November 13, 2007
Approved by the JCRC Metropolitan Council
In 1989 the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, Sonoma, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties (JCRC) sent a letter to the Armenian Bishop of San Francisco supporting U.S. Senate Joint Resolution 212 which designated April 24, 1990, as a National Day of Remembrance for the genocidal attacks of 1915–1923 on the Armenian population by the Ottoman regime of the time.
In recalling the tragic events that occurred almost a century ago, it is not our intent to harm or discredit the current government and people of Turkey. We greatly value our relationship with the Turkish community here and abroad. We also recognize and respect the long history of the Jewish community in Turkey.
Our historical experience as victims of the Nazi Holocaust, only two decades after the tragedy meted out to the Armenian people, propels our sense of moral duty to recognize and acknowledge genocide suffered by any people as well as to oppose current acts of genocide targeting any ethnic population. We must do whatever we can to prevent such catastrophes from happening again.
Therefore, we strongly reiterate our 1989 position expressed in our letter to the Armenian Bishop of San Francisco supporting efforts to educate Americans about the tragic events of 1915–1923.
The Jewish Community Relations Council is the central public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community, representing more than 80 synagogues and Jewish organizations in the Bay Area on pubic affairs issues.
JCRC is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties and the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay.