Jewish Community Groups Call for

Thousands of Father’s Day Cards to be sent to President

New York, NY, June 12, 2009 - On or before Father’s Day, June 21^st, 2009, Jewish groups will call upon their constituents to send thousands of Father’s Day cards and e-cards to President Obama.  Coordinated with Gilad Shalit’s parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit, the campaign will ask the President as a father to think of Gilad’s plight and to do everything in his power to bring Gilad home.

Corporal Gilad Shalit is an Israeli soldier who was taken hostage nearly three years ago on June 25, 2006 in an illegal cross-border raid by Hamas terrorists.   He has been held captive by Hamas since then and has been denied access to the International Red Cross.

The stated goal of the campaign, initiated by the Council of Young Jewish Presidents (CYJP) and coordinated with a coalition of organizations including the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Dor Chadash, Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, Stand With Us, Israel Advocacy Initative, and the Zionist Organization of America, is to raise this issue on President Obama’s priority list.

In his Father’s Day card to President Obama, Noam wrote “from one father to another, I ask you to please use the power of your presidency to free my beloved son, Gilad.  Because to have Gilad home again would make every one of my days, Father’s Day.”

David Borowich, Chairman of the CYJP noted, “As the President reaches out to the Muslim world, we as a Jewish community must do everything in our power to keep Gilad’s captivity on the administration’s radar.  As a new father, I appeal to President Obama, as a father of two, to solve this humanitarian issue and ensure that Noam Shalit will be able to spend Father’s Day with his son.”

Participants are encouraged to purchase or create Father’s Day cards and send to the White House (sample messages can be downloaded from the site: www.cyjp.org) or send messages to the President electronically on June 21^st  via http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

About the Council of Young Jewish Presidents (CYJP):

The CYJP is an umbrella group providing a central forum for a new generation of leaders to address and act on issues of concern to the Jewish community. This leadership group, representing a host of young professional member organizations, works across the spectrum to mobilize young Jewish adults in NY when issues warrant a unified or community response.  The Council serves as a central address for political and communal leaders to meet and understand the needs of this demographic and also provides a point of coordination between different organizations.

About the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)

The JCRC, as the central address in New York for over 60 Jewish organizations, is the representative body for and voice of the Jewish community in the metropolitan area. From intergroup relations, where we have built bridges and partnerships with well over 100 ethnic and religious groups, to Israel and international affairs, where we have regularly mobilized thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel, we are the group that virtually everyone, from the Mayor, Governor and Senators to the neighborhood-based community leaders, turns to on a never ending catalogue of pressing issues, at home and abroad.

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