Friday, December 14, 2018 | Venue Six10
610 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL
We are pleased to honor Mark Zivin for his commitment to J Street. A leader of J Street since its inception, Mr. Zivin has been actively involved in the Jewish community for the past 30 years and has served on J Street’s Advisory Board and Finance Committee since 2008. He was integral in developing the Chicago chapter of J Street and served as the chair of its Executive Committee from 2008-2016. In addition to his local leadership, Mr. Zivin is active on the political side of J Street, having travelled to Israel on multiple Congressional delegations and missions with J Street and he works diligently at maintaining relationships with Members of Congress often leading delegations to the Hill during advocacy days. He served for seven years on the National Board of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, and as its Treasurer. He was the Chair of the Capital Campaign that funded the creation of Camp Havaya (formerly, Camp JRF) in the Poconos, the Reconstructionist Movement’s first summer camp. Recently, Mark has joined the Board of Directors of The Alliance for Middle East Peace.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Amb. Dan Shapiro, former United States Ambassador to Israel, a position he held from July 2011 until the end of the Obama Administration. He won praise from leaders of both countries for his deft management of the U.S.-Israel relationship during Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, the Iran nuclear agreement, regional instability, and periods of significant bilateral tension and disagreement. Among his major contributions were negotiating the $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding for U.S. military aid to Israel, unprecedented public outreach in fluent Hebrew to Israel’s diverse communities, and 40 percent growth in U.S.-Israel trade.