Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi
In the crowded field of Israel advocacy, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of The Israel Project, stands out, and not just because she is one of the few women leaders doing this kind of work. In the nearly 10 years since she founded TIP, the organization has grown from a Washington-based start-up to a global enterprise with 70 employees and an $11 million annual budget. This year, at a time when other Jewish organizations are contracting, TIP opened bureaus in India and China and launched a website in Arabic that attracted 25 million page views in its first six months.
Mizrahi, 47, a fast-talking former communications specialist who favors lots of exclamation points in her frequent e-mails, can sometimes sound like an alarmist on all things Israel. But her innovative approach to advocacy — bringing foreign diplomats to Israel, working on the ground in Asia and Latin America, reaching out to new audiences in their languages — is clearly filling an important niche. How many pro-Israel organizations have an Arabic website with 190,000 Facebook fans?
“We’re changing the paradigm,” she says. “It used to be that if you were pro-Israel, you were anti-Palestinian. We are pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian. It’s not a zero sum game.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!