By: Admin

Via: Jewcity.com (also published in boston.forward.com and paramuspost.com

The Los Angeles-based Israeli-American Council (IAC), the largest Israeli-American organization in the Unites States, announced the opening of its newest Regional Office in Boston this week to serve the Boston-area Israeli-American community. Some 15,000 Israelis are estimated to live in Massachusetts, mostly in or around Greater Boston.

The IAC Boston Regional Office will immediately begin to launch community initiatives in keeping with IAC’s mission of building up the Israeli-American community which, in turn can help broaden support for Israel, bolster the Jewish and Israeli identity of the next generation, and engage in outreach to the Jewish-American community at large. The new Regional Office is part of IAC’s national growth, which includes opening local offices in communities throughout the United States to provide community and national-level structure for Israeli-Americans, working together with other organizations to offer support, and through its grant program, providing funding to Israeli-American initiatives throughout the U.S.

Na’ama Ore, the newly appointed IAC Boston Regional Director, brings extensive experience from the non-profit world, most recently working for Clalit, Israel’s largest public health service provider. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Members of the IAC Boston Regional Council, serving as the local board, include Co-Chairs Ilan Segev and Rachel Chafetz, and Phyllis Gottleib, Dr. Avi Almozlino, Sara Aronson, Gil Breiman, Yiftach Wiesel, David Fine, Robert Mayer and Gideon Argov.

“We are thrilled to bring the Israeli-American Council to Boston,” said Rachel Chafetz, IAC Boston Co-Chair. “Our vibrant and dynamic community has long awaited substantial and relevant programming on this scale, and we are excited to connect to the national Israeli-American network.”

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 30 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); IAC BINA, a program for young professional Israeli-Americans and other young Jews, which works 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.