Jeremy Ben-Ami

Founder and President of J Street, an organisation for mainstream American supporters of Israel

Jeremy Ben-Ami is the Founder and President of J Street.

He started J Street in 2008, bringing together both deep experience in American politics and government and a passionate commitment to the state of Israel.

Ben-Ami’s family connection to Israel goes back 130 years to the first aliyah when his great-grandparents were among the first settlers in Petah Tikva. His grandparents were one of the founding families of Tel Aviv, and his father was an activist and leader in the Irgun, working for Israel’s independence and on the rescue of European Jews before and during World War II.

His political resume includes serving in the mid-1990s as the Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor in the White House to President Bill Clinton and working on seven Presidential and numerous state and local campaigns. Highlights from his political career include serving as Howard Dean’s National Policy Director in 2004 and helping to manage a Mayoral campaign in New York City in 2001. He also spent nearly a decade working in New York City government on homeless housing development.

For nearly three years in the late 90s, Jeremy himself lived in Israel, where he started a consulting firm working with Israeli non-profit organizations and politicians.

Ben-Ami received a law degree from New York University and is a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Relations at Princeton University.