Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C.

The embassy is located at 3514 International Drive NW, Washington, D.C. 20008, and its listed telephone number is 202-364-5500.[2] The embassy’s consular information gives the same address and describes procedures for authenticating documents for use in Israel, including different requirements for documents from countries inside and outside the Hague Apostille Convention.[8]

The mission’s work areas include congressional affairs, political affairs, economic and trade missions, public diplomacy, academic and cultural affairs, press, defense and armed-forces attachés, and consular services.[5] It is part of a wider Israeli consular network that includes posts in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.[1]

The embassy is a diplomatic post as well as a point of contact for official and public-facing relations. A former ambassador writing about his service described the mission’s work as spanning strategic, diplomatic, commercial, social, scientific, and religious connections, and recounted outreach through media, campus visits, cultural events, and engagement with American Jewish communities.[9]

On June 22, 1948, Eliahu Epstein—later known as Eliahu Elath—was recognized as Special Representative of Israel’s Provisional Government, and a non-diplomatic mission was established in Washington.[3] The United States and Israel agreed in February 1949 to establish embassies in their respective capitals, and Elath was appointed Israel’s first ambassador to the United States.[4] The embassy opened on April 8, 1949; Elath’s appointment was recorded that day and his ambassadorial status from April 11.[3]

The mission’s early history unfolded as the new State of Israel sought formal recognition and diplomatic ties with the United States. A Mosaic essay argues that, before Israel’s declaration of statehood, Elath—then using the name Epstein—wrote to President Harry Truman on May 14, 1948, to notify him of the impending declaration and request U.S. recognition; the essay says Truman recognized Israel despite objections from Secretary of State George Marshall.[10] It also describes Elath’s turn to Congress after Marshall would not meet with him, and credits his lobbying with helping Israel obtain a $100 million Export-Import Bank loan in 1949.[10]

An early symbolic exchange connected the new diplomatic relationship with Jewish religious life: in 1949, Elath presented Truman with an ark for a Torah given to the president by Chaim Weizmann after Truman’s recognition of Israel.[11] Local Jews selected and purchased Israel’s first embassy near Embassy Row shortly after Israel was established, and the ambassador and his family later participated in local religious and community life.[12] The account does not provide the first embassy’s exact address.[12]

The embassy’s leadership has included a succession of prominent Israeli diplomats and public figures. The State Department chronology records Abba Eban in 1950, Avraham Harman in 1959, Yitzhak Rabin in 1968, Simcha Dinitz in 1973, Ephraim Evron in 1978, Moshe Ahrens in 1982, and Ron Dermer in 2013; it also lists Benjamin Netanyahu as an interim chargé d’affaires in 1983.[3] The chronology is an archived listing published in 2013 and should not be read as a current roster.[3]

Yechiel Leiter began serving as ambassador on January 28, 2025, succeeding Michael Herzog, whose three-year tenure had ended the preceding week, according to contemporary reporting.[13] Leiter said he intended to strengthen the U.S.–Israel relationship and work with both Republicans and Democrats to keep Israel a bipartisan issue.[13]

A former ambassador’s first-person account says the Israeli prime minister almost always appoints the ambassador to Washington. The author argues that this appointment practice can increase the ambassador’s influence while creating resentment among career diplomats.[9] The account also illustrates how the post can extend beyond formal government-to-government work: the author describes writing opinion pieces, appearing in broadcast interviews, arranging intercultural dinners and performances, and visiting campuses, churches, sporting events, and other gatherings.[9]

Congressional affairs are one of the embassy’s listed functions. Its Congressional Affairs Department works with partners in the House of Representatives and Senate on objectives it describes as mutually beneficial to Israel and the United States.[5] It cites the United States–Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 as an example, describing the act as reaffirming defense ties and providing for joint research and cooperation in technology, energy, intelligence, information security, and national security, as well as missile defense and offshore-energy initiatives.[5]

The embassy’s economic and trade work has included monitoring U.S. policy and regulatory developments affecting Israeli companies. The Economic and Trade Affairs office has covered trade and regulatory policy, engagement with the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, and promotion of Israeli exports and investment.[14] During March and April 2020, the Washington mission held more than 20 online activities, including a webinar for Israeli companies on changes to U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules for digital health; the office also described collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency on a water-reuse action plan drawing on Israeli expertise.[14]

The embassy’s economic-commercial department also tracked proposed U.S. legislation affecting Israeli industry. In 2019, its minister for economic and trade affairs discussed the possible effects of export-control rules on Israeli firms importing U.S. components classified as having civilian and military uses, including restrictions concerning the ultimate destinations of products containing those components.[15]

