Jason F. Isaacson

Jason F. Isaacson has been director of AJC's Office of Government and International Affairs in Washington, D.C., since July 1991. Long involved in government, politics and journalism at the national and local levels, Isaacson has studied, written and worked as an advocate on U.S.-Israel relations, the search for Middle East peace, and a range of domestic and international issues.

In his current post, Isaacson is responsible for maintaining relations between AJC and the White House, Congress, federal agencies, foreign governments and their embassies in Washington, political parties, and other civic, religious and human relations groups in Washington. He oversees AJC's international offices and the agency's efforts to assure the welfare and security of Jews around the world. He also serves as director of AJC's Asia and Pacific Rim Institute.

Isaacson was an observer to the 1991-1992 Middle East peace talks in Madrid, Moscow and Washington, and represented AJC at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. He coordinated AJC ministerial meetings in Saudi Arabia in 1994 and has since directed AJC consultations throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, as well as across Europe. He has made repeated working visits to Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, as well as to China, Japan, India and Korea. The ministerial meetings he coordinated in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait in 1995, and in Indonesia and UAE in 2000, were the first by an American Jewish civic organization, as were his first missions to Yemen and Sri Lanka in 1997. In December 1997, he organized an AJC conference in New Delhi celebrating India's and Israel's 50th anniversaries of independence. Since 2001, he has spearheaded AJC earthquake-relief efforts in Gujarat state, India. In November 1999, he monitored relief efforts in East Timor. He has twice lectured at the Diplomatic Institute of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. From June to August 2002, he was a Senior Visitor at St. Antony's College of Oxford University.

Before joining AJC, Isaacson was chief of staff to Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, and was responsible for managing the legislative and political agendas of a senator active in foreign policy - particularly regarding the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America - and domestic affairs, focusing on children's issues and securities market reform. Isaacson joined Sen. Dodd's staff as press secretary in January 1987; from 1980-1982, he was press secretary for then-Rep. William R. Ratchford, also of Connecticut.

Isaacson founded and edited Independent News Service, a Washington-based syndicate, and worked for 10 years as a political writer, editor and bureau chief for Connecticut newspapers. He was a regular contributor to the New York Times and Military Logistics Forum, a defense industry magazine. His writing for AJC includes periodic analyses of U.S. elections and frequent reports on international topics, including One-Sided, an annual review of UN resolutions on the Middle East. He is co-editor of the book Islam in Asia (Transaction Publishers/Rutgers University, 2001).

Born and raised in New York, Isaacson graduated from Vassar College in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in political science and English. He lives in Washington with his wife and two children.