NEW YORK (Press Release)—The Israel Action Network (IAN), an initiative launched by The Jewish Federations of North America, in partnership with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) to combat the assault on the legitimacy of the State of Israel, announced Friday the hiring of Geri D. Palast as Managing Director.
Palast brings extensive experience organizing and leading broad-based national grassroots and legislative issue campaigns to her new role with the Israel Action Network. From 1993-2000, Palast served as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs during the Clinton Administration.
“We are thrilled to bring Geri to the helm of Israel Action Network,” said Jerry Silverman, President and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America. “With her understanding and passionate involvement within the Jewish community and her impressive campaign experience, we are excited to continue to grow the network and its impact.”
“Supporting Geri will be a number of Jewish community relations veterans, including Martin J. Raffel, JCPA Senior Vice President who also is serving as IAN Project Director,” according to Rabbi Steve Gutow, President and CEO of the JCPA.
Leading the Israel Action Network, Palast will bring to bear her long history in public policy and organizing to further the Network’s goal of mobilizing communities across North America to more effectively counter attacks on Israel’s legitimacy, particularly within civil society, and to take forward looking steps to promote a fair and balanced understanding of Israel and the situation in the Middle East.
“I am honored and eager to begin leading the Israel Action Network at this critical time, especially as efforts to isolate Israel among the family of nations escalate at an alarming pace,” Palast said. “With the Israel Action Network, we have an invaluable apparatus to address this challenge, which has been widely characterized as a strategic threat to the State of Israel.”
Working in conjunction with the broad range of groups addressing this challenge, the Israel Action Network is designed to facilitate effective communication and collaboration in order to leverage all the assets of the Jewish community to confront threats to Israel’s legitimacy head-on.
The Israel Action Network, with David Sherman of Chicago serving as its volunteer chair, was first announced in November 2010 at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America and is building upon initial efforts to identify and quickly challenge emerging threats to the legitimacy of the state of Israel that often are manifested in calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions.
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Preceding provided by Israel Action Network