Issue Position: President of National Association of Jewish Legislators

Issue Position

In 2010, Chuck was unanimously elected President of the New York Chapter of the National Association of Jewish Legislators. The organization immediately embarked on an active course.

In April of 2010, NAJLNY honored holocaust survivors at the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center at Queensborough Community College. Dr. Arthur Flug, the Center's director, and Dr. Eduardo Marti, president of the college, were recognized for their humanitarian achievement.

The Association participated in the First Capital District Community Commemoration of Yom Yerushalayim ("Jerusalem Day") at Albany's Temple Israel in May of 2010. As part of the celebration, it sponsored a well attended conference in the Legislative Office Building to introduce legislators and staff to David Baker, Senior Foreign Press Coordinator of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and Joel Leon, an Israeli diplomat who serves as spokesman for Media Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.

NAJLNY members marched in the Salute to Israel Parade on May 23, 2010.

In the wake of international criticism following the Israeli Defense Forces boarding of six ships sailing towards Gaza at the end of May, 2010, Chuck prepared the following letter to President Obama urging continued support for the State of Israel. This letter was signed by every NAJLNY member:

Friday, 25 June 2010

Dear President Obama:

The New York chapter of the National Association of Jewish Legislators urges you to remain resolute in American support of Israel, which continues to be our staunch ally.
Israel, and for that matter Egypt, maintain a blockade of Gaza because it is a lawless region misgoverned by Hamas, its predominant military faction. Absent that blockade, only the most naïve could believe that the common enemies of the United States and Israel would refrain from delivering sophisticated arms to those who every day fire rockets at Israel's civilians.
While both Americans and Israelis value civil disobedience, the actions of the individuals who attacked the Israeli commandos were anything but civil. In point of fact, their purpose and their sponsors' obvious intent were to incite anti-Israeli fervor.
No nation has gone to the extent of Israel to seek peace, which would be difficult enough for any two conflicted nations to agree upon. It is untenable, however, to maintain that peace could be negotiated with Hamas, Gaza's ruler, whose charter mandates the destruction of Israel, the killing of the Jews and explicitly cites The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as its philosophical basis.
Israel is not only our true ally, but it is the only beacon of freedom and modernity in an area of the world in which our common enemy would, given the opportunity, turn the clock back hundreds of years to a "utopian" age when caliphs ruled.
We therefore urge that our nation remain steadfast in its strong commitment in support of Israel.
This letter is signed by every member of the New York chapter of the National Association of Jewish Legislators.
Thank you for your consideration respecting this matter.

Charles Lavine
NAJLNY President

Chuck likes to think that his grandmother, who as a little girl survived a pogrom in her Russian village by hiding in a hay wagon, would have been very proud of his leadership of the Association.

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