NEW YORK (Press Release) – The Israeli-American Council (IAC), the largest Israeli-American organization in the United States, announced the opening of its newest Regional Office in New York City this week to serve the New York Metropolitan area Israeli-American community. Some 200,000 Israeli-Americans are estimated to live in the area, mostly in or around New York City.
The IAC New York Metro Regional Office, will immediately begin to launch community initiatives in keeping with IAC’s mission of building the Israeli-American community which, in turn, can help broaden support for Israel, bolster the Jewish and Israeli identity of future generations, and create a bridge to the Jewish-American community at large. The new Regional Office is part of IAC’s national growth, which includes opening regional offices in cities throughout the United States to provide community and national-level structure for Israeli-Americans, working together with other organizations, and through its IAC Community Grant program, providing support to Israeli-American initiatives throughout the U.S. The IAC New York Metro Regional Office will be located at 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St. on the 46th floor.
Yehudit Feinstein-Mentesh, the incoming IAC New York Metro Regional Director, brings extensive experience from the non-profit Israeli-American world, most recently working as the founder and director of Israelis in Brooklyn at Congregation Beth Elohim (CBE) in Brooklyn and as Chair of the UJA Roundtable Forum of Jewish Leaders in Brooklyn. Members of the IAC New York Metro Regional Council, serving as the local board, include Co-Chairs Gil Galanos, and Rachel Davidson, and Ran Fuchs, Ronen Schwartzman, Gaby Gonen, Shimon Shkury, Eytan Behiri, Ron Deutsch, Ariel Tirosh, Meirav Azoulay, Joe Berko, Jacky Teplitzky, Tamir Oren, Oded Har-Even.
The establishment of the IAC New York Metro Regional office comes at the heels of the IAC’s adoption of IAC Dor Chadash (previously Dor Chadash) earlier this year, which will be headed by incoming IAC Dor Chadash Director Neve Rabino. Neve previously served as the Manager of the East Coast Branch of the Friends of the Israeli Scouts. His vast leadership experience includes serving in the Israel Defense Forces as a First Sergeant, where he was a combat soldier in the counter terror team, part of the elite paratrooper’s reconnaissance unit, and received a recognition medal for his role during the Second Lebanon War.
“Our entire IAC Regional Council is thrilled to be bringing the IAC to the New York area and is confident that we will be playing a leading role in the national Israeli-American network,” said Davidson. “We have a great council and are looking forward to doing wonderful things for the broader Israeli-American community in this area. We have heard from our community that it cares deeply about our children maintaining their identity and relationship with Israel, and under the leadership of our new regional director, Yehudit Feinstein-Mentesh, we are prepared to roll out programs for them immediately. My co-chair, Gil Galanos, and our entire council is ready to make this organization a game-changer for all Israeli-Americans in our area.”
A special committee leading the IAC’s growth efforts is chaired by Israeli-American philanthropist Adam Milstein and is comprised of IAC National Chairman, Shawn Evenhaim; IAC Co-founding Chairman, Danny Alpert; IAC CEO, Sagi Balasha; and IAC COO, Miri Belsky.
The IAC currently helps support close to 40 organizations related to the Israeli-American community in the United States. It also runs a variety of community programming. Among its projects are Celebrate Israel, the largest Jewish festival in North America; Sifriyat Pijama B’America (SP-BA) the largest Hebrew outreach program in North America, reaching 10,000 families every month in partnership with The Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) and Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation; IAC BINA and IAC Dor Chadash, programs for young professional Israeli-Americans and other young Jews, which work to strengthen connections within the community and to Israel; IAC Care, a volunteer community for Israeli and Jewish Americans of all ages in Los Angeles; MISHELANU, a young leadership group on American college campuses where Israeli-Americans come together to strengthen their Jewish and Israeli identities and their ties to Israel; and TZAV 8, which organizes community activists to participate in demonstrations and pro-Israeli activities, and others.
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Preceding provided by the Israeli American Council