The Israeli-American Council is an American nonprofit organization that represents and serves more than 250,000 Israeli-Americans across the country. Its mission is to preserve and strengthen the Israeli and Jewish identities of future generations, strengthen the American Jewish community, and strengthen the relationship between citizens of the United States and the State of Israel. As of 2017, the IAC is the fastest-growing Jewish organization in the world.
History
;Israeli Leadership Council In 2007, the Israeli Leadership Council was founded in Los Angeles by a group of Israeli-American business leaders and philanthropists. The first ILC event was held in July 2007, where approximately 80 Israeli-American business leaders gathered to at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to hear from Los Angeles MayorAntonio Villaraigosa and Israel's Consul General, Ehud Danoch. The event was organized by Danny Alpert, Adam Milstein, Eli Tene, Steve Erdman, Naty Saidoff, Eli Marmour, and Shoham Nicolet following a meeting between Alpert and Danoch. Danoch met with Alpert because, when the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles organized a pro-Israel rally in summer 2006, few Israeli-Americans attended the event despite more than 200,000 Israeli-Americans residing in the greater Los Angeles area. The ILC's first board was co-chaired by Alpert and Tene, and included Milstein, Erdman, Marmour, Saidoff, Shawn Evenhaim, Yossi Rabinovitz, and Nissan Pardo. Shoham Nicolet was asked to volunteer to lead the venture as the Founding Executive Director. They set the organization's "three pillars" of engagement: to strengthen future generations of Israeli-Americans, the American Jewish community and the State of Israel. The board set six initial goals:
establish a Jewish-Israeli identity within the Israeli-American community
build a Los Angeles chapter as a model for national chapters
establish a stronger relationship between the State of Israel and Israeli-Americans
get Israeli-Americans to engage with the Jewish-American community
foster a culture of philanthropy within the Israeli-American community
involve Israeli-Americans with pro-Israel movements
The Los Angeles office opened in January 2007. By 2008, the ILC grew to approximately 25,000 participants and began receiving support from Beny Alagem, Leo David and Haim Saban. It held its first event, "Live for Sderot", in partnership with the Israeli Consulate to bring educational technologies to schools in Sderot, which was under constant missile attack. The gala had 1,800 attendees and featured videos from 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. The ILC also launched project Tzav 8 to involve Israeli-Americans to public support of Israel. The ILC held its First Annual Gala Dinner in 2009. That year, it also began supporting other Jewish and Israeli organizations and began developing its own programs: Bina, a group of Israeli and Jewish American young professionals, and Sifriyat Pijama B-America, a Hebrew literacy program for children aged 2–8. Sagi Balasha became the ILC's CEO in September 2011. Under his leadership, the organization launched ILC Care, which to foster volunteerism in the Israeli-American community, and began holding the Celebrate Israel Festival, an American celebration of Yom Ha'Atzmaut. Approximately 50,000 people were involved with the ILC by 2013, mostly in the Los Angeles area. Israeli-American Council In 2013, the ILC rebranded as the Israeli-American Council and, with major support from Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, the organization launched a National Expansion Plan, focused on creating regional councils across the United States. By summer 2014, the IAC had a staff of 60 people, an annual budget of $17.5 million, six regional offices, and 150,000 participants, making the IAC the fastest-growing Jewish organization. In September 2013, the IAC began hosting a national conference in Washington, D.C. By 2014, IAC Merkaz and IAC Shishi Israel were established, as were regional chapters in Boston, Florida, Las Vegas, and New York. In October 2014, Adam Milstein became the Chairman of the IAC, and Shoham Nicolet returned as the organization's CEO. The IAC established regional chapters in New Jersey, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., in 2015, and ones in Seattle, Arizona, and Philadelphia in 2016. During 2017 The IAC established regional chapters in Colorado, Houston, San Diego & San Francisco, and the chapters in Atlanta, Austin, Midwest and Orange County in 2018. Those years also saw the launch of IAC Manhigut, IAC Act, and IAC Eitanim. By the end of 2018, the organization has 20 regional offices and more than 58 active communities, serving more than 250,000 people.
The first annual conference of IAC leadership and Israeli-American community leaders from the United States was held in November 2014 in Washington, D.C. and drew over 750 participants and speakers. The fifth IAC National Conference in 2018 was held in Florida with over 3,100 attendees. Speakers included:
Formerly the Israeli-American Nexus, the Israeli-American Coalition for Action is a partner organization of the IAC. The IAC for Action is a non-profit, bipartisan organization dedicated to strengthening the US-Israel relationship and making the voices of Israeli-Americans heard by policymakers on a range of issues at the federal, state, and local level. Key initiatives include supporting economic collaboration between the United States and Israel and advocating for legislation that bars governments from contracting with organizations that discriminate against Israelis by participating in the BDS Movement.
