J Street
J Street is a nonprofit liberal Zionist advocacy and lobby group based in the United States whose aims include strengthening Jewish democracy in Israel, promoting a diplomatic end to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution, and opposing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
J Street describes itself as "the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the Jewish people". Many right-wing and Zionist critics allege that J Street and the policies they support are anti-Israel. At the same time, Left-wing and anti-Zionist movements criticize J Street's positions supporting Zionism and aid to Israel, its rejection of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and human rights organizations' allegations of a Gaza genocide, and past efforts against Palestinian statehood.
Etymology
J Street, as an American lobby organization aimed at Washington leaders and policymakers, derived its name from the alphabetically named street plan of Washington, D.C.: J Street is missing from the grid. Also, by association, the letter J is a reference to "Jewish". Further, K Street is a street in downtown Washington on which many influential lobbying firms are located, and that become synonymous for Washington's formidable lobbying establishment. Consequently, the choice of the name reflects the desire of J Street's founders and donors to bring a message to Washington that, metaphorically like the missing "J Street" of the D.C. grid, has thus far been absent.Political vision
J Street's stated aim is to provide a political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who believe that a "two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel's survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy". J Street strongly opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.According to its executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street is proud of AIPAC's accomplishments, but the two groups have different priorities rather than different views. Explaining the need for a new lobbying group, Ben-Ami stated: "Israel's interests will be best served when the United States makes it a major foreign policy priority to help Israel achieve a real and lasting peace...." Alan Solomont, one of the founders of J Street and a former national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, described the need for J Street in the following way:"We have heard the voices of neocons, and right-of-center Jewish leaders and Christian evangelicals, and the mainstream views of the American Jewish community have not been heard." During its first conference, Ben-Ami said, "The party and the viewpoint that we're closest to in Israeli politics is actually Kadima." According to Peter Frey, a financier and chairman of J Street's board, "J Street is a Zionist organization, It's 'pro-Israel, pro-peace' — it starts with 'pro-Israel.'"
The Washington Post described the perceived differences between J Street and AIPAC: "While both groups call themselves bipartisan, AIPAC has won support from an overwhelming majority of Republican Jews, while J Street is presenting itself as an alternative for Democrats who have grown uncomfortable with both Netanyahu's policies and the conservatives' flocking to AIPAC."
In 2011, J Street opposed recognizing Palestine as an independent state at the United Nations. J Street endorsed the nuclear disarmament deal with Iran, which Obama supported and Netanyahu and AIPAC opposed. In 2016 the political focus of J Street was to unseat Republican senators who led U.S. Congressional opposition to the Iran deal.
Structure
J Street and J Street PAC, founded in April 2008, exist as separate legal entities with different political functions. The J Street Education Fund joined the J Street family of organizations in 2009:- J Street – a 501 nonprofit advocacy group which aims to "support strong American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts peacefully and diplomatically".
- The J Street PAC – a political action committee for political and financial support to candidates seeking election who agree with J Street's goals.
- The J Street Education Fund, Inc. – a 501 charitable organization for education about a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to advance a liberal Zionist vision for a Jewish democratic state.
- J Street U – the student organizing arm of J Street, with chapters on university and college campuses.
J Street's advisory council consists of former public officials, policy experts, community leaders and academics, including Daniel Levy, a former Israeli advisor who drafted the Geneva Initiative, Franklin Fisher and Debra DeLee of Americans for Peace Now, Marcia Freedman of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, Democratic Middle East foreign policy expert Robert Malley, former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, former U.S. ambassador to Israel Samuel W. Lewis, former Rhode Island governor and Republican U.S. senator Lincoln Chafee. and Hannah Rosenthal, former head of the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.
J Street's rabbinic cabinet consists of North American rabbis, cantors and cantorial students. The group is co-chaired by Rabbis John Rosove of Temple Israel of Hollywood and John Friedman of Durham's Judea Reform Congregation.
Activities
Political fundraising
The J Street PAC acts as a traditional political action committee raising funds to support a limited number of candidates for Senate and Congressional races. J Street lobbies for and against Israel-related bills and legislation.For the 2008 Congressional elections, the J Street PAC raised $600,000 and, according to J Street, 33 of the 41 candidates it backed won their seats.
J Street's first-year budget for fiscal 2009 was $1.5 million. This is a modest figure for a PAC, though Gary Kamiya writes that J Street hopes to raise significant money online, following the blueprint of MoveOn and the Barack Obama presidential campaign.
In 2010, J Street PAC endorsed 61 candidates — 3 for the Senate and 58 for the House. 45 of the PAC's candidates won. The J Street PAC distributed over $1.5 million to its candidates, more than any other pro-Israel PAC in the two-year cycle.
Confidential IRS documents obtained by The Washington Times in 2010 showed that George Soros had been a donor to J Street since 2008. The approximately $750,000 from Soros and his family, together with donations from Hong Kong-based businesswoman Consolacion Esdicul, amounted to about 15% of J Street's funding in its early years. In previous statements and on its web site J Street had seemed to deny receiving support from foreign interests and from Soros, a bête noire to conservatives. Jeremy Ben-Ami apologized for earlier "misleading" statements regarding funding from Soros. Ben-Ami also clarified that donors to 501 organizations are promised confidentiality by law and challenged critics to make public the contributors to opposing organizations. Rabbi Steve Gutow, a president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, called J Street "irresponsible" for its handling of the issue.
In the 2014 election cycle, J Street PAC contributed over $2.4 million to its 95 endorsed candidates, the most in history by a pro-Israel PAC.
In the 2016 election cycle, J Street PAC distributed $3.6 million to its 124 endorsed candidates, and not a single incumbent Iran deal supporter was unseated by a deal detractor.
Critics have pointed out that according to Federal Election Commission filings in 2009, dozens of Arab and Muslim Americans and Iranian advocacy organizations donated tens of thousands of dollars to J Street, representing "a small fraction" of the group's fund-raising. Donors included Lebanese-American businessman Richard Abdoo, who is a board member of Amideast and a former board member of the Arab American Institute, and Genevieve Lynch, who is also a member of the National Iranian American Council board. More than 20% of the citizens of Israel are Arab, most of whom are Muslim.
Other projects and activities
In July 2010 J Street supported the construction of the Cordoba House cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York. President Jeremy Ben-Ami released a statement saying: "The Muslim community has an equal right to build a community center wherever it is legal to do so."In September 2010, J Street started a project "They Don't Speak For Us", which criticizes the Emergency Committee for Israel, a right-wing advocacy group created by William Kristol and Gary Bauer.
In May 2012, a J Street delegation visited Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, headed by Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami.
In November 2012, J Street lobbied the U.S. Senate against a group of bills that would have penalized the Palestinian National Authority if it used its recently elevated status of "observer" at the United Nations to bring international charges against Israel.
During the 2023-2025 Gaza war, J Street U led efforts against both right-wing Zionism and left-wing anti-Zionism on college campuses, including by rejecting the platforming of officials affiliated with the Netanyahu administration as well as calls for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against Israel. Simultaneously, J Street U has led talks promoting a two-state solution aligned with a liberal Zionist vision for Jewish democracy in Israel. J Street U has eschewed calls for an Israeli, Palestinian, or binational one-state solution, while defending the civil rights of student protestors, such as those involved in the pro-Palestinian encampment movement.
On August 3, 2025, J-Street founder Ben-Ami wrote on his Substack, "Until now, I have tried to deflect and defend when challenged to call this genocide. I have, however, been persuaded rationally by legal and scholarly arguments that international courts will one day find that Israel has broken the international genocide convention", marking a potential shift in J Street's position.