Bella Abzug, 1920-1998
Abzug was the first Jewish woman elected to Congress, representing New York as a Democrat in the House from 1971 to 1977. The daughter of immigrants from Russia, she joined Zionist youth group Hashomer Hatzir…
Doron Almog, 1951-
Almog, a retired IDF major general, was unanimously nominated in June 2022 to serve a four-year term as the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, succeeding Isaac Herzog. A paratrooper, Almog was the first…
Louis Brandeis, 1856-1941
The first Jew on the U.S. Supreme Court, Brandeis influenced many American Jews in the early 20th century to become Zionists. He persuaded President Woodrow Wilson, a close friend, to support the 1917 Balfour Declaration…
George W. Bush, 1946-
The 43rd U.S. president, Bush offered a vision for a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution in June 2002 that inspired the “Roadmap for Peace” presented by the Quartet (the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia)…
Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024
The 39th U.S. president, Carter mediated the 1978 Camp David Accords and 1979 peace treaty between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The treaty was the first between Israel and an…
Emanuel Celler, 1888-1981
Celler was New York’s longest-serving congressman, holding a House seat from 1923 to 1973. He read Herzl during World War I and became a Zionist. He attempted to assist fellow Jews by opposing the Immigration…
Clark Clifford, 1906-1998
As a special presidential counsel, Clifford opposed the pro-Arab State Department and urged President Harry Truman to maintain support for the U.N. partition of Palestine and to lift the arms embargo on Jewish forces heading…
Bill Clinton, 1946-
As president, Clinton hosted the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, helped Jordan and Israel achieve a peace treaty in 1994, and mediated the 1995 Oslo II agreement that recognized the Palestinian Authority. He brokered…
Abba Eban, 1915-2002
A native of Cape Town, South Africa, who was raised in England and made aliyah in 1944, Eban was a diplomat, politician and writer. With the Jewish Agency’s U.N. delegation, he was heavily involved in…
Eliahu Elath, 1903-1990
A Ukraine-born journalist, politician and diplomat, Elath arrived in the Land of Israel in 1924, joined the Jewish Agency in 1934, and became Israel’s first ambassador to the United States and, when the diplomatic post…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Tom Lantos, 1928-2008
A native of Hungary, Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, representing California in the House from 1981 to 2008. Steven Spielberg’s documentary “The Last Days” featured Lantos’ life story. He was…
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…
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…
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…
Yitzhak Rabin, 1922-1995
Rabin was a two-time prime minister whose assassination shattered hopes for peace under the Oslo Accords, for which he shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. He also signed a…
1 2
