Arthur Goldberg, 1908-1990
Goldberg resigned as a U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1965 to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He drafted the text of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, the basis of all “land…
David Harris, 1949-
Harris served as the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee from 1990 until the end of September 2022. He made advocacy for a Jewish, democratic, internationally accepted Israel a fundamental part of AJC’s efforts….
Isaac Herzog, 1960-
Herzog has served as the 11th president of Israel since July 2021. His father, Chaim Herzog, also served as president, and grandfather Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog was the chief rabbi of Ireland. A Tel Aviv native,…
King Hussein, 1935-1999
As Jordan’s king, Hussein tried to annex the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem while ruling them from 1948 to 1967. He lost everything west of the Jordan River after he attacked Israel to support Egypt…
Henry “Scoop” Jackson, 1912-1983
As a congressman from 1941 to 1953 and a senator from 1953 until 1983 for Washington state, Jackson was one of the leading pro-Zionist and pro-Israel voices in Congress. He wrote legislative amendments in 1970…
Eddie Jacobson, 1891-1955
Jacobson and Harry Truman became close friends during World War I and partnered after the war in a failed haberdashery. In March 1948, Jacobson visited Truman, now the president, at the White House and persuaded…
Lyndon Johnson, 1908-1973
The 36th U.S. president, Johnson increased U.S. economic and military support for Israel. Unlike Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, Johnson did not demand Israel’s immediate withdrawal from captured territory after the 1967 war. He outlined five…
Henry Morgenthau Jr., 1891-1967
Morgenthau was the U.S. secretary of the Treasury under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman from 1934 to 1945. He drove the creation of the War Refugee Board in 1944 to help Jews escape the Nazis…
Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh, 1984-
A lifelong resident of the Druze village of Daliyat al-Karmel, Kamal-Mreeh in 2017 became the first non-Jewish woman to anchor a Hebrew-language news program on Israeli television. In 2019, as part of Blue and White,…
Isaiah “Si” Kenen, 1905-1988
Kenen in 1951 founded the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs, the predecessor of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Kenen’s organization provided a united pro-Israel voice in Washington and helped win financial aid…
Jeane Kirkpatrick, 1926-2006
Kirkpatrick was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Ronald Reagan. She built a close relationship with Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Blum and was as staunch in her support of Israel as she was…
Frederick “Frank” Kisch, 1888-1943
A British brigadier general, Kisch chaired the predecessor to the Jewish Agency, the Palestine Zionist Executive, from 1918 to 1921. Kisch was prolific in Jewish life in Mandate Palestine. He helped found the Palestine Philharmonic…
Henry Kissinger, 1923-2023
Kissinger was the national security adviser and secretary of state to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He heavily influenced U.S. policy in the Middle East and made “shuttle diplomacy” famous after the October 1973…
Howard Kohr, 1955-
Kohr has served as the top executive of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee since 1996. Under Kohr, AIPAC has built support beyond the Jewish community. Its lobbying for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship has drawn…
Tom Lantos, 1928-2008
A native of Hungary, Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, representing California as a Democrat in the House from 1981 to 2008. Steven Spielberg’s documentary “The Last Days” featured Lantos’ life…
Naomi Lauter, 1930-2017
Recruited by Si Kenen, Lauter worked with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in San Francisco for more than 50 years, from chief volunteer recruiter to regional director to a consultant training staff across the…
Samuel Lewis, 1930-2014
Lewis served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1977 to 1985, second in tenure to Walworth Barbour. He played an important part in brokering Israeli-Egyptian peace and provided the on-site U.S. response to the…
Louis Marshall, 1856-1929
Marshall co-founded the American Jewish Committee and served as its president from 1912 to 1926. He supported efforts that aided the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and united Zionists and anti-Zionists in helping…
Golda Meir, 1898-1978
Born in Ukraine and raised in Wisconsin, Meir rose in Labor Zionism with the Histadrut and engaged in diplomacy for the Jewish Agency and Israel, including trying to keep Transjordan out of the 1948 war…
Mayer “Bubba” Mitchell, 1933-2007
A longtime resident of Alabama, Mitchell was the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee from 1990 to 1992 and AIPAC’s chairman from 1993 to 1996. As an activist and philanthropist for Jewish and…
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, 1927-2003
Moynihan was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1975 when the U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, equating Zionism with racism. He delivered a passionate speech lambasting the resolution and its supporters and…
Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 1961-
Bin Zayed, known as MBZ, is the president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi. In August 2020 he signed the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between the UAE and Israel….
Richard Nixon, 1913-1994
Though he expressed antisemitic views in private, Nixon as the 37th U.S. president authorized the airlift that replenished Israel’s arms during the October 1973 war, providing the means for Israel to end the war with…
Barack Obama, 1961-
The 44th U.S. president, Obama was less active in seeking Middle East peace than his three immediate predecessors and tried to strengthen relations with Israel’s neighbors. He split with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over…
