Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel

AACI describes itself as a volunteer-driven organization that uses the strengths, talents, and passions of Israel's English-speaking olim community to develop projects serving and connecting Jewish people in Israel and the diaspora.[6] A lay board governs the organization, professional staff administer its programs, and its projects are funded through members, foundations, membership dues, and fundraising campaigns.[1]

By 2018, AACI was serving English-speaking immigrants from all countries through absorption counseling, social activities, and advice about rights and benefits. The government guide then in force listed branches in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Netanya, and Be'er Sheva, while AACI's current counseling page offers in-person appointments in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Netanya.[3][4]

A November 10, 2024, Jerusalem Post column reported that AACI was expected to approve constitutional changes at its November 11 annual general meeting. The proposed expansion would allow it to assist the general Israeli population and involve people whose native language is not English, but the cited report did not establish whether the changes were subsequently enacted.[7]

Sophie A. Udin helped organize the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel in 1951, with the stated purpose of easing the absorption of American immigrants.[8] The Labor Zionist Alliance led the effort to establish AACI as a nonpartisan framework for North Americans living in Israel, placing it among the Alliance's broader activities in support of Israel and its development.[9]

Murray Greenfield, who had served in the Merchant Marines and was one of 250 American volunteers who sailed between 1946 and 1948 to bring Jewish refugees toward Palestine, became a founding member and later executive director of AACI.[10][11] During his leadership, Greenfield established the organization's first loan funds, a mortgage fund, and housing projects in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and on kibbutzim, addressing what he identified as a continuing housing challenge for people making aliyah.[11]

By the mid-1970s, AACI had a recognized role among non-governmental immigrant-support efforts, alongside American regional aliyah councils and other Zionist-oriented organizations.[12] The 1976 Brandeis Program in Israel included a session on AACI's role in absorbing Western immigrants and in Israeli society, led by AACI director Ernie Segal.[13]

Eliezer D. Jaffe's 1977 proposal for a North American Absorption Office envisioned AACI volunteer and counseling services as part of a coordinated immigrant-support system. Under the proposal, a designated "big brother" family would help newcomers understand "the new and strange customs" and everyday matters such as shopping.[12]

AACI's professional counselors provide individualized pre- and post-aliyah guidance on Israeli bureaucracy, advocacy with government offices, residency status, U.S. Social Security benefits, and limited employment and job-search assistance.[4] Appointments are available by video call, telephone, email, and in person in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Netanya.[4]

In 1997, Jerusalem-based therapist Naomi Raz was part of the AACI Comprehensive Psychological Service. She described a generally three-year aliyah-adjustment process with variable stages and emphasized that her model was "not carved in stone."[14]

Community advocacy is another component of AACI's activities. It has lobbied to modify the effects of Israeli tax laws and for social and economic legislation, published an emergency handbook, provided legal and tax consultations, and worked on road safety and smoking in public spaces.[1] Avi Kay's research on American immigrants' political activism characterizes AACI as a key participant in the public campaign that led to direct elections for prime minister. The "American-style" system first took effect in 1996 and was repealed by the Knesset in 2001.[15]

The periodical AACI Jerusalem Voice was published in Jerusalem from 1967 to 1999 as a bimonthly English-language publication. The National Library of Israel catalogs it under subjects including American and Canadian Jews and immigrants in Israel and records that it was continued under the title The Voice.[16]

One undated published estimate describes AACI as a voluntary Zionist organization serving approximately 120,000 North Americans living in Israel. The figure represents a population served rather than a membership count, and its date and methodology are not specified.[2]

AACI Student Connect, operated in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel, pairs Jewish university students from Israel and the diaspora for one-to-one online conversations and reports pairing more than 900 students.[17] AACI's impact summary lists participants from 80 campuses across 10 countries over 10 cohorts.[6] Guided educational modules structure discussions around Jewish identity, antisemitism, and participants' connections to Israel and their communities.[17]

AACI's commemorative work began in 1967, when it joined with Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund to plant the first trees at a memorial forest near Sha'ar Hagai in the Jerusalem Hills in memory of North American olim and family members who died in the Six-Day War.[18] The forest was formally dedicated as an AACI memorial site on July 7, 1977, following an initiative by bereaved parents.[18] More than 1,000 additional trees were planted and a memorial wall erected in 1983, and the site was subsequently upgraded.[18] Its scope expanded to encompass people who died before Israel's establishment, in later wars and terrorist attacks, as well as tourists, temporary residents, AACI associate members, and their families from other English-speaking countries.[18]

AACI Remembers says the organization's commemorative work includes collecting information and personal stories about people who fell beginning in 1920.[19] A May 2024 report described the project as honoring people from English-speaking countries or AACI members who died in military service or as victims of terrorism, with records searchable by name, hometown, or year of birth.[20]

AACI's current About page reports 448 names on its memorial wall for the period from 1920 through October 6, 2023, and 83 names added from October 7, 2023, onward.[6] By contrast, the May 2024 report quoted AACI CEO David London as giving figures of 360 names before October 7 and 77 names added since. The sources do not explain the difference in their totals or inclusion criteria.[20]

Through AACI Gives, the organization arranged hotel accommodations and a Shabbat program outside missile range for more than 20 families after attacks on Ashkelon. It also established and staffed a youth center at the Dead Sea for evacuees from attacked kibbutzim and Sderot, supplied computer equipment to a Sderot senior center, and donated 150 tablets to children with learning disabilities and post-trauma.[5]

On June 26, 2024, AACI sponsored a year-end Bar Mitzvah celebration at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem for 26 boys and their families from a Kiryat Shmona school displaced by the war. The event included food, music, photography, and a Tanakh for each boy, while students from Netivot School in Toronto exchanged letters with the participants.[5]