The mission has also hosted ceremonies linking Israeli diplomacy with Jewish history and Holocaust remembrance. On January 27, 2016, the embassy and Yad Vashem honored Roddie Edmonds, Lois Gunden, and Walery and Maryla Zbijewski as Righteous Among the Nations for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.[16] The ceremony, attended by President Barack Obama, was described as the first U.S. ceremony presenting medals and certificates to American Righteous Among the Nations.[17]

Plans for a dedicated international diplomatic center in Washington began with a congressional decision in October 1968. In 1970, the National Planning Commission approved a master plan for a 14-lot center on federal land at the Bureau of Standards site near Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness Street; the General Services Administration later prepared plans for streets, utilities, and public spaces.[6]

Israel was the first country to apply for a plot in the center.[6] In 1973, Ambassador Simcha Dinitz received a corner lot at Van Ness Street and Reno Road on Israel’s behalf, and Washington developer Robert Kogod helped bring in a local architectural firm for preliminary chancery designs.[6] The National Planning Commission and Washington Fine Arts Commission reviewed the foreign-government proposals at conceptual and final stages, considering such matters as appearance, height, colors, and materials, with the aim of coordinating the buildings and fitting them into nearby residential neighborhoods.[6]

After alternative proposals were reviewed in 1976 and 1977, an Israeli government inter-ministerial committee decided at the end of 1977 to appoint an Israeli architect to lead the chancery design and advise the project.[6] The architect’s stated approach combined contemporary Israeli design qualities with regional features, including recessed or arched openings and smaller building masses arranged around a multipurpose open space.[6] The project’s design account presents these as deliberate choices rather than as a claim that the building reproduced a historical style.[6]

The design submitted in summer 1978 proposed buff-colored brick, deeply recessed windows, arches above the top-floor windows, and floors facing inward onto a brick entrance atrium. Plans called for four floors above ground, a large basement for parking and services, approximately 50,000 square feet of office space, a reception hall, and an open terrace.[6] The atrium was intended to bring in natural light and serve as a flexible area for receptions, waiting, and exhibitions; security officers had pressed for a more massive, enclosed design.[6] The Washington Fine Arts Commission approved the plans in November 1978. The account says groundbreaking was scheduled for Israeli Independence Day in May 1979, but does not establish whether it occurred then or specify the building’s completion or opening date.[6]

An arts program developed during construction with assistance from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and later the Tel Aviv Museum, with the stated aim of placing Israeli artists’ work in public and private parts of the building.[6] The Israel Museum’s Department of Ethnography helped select motifs for the atrium carpet, drawing on oriental carpets and embroidered garments; the project account interprets the rosette and palmette forms as symbols of continuity and afterlife.[6]

On May 21, 2025, embassy employees Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington after attending the American Jewish Committee’s annual Young Diplomats Reception.[7] The shooting took place away from the embassy building.[1][7] The reception brought together young Jewish professionals and diplomats, and that year included discussion of humanitarian diplomacy and responses to crises in the Middle East and North Africa.[7]

Lischinsky worked in the embassy’s Political Department, focusing on Middle East issues, and had attended numerous AJC events in Washington. Milgrim was described as committed to peacebuilding and interested in sustainability and people-to-people relations; she also organized trips to Israel for the embassy.[7][18] At the reception shortly before his death, Lischinsky told colleagues that he looked forward to returning to Israel to spend Shavuot with his family.[7]

In February 2026, the Justice Department reported that a superseding indictment charged Elias Rodriguez in the case. The department described the conduct as alleged, not as a verdict, and said the indictment alleged that Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen on official business while working for the embassy, Milgrim was also employed by the embassy, and two surviving victims worked there as well.[19] The indictment reportedly alleged that the defendant fired approximately 20 shots.[19] In August 2025, prosecutors had filed hate-crime charges, accusing Rodriguez of a targeted, premeditated attack motivated by antisemitism and the victims’ Israeli nationality; those statements are allegations in the case.[20]

In 2026, the AJC posthumously honored Lischinsky and Milgrim with its Ofir Libshtein Bridge Builder Award, citing their work to build relationships and dialogue.[21] Their families framed remembrance as a commitment to continued engagement: Bob and Nancy Milgrim said, “We should not honor her by retreating from coexistence. We will honor her by doubling down on full unapologetic bridge building.”[21]

The 2025 shooting remains a criminal case in the material covered here: the Justice Department’s account concerns charges and allegations in an indictment, not a reported conviction.[19][20] Claims about motive and the characterization of the attack should therefore be understood in that procedural context. Separately, the embassy-history account’s readings of architectural features and carpet motifs are interpretations offered within the project narrative, rather than independently established conclusions.[6]