Clinton backs call for OSCE funding

By · February 19, 2008

Hillary Clinton backed a call by the American Jewish Committee to fund training for foreign police to combat hate crime.

In congressional testimony earlier this month, Andrew Baker, the AJC’s director of international Jewish affairs, said the U.S. State Department had stopped funding for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Law Enforcement Officer’s Program.

The program is headed by Paul Goldenberg, an AJC consultant.

In a statement Friday, Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.), who is vying with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for the Democratic presidential nomination, said she joined congressional colleagues in writing a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging further funding for such programs.

“Now is not the time to reduce our commitment to this important issue or to send the signal that combating anti-Semitism is no longer a top priority for the United States,” Clinton’s statement said. “I urge the administration to reconsider these reductions in support for the OSCE and work with the Congress to keep the United States at the forefront of the fight against anti-Semitism.”