AIPAC: Stop Hiding Identities of Officers and Directors

(Washington, D.C., December 18, 2025) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) should stop hiding the board members and executive staff who govern and direct its operations from its public website, said DAWN today. DAWN has launched "The Faces of AIPAC"—a comprehensive resource identifying the 50 individuals who run one of Washington's most powerful lobbying forces—to make readily available to the public those responsible for AIPAC'S activities.

"AIPAC has obfuscated the identities of its directors and officers from the American public, so today we're providing the transparency this organization refuses to offer," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. "AIPAC is not an abstraction—it is governed by real people who make decisions that have a real impact on the lives of people all around the world. The public has a right to easily know who they are."

DAWN's "The Faces of AIPAC" gallery can be viewed at www.AIPACwhoweare.org

AIPAC is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization incorporated in Washington, D.C. that lobbies Congress and the executive branch to advance pro-Israel policies, including billions of dollars in annual U.S. military aid to Israel, opposing conditions on weapon transfers, and opposing accountability measures against abusive Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC). AIPAC is also active in financing pro-Israel candidates in electoral politics, launching a political action committee (AIPAC PAC) and funding United Democracy Project (UDP), a super PAC. AIPAC PAC and UDP spent $126.9 million combined during the 2023-2024 election cycle, according to the FEC. As a tax-exempt nonprofit, AIPAC is subject to public disclosure requirements, which is precisely why accessibly identifying the individuals who govern and direct the organization matters. However, nowhere on AIPAC's website, not even on the "About Us" page, do the identities of these directors and officers appear.

AIPAC is run by 50 people: 41 board members who govern the organization and nine executives who implement its strategies. Under the Washington, D.C. Nonprofit Corporation Act, these individuals bear personal legal responsibility for the organizations they govern. Their fiduciary duties include implementing adequate oversight systems and responding to credible evidence of wrongdoing. D.C. Code § 29-406.42 explicitly requires officers with discretionary authority to act in good faith, exercise ordinary prudent-person care, and report any actual or probable violations of law to the board. While the statute provides some liability protection for directors of charitable corporations, it extends no such protection to officers, meaning AIPAC's executives face additional potential personal liability.

"These 50 officers and directors shouldn't try to hide behind the AIPAC name. U.S.nonprofit law makes them personally responsible for the organization's conduct," said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN. "No matter what AIPAC does, its board members and officers are legally on the hook. That is why we are putting faces to the names."

DAWN researchers compiled the profiles using publicly available data that AIPAC is legally mandated to disclose but which is not accessible on its website. AIPAC's most recent IRS Form 990 filing, for the fiscal year ending September 2024, identifies board members, officers, and key employees, along with their compensation and weekly time commitments. AIPAC is legally required to file Form 990 annually with the Internal Revenue Service, and these filings are public documents, but they appear nowhere on AIPAC'S website. Because IRS regulations allow organizations up to eleven months after their fiscal year ends to submit these forms, publicly available data typically lags by approximately one year. 

This inherent delay underscores why AIPAC—like most major organizations of its size and influence—should maintain a current, public-facing leadership page identifying its board members and senior executives. DAWN researchers supplemented this information with AIPAC's Lobbying Disclosure Act filings, Federal Election Commission records, professional databases, and other open-source materials. None of this information about AIPAC's directors and officers appears on AIPAC's website.

Identifying these 50 individuals matters not only for their own roles within AIPAC, but also because they function as a network of networks—simultaneously occupying leadership positions across virtually every major pro-Israel institution in America. For example,

      — AIPAC Board Chair Betsy Berns Korn also chairs the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella organization of 50 organizations that says it works to "sustain broad-based support for Israel" and "advance the U.S.-Israel special relationship, bolster Israel's security and prosperity and promote prospects for true and lasting peace in the Middle East." 

      — Her predecessor as Chair of the Conference of Presidents from June 2023 through May 2025, Harriet Schleifer, also sits on AIPAC's board alongside positions at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and past national presidency of the American Jewish Committee. 

      — Board member Michael Kassen, a former AIPAC president, serves as a trustee of the Hudson Institute, a right-wing neoconservative think tank, while his wife Shelly Kassen served as President of the Washington Institute from 2016–2020 and is currently Chairman Emeritus of its Board of Trustees. 

      — AIPAC board member Jamie Sprayregen sits on the Boards of Governors of both the Middle East Forum, a right-wing think tank that spreads misinformation and creates "watchlists" targeting academics, and the American Jewish Committee. 

      —Alan Levow, an AIPAC board member in 2024, is also Vice President of the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), which funds congressional trips to Israel. Howard Friedman, listed as an AIPAC board member, previously led AIEF as President (2010–2012). 

      — Robert Cohen, a former AIPAC President, formerly served as Acting President of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF). 

      — Alan Franco, another AIPAC board member in 2024, served on the International Board of Trustees of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

"Our research revealed that AIPAC's board is not just a group of any 50 individuals – it is a nexus connecting virtually every major pro-Israel institution in America," said Isabelle Hayslip, advocacy and communications specialist at DAWN. "Documenting AIPAC's leadership also exposes who controls the entire pro-Israel ecosystem."