Washington, D.C.---Richard Stone, of New York City was elected NCSJ Chairman, and Alexander Smukler of Montclair, New Jersey was elected NCSJ President when the NCSJ Board of Governors met in Washington on December 10, 2008.
Richard Stone is the Wilbur H. Friedman Professor of Tax Law at Columbia Law School, and is active in venture capital investing. He first became active in the Soviet Jewry movement in 1971, as co-founder of an organization lobbying on behalf of Soviet Jewry, including the 1975 Jackson-Vanik amendment. In 1973, he visited emigration visa applicants and refuseniks in Siberia and Moscow. He is currently a vice-president of the New York Jewish Community Relations Council and a member of many Jewish organizational boards. His previous leadership experience includes 10 years as Chairman of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregation's Institute on Public Affairs, and several years as a City University of New York Board Member.
Alexander Smukler is Chairman of the Board of Century 21: Russia, Kazakhstan & the Ukraine. He is President and Founder of the American Foundation for Orphans Abroad, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Jewish Congress. Before emigrating from Russia in 1991, he served as member of the board of the VAAD (Confederation of Jewish Organizations and Communities of the USSR), and Executive Director of both B'nai B'rith of USSR and the Jewish Information Center of Moscow. A former refusenik, and a long-time supporter of NCSJ, he has been an NCSJ Vice-President since 2004.
In his address to the Board, Stone called NCSJ’s mission "vitally important…our most urgent mission is to persuade the world that the hundreds of thousands of Jews left in the former Soviet Union still drastically need our help, and may need it in the future more than we currently think...the tremendous amount of progress we have made could dissipate quickly, especially in this horrendously difficult financial environment. The challenge will be enormous and added to all of our [ongoing] duties of advocacy."
Smukler said, "I am honored to help lead NCSJ. It is very important for me to take this position as President, in order to continue to support our efforts on behalf of Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union and to continue the struggle to combat hatred against Jews."
Reflecting on the past two years, outgoing Chairman Ed Robin said "It has been my privilege and pleasure to serve with [outgoing President] Lesley Israel." Congratulating the incoming Chairman and President, Robin said, "there is tremendous work to be done and I really couldn’t be more pleased to be succeeded by my friend Richard Stone, with the great support he will receive from Sasha Smukler."
NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia is the mandated central coordinating agency of the organized Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union.
