Shai Franklin

Shai Franklin, recently named as the World Jewish Congress’s "Director of International Organizations and the Executive Director of the WJC American Section, oversees the WJC agenda regarding the UN and other international organizations, and coordinates outreach to the American Jewish community.

"On behalf of the WJC, he serves as treasurer to the Conference of Non- Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the UN (CONGO).

"Franklin, an activist in the Jewish organizational world for many years, came to the WJC after six years in Washington, DC, serving as the Director of Governmental Relations for the NCSJ (formerly the National Conference on Soviet Jewry). There, among other projects, he was involved in the coordination of strategy for the Helsinki Process — combating anti-Semitism throughout Europe and North America, culminating in the 2004 Berlin Declaration of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Prior to his work at the NCSJ, Franklin was the Managing Editor of Middle East Insight magazine and a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and at the United Nations Watch in Geneva. As an American Joint Distribution Committee Ralph I. Goldman fellow, he directed humanitarian projects in Russia and in India. Franklin also participated in the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture in Sweden. He has held several leadership positions within the American Jewish community and has researched and published many articles on Jewish affairs, American foreign policy and Middle Eastern policy."