its harshest critics. And there’s no substitute for doing this in person.”
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