From left to right: former Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and Jewish philanthropist Adam Milstein at the Israeli-American Council’s first national conference in Washington, DC, in November 2014. The IAC announced the formation of a new partner organization. Photo: Shahar Azran.

JNS.org – The Israeli-American Council (IAC), a non-profit organization providing various means of support for the estimated Israeli-American population of 500,000-800,000, has announced the formation of a new partner organization — the Israeli-American Nexus (IANexus) — that will focus on advocating to legislative policymakers on behalf of Israeli Americans.

“We have formed the IANexus to make the voices of Israeli-Americans heard on a range of issues at the federal, state, and local level — from fighting Israel’s delegitimization to strengthening the US-Israel alliance to advancing our community’s domestic policy priorities,” said Shawn Evenhaim, chairman of the 501(c)(4) IANexus. The IAC, in contrast to its new partner, has 501(c)(3) status.

“The IANexus will have new tools at its disposal to mobilize Israeli-Americans in advocacy like never before,” Evenhaim added.

For its first major effort, the IANexus said it plans to muster communal support for the Combating BDS Act of 2016, which was recently introduced in Congress and supports US states’ rights to cut ties with companies that boycott Israel.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, the IAC was founded in 2007 with the stated mission “to build an active and giving Israeli-American community throughout the United States in order to strengthen the State of Israel, our next generation, and to provide a bridge to the Jewish-American community.” The organization has expanded rapidly in recent years, building a multimillion dollar community center in Los Angeles and establishing regional offices around the country.