The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is launching an initiative to bring together for the first time a group of young Americans, Israelis, and Moroccans to deepen understanding and build cooperative relationships.
The AJC-Mimouna Michael Sachs Emerging Leaders Fellowship follows on the Memorandum of Understanding that ACCESS, AJC’s young professionals network, and the Mimouna Association, an organization of young Moroccan Muslim leaders, signed in January.
In the declaration, the two groups agreed to jointly educate and build ties among their American, Israeli, and Moroccan peers.
The inaugural cohort of 22 program fellows includes 11 Moroccans, four Israelis, and seven Americans. They include members of Morocco’s parliament, and civic, business and technology leaders in Israel and the US.
The fellowship is named in memory of the late Michael Sachs, an AJC leader who dedicated his life to promoting Muslim-Jewish dialogue. The six-month program will focus on leadership development, interreligious bridge-building, and advocacy.
Meeting virtually, Sachs Fellows will engage government officials, civil society and business leaders in discussing a number of issues.
They will focus on bridge building and partnership; an overview of 2,500 years of Jewish heritage and history in Morocco; religion and the role of peacemaking; the Holocaust in North Africa; diplomacy and storytelling; and the future of Arab-Jewish relations in the 21st century.
The fellowship will culminate with a joint trip to Morocco and Israel in the spring of 2022.
“The Sachs Emerging Leaders Fellowship enables young Moroccans, Israeli Jews and Arabs, and American Jews to learn together and build the cooperative relationships that will be essential to expanding the ties among their countries in the years ahead,” said Benjamin Rogers, AJC director for Middle East and North Africa initiatives.
Cooperation between AJC ACCESS and the Mimouna Association began in 2014, centering on the importance of Jewish heritage to Moroccan identity and culture. In 2017, the two organizations held a conference in Essaouira, Morocco, to discuss interfaith approaches to advancing common understanding in the Middle East. A follow-up conference in 2018 examined the importance of education and social media in promoting interfaith cooperation.