Partners for Progressive Israel

Partners for Progressive Israel is associated with left-of-center and progressive Zionist organizing in the United States. A 2017 report described it as the U.S. affiliate of Israel’s left-wing Meretz party, while other coverage has used the name “Meretz USA.”[1][6] These formulations indicate a close association with Meretz but do not describe the relationship in identical structural terms.

Dr. Maya Haber, then PPI’s director of programming and strategy, said in 2017 that the organization had faced “attempts to silence us” and that its views were “seldom taken into account even by organizations in which we are represented.”[1] The remarks document Haber’s assessment of PPI’s experience within Jewish institutions, but they do not provide a quantitative measure of the organization’s influence.

The cited reporting traces PPI’s public association with Meretz to at least May 2012, when a strongly critical opinion article referred to Partners for Progressive Israel as “Meretz USA.”[6] In July 2017, a news report instead described PPI as the U.S. affiliate of Israel’s Meretz political party.[1]

The terms “Meretz USA” and “U.S. affiliate” are related but not necessarily interchangeable. The available cited sources establish an organizational and political association, but they do not provide a founding date or a detailed account of PPI’s legal or administrative structure.

In February 2020, PPI was identified as one of four organizations that had participated in previous World Zionist Congress elections through the Tikvah (“The Hope”) slate, alongside Ameinu, Hashomer Hatzair, and Habonim Dror.[7] The report said 11 liberal and progressive Jewish organizations were running together in 2020, but it did not establish that PPI itself was among those 11.

In 2025, PPI was among the organizations leading Hatikvah: The Progressive Slate in the U.S. World Zionist Congress elections.[3] The slate’s platform called for universal Israeli civil rights, an end to “the policy of permanent occupation and annexation,” global religious and cultural pluralism, and a worldwide coalition to end the Israel-Hamas war and return the hostages held in Gaza.[3] These were reported as collective Hatikvah positions rather than a separate PPI platform.

PPI was also one of 10 organizations listed as members of the Progressive Israel Network in 2021.[4] The network said it was committed to combating antisemitism but opposed enshrining the IHRA Working Definition and its contemporary examples in law or institutional policy. It argued that legal adoption could suppress legitimate speech, criticism of Israeli government actions, and advocacy for Palestinian rights, while stating that it had no substantive objection to the definition’s core text.[4]

In September 2026, PPI was listed among the liberal Jewish organizations sponsoring a protest at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza in New York during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit. The report did not include a separate statement from PPI.[8]

One available data point concerning participation comes from a 2013 study of Habonim Dror alumni. Among a checklist of Israel-related organizations, the survey recorded 1% for Partners for Progressive Israel.[5] The question was asked after respondents indicated that they or another household member belonged to or regularly participated in another Jewish or Israel-related organization, and the report did not provide a separate numerical denominator for the 1% figure.

The study drew on 1,994 respondents between the ages of 18 and 83 from a sample frame of 5,000 alumni whose email addresses could be assembled.[5] Its authors cautioned that respondents were probably more connected and committed to Habonim Dror than the wider alumni population. Because it was an alumni study rather than a representative survey of American Jews, its PPI result cannot establish the organization’s overall membership size or national reach.

PPI’s repeated inclusion in reports about the Hatikvah slate and Progressive Israel Network demonstrates a recurring institutional role within progressive Zionist coalitions, but the cited sources do not quantify its current membership.[3][4]

PPI’s positions concerning boycotts of settlement-related products have drawn criticism within the American Jewish community. A 2017 report said PPI’s Detroit chapter had been excluded from the community’s Walk for Israel for several years; event organizers said PPI was excluded because it promoted boycotts of Israelis residing beyond the pre-1967 lines.[1] A strongly critical opinion article published in 2012—not 2017—claimed that PPI displayed a list of Israeli products under the heading “boycott these Settlement products sold in the U.S.”[6] That claim should be understood as the author’s attributed characterization of PPI’s activity.

In 2018, amid debate over an Israeli government decision to bar entry to foreign citizens involved in sustained boycott advocacy, PPI president Paul Scham criticized calling BDS “economic terrorism” as demagoguery. He argued that there was no plausible connection between a BDS activist’s presence in Israel and Israeli security.[2]

NGO Monitor reproduced an excerpt from an April 11 opinion piece in which Maya Haber of PPI asked, “Why did Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund grant $18,000 to the Hebron Fund?”[9] The source identifies Haber with PPI but does not describe her as the organization’s director or provide broader information about PPI’s structure.