The 13 organizations and one movement profiled here were selected for the length and breadth of their work and/or their significant impact on the Jewish community, the American political landscape, or both. In alphabetical order, the groups are: Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now (APN), Breira, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom (BTvS), Committee on New Alternatives in the Middle East (CONAME), Israel Policy Forum (IPF), J Street, Jewish Peace Lobby, Jewish Student Movement, New Jewish Agenda (NJA), Partners for Progressive Israel (PPI), Project Nishma, Shalom Network, and Tikkun.
Time prevents me from acknowledging the many other impressive American Jewish two-state peace initiatives that have or do exist; in particular, the impressive Middle East peace work of the American Jewish Congress under the leadership of former executive director Henry Siegman and presidents Theodore Mann (1984-1988) and Robert K. Lifton (1988-1994). Nor is there space to acknowledge the many American Jews who have, since the 1970s, nurtured covert meetings between Israeli and Palestinian doves and served as intermediaries for Israelis who were legally prohibited from speaking with PLO representatives prior to the 1993 Oslo Agreement. Despite these limitations, I offer this document as a testament to a courageous history.