Bulgaria with Notable Participation in Hillary Clinton's AJC Dinner

Diplomacy | April 30, 2010, Friday // 09:47|  views

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke for 45 minutes at at the AJC dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, DC. Photo by Maxim Behar

The Bulgarian delegation had a tangible presence at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s dinner with the American Jewish Committee Thursday night.

The dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, DC, concluded the three-day annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee, which was attended by US senators, house members, politicians, and representatives of the Jewish communities from around the world.

Bulgaria was represented at the annual meeting of the AJC by Maxim Behar, businessman, PR expert, and member of the Supreme Jewish Council in Bulgaria, and Victor Melamed, Chair of the Federation of Zionists in Bulgaria.

The AJC dinner with Hillary Clinton was also attended by Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov and Bulgarian Member of the European Parliament Antoniya Parvanova, who is a member of the board of the “European Friends of Israel” organization.

“Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov arrived to the dinner minutes before the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which led to numerous mentioning of Bulgaria during the entire evening – on the one hand, out of respect for the Foreign Minister, and on the other, of course, because of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust during World War II,” Maxim Behar told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency).

He also said the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, and Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Maxime Verhagen also contributed to the immense success of the AJC dinner with Hillary Cliton.

“The format of the dinner was rather unconventional even for me, and I have been visiting the AJC annual meetings for a decade, including the dinners with George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice. Clinton’s speech lasted 45 minutes, and was very lively, and dynamic, and clearly supporting Israel. In her words, the relations between the USA and Israel have never been so close and friendly,” Behar explained.

During the dinner Bulgarian Foreign Minister Mladenov had brief meetings with his Spanish and Dutch counterparts, as well as with the AJC Director David Harris, who also had a long talk with Bulgarian MEP Antoniya Parvanova.

“In his conversation with the Bulgarian guests, Harris, who is a great friend of Bulgaria, pointed out that the Bulgarian Jewish community is extreme active internationally but also within the country, and expressed gratitude for the huge success of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Sofia Synagogue in September 2009,” announced Maxim Behar, member of Jewish Council in Bulgaria and CEO of the largest Bulgarian PR company, M3 Communications Group, Inc.

As part of the AJC dinner with Clinton, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos received the Jan Karski annual award which is a tribute to those who display moral courage in the struggle against anti-Semitism.

The event was concluded by Cantor Max Fuchs, the man who performed the first Jewish religious service in Germany after the advent of Hitler – more than 65 year later he read the same prayer that he served in Aachen, Western Germany, in October 1944.

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Tags: American Jewish Committee, AJC, Washington, David Harris, Maxim Behar, Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, Nikolay Mladenov, Foreign Minister, Antoniya Parvanova, Jewish community

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