The American Zionist Council (AZC) was an Israeli lobby group founded in 1949. It represented nine nationwide Zionist organizations in matters related specifically to Zionism, following the independence of Israel. It was founded as a tax-exempt umbrella organization of American Jewish groups, which focused on Israel and included the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Hadassah, and other Zionist organizations active in the United States. It acted as an umbrella group for public relations, outreach, and lobbying on Capitol Hill. Between 1951 and 1953, its Washington representative was Isaiah L. Kenen.
Kenen organized the unincorporated American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (AZCPA) in 1951. AZCPA was primarily a "public relations" organization, emitting numerous news releases. In 1954, AZC divested itself of AZCPA "because its leaders did not want to use tax-exempt funds for lobbying."[1] Following its independence, AZCPA began involving American Jewish organizations not formally committed to Zionism in order to increase its credibility and separate itself from AZC's role as a middleman for the Israeli government. These efforts met with success, with AZCPA able to organize multiple meetings between Jewish leaders and the Eisenhower administration during the Suez Crisis, although they did not substantially change Eisenhower's approach to the crisis. AZCPA was renamed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in 1959, reflecting its position that a commitment to defending Israel now extended beyond American Zionist organizations to all Jewish organizations.[2]
AZC sent monthly newsletters entitled Near East Report and Israel Digest to every member of Congress. These newsletters were found to be funded in an indirect, circuitous manner by the Israeli government.[3] In 1962 President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby, in the United States Attorney General, forced the AZC to register as a foreign agent. In doing so, they were barred from making monetary contributions to US officials, but continued to send out newsletters and hold events with a nonprofit tax exemption. In 1966, AZC was dissolved after regulatory changes revoked tax exemption for foreign agents. Its former subsidiary AIPAC continues to operate.
^Nelson, Nancy Jo (1980) The Zionist Organizational Structure, Journal of Palestine Studies, 10:1, 80–93, doi:10.2307/2536485. p.84.
^Rossinow, Doug (2018). ""The Edge of the Abyss": The Origins of the Israel Lobby, 1949–1954". Modern American History. 1 (1): 23–43. doi:10.1017/mah.2017.17. ISSN 2515-0456.
^Nelson, Nancy Jo (1980) The Zionist Organizational Structure, Journal of Palestine Studies, 10:1, 80–93, doi:10.2307/2536485. pp.87-88.
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