March 2, 2006- New York- Jewish and Presbyterian leaders from New York City put aside recent tensions over official church actions against Israel and traveled there together last month in a ground-breaking mission. One of the trip’s goals was to provide an opportunity for first-hand knowledge to those participants who will also be attending the church General Assembly in June. At that time, there will be a vote on whether the church will divest of stock in companies doing business with Israel.

The New York Chapter of the American Jewish Committee and the Auburn Theological Seminary co-sponsored this trip, which left on February 19 for one week in Israel.

“This trip was born out of a crisis,” said Diane Steinman, executive director of AJC’s New York chapter. “The Auburn Seminary opposes divestment and believes, as we do, in building bridges and in doing something positive to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace.  We hope the Presbyterian leaders who came with us to Israel will be able to bring that positive voice to their General Assembly.”

Co-chaired by Rabbi Peter Rubenstein of Central Synagogue and Reverend Dr. Jon Walton, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church, both in Manhattan, 20 other religious and lay leaders traveled, including representatives from the Lutheran and Episcopalian denominations as well. The mission combined the most current political overviews from both Israeli and Palestinian officials, among them Dr. Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, Dalia Rabin, daughter of the late Prime Minister, and the head of the Catholic Church in Israel, His Beatitude Michel Sabbah. The group also visited economic development projects, and toured both Christian and Jewish holy sites, engaging in discussions with respective religious leaders.

AJC, celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year, has long spearheaded interreligious understanding and has been encouraging discourse between Jewish and mainline Christian churches ever since the leadership of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. approved a resolution calling for divestment in July 2004.  AJC maintains that this resolution is a blow to Middle East peace and unfairly singles out Israel for special censure and sanction. AJC also views the Presbyterian resolution as a setback to Christian-Jewish understanding and has called upon church leaders to re-visit their policy.

The Presbyterian Church U.S.A., in voting for “selective divestment” from companies doing business in Israel, mandated that an investigation take place, examining its total 7 billion dollar investment portfolio.  While the church has not yet actually sold its stocks, a vote is planned for this coming June at the church General Assembly, at which time total divestment will be considered.