IWF is delighted to announce that Ellie Cohanim will join our team as a visiting fellow. Ellie has extensive experience in foreign policy through her work as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism at the U.S. State Department where she led diplomatic initiatives which resulted in historic breakthroughs in the Muslim world and the advancement of religious freedom globally.
Ellie has an important perspective on Iran as she arrived as a child refugee to the U.S. after she and her family fled the escalating anti-Semitism in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. She has worked tirelessly to bring attention to the Iranian Regime as the world’s largest state-sponsor of anti-Semitism and the Iranian Regime’s human rights abuses.
Meet Ellie:
Ellie Cohanim served as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism at the U.S. Department of State during the Trump Administration. She was the State Department’s first Iranian-born Jewish Envoy, and led diplomatic initiatives resulting in historic breakthroughs in the Middle East and North Africa region including forging groundbreaking partnerships with the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Co-Existence of Bahrain, and with Association Mimouna of Morocco, to combat anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and Islamophobia; persuading the Global Imams Council (GIC) to adopt the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism; and removal of anti-Semitic content from textbooks in the MENA region, all as part of the Abraham Accords efforts.
Ellie Cohanim also conducted a successful public diplomacy campaign with appearances on Fox and Newsmax, along with countless interviews and speaking engagements, to bring to world attention the Iranian Regime as the world’s largest state-sponsor of anti-Semitism, and highlighting the Iranian Regime’s overall human rights abuses.
As Deputy Envoy, Ellie Cohanim was the lead official on creating and implementing policy on countering anti-Semitism in both the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Latin America regions.
Ellie Cohanim arrived as a child refugee to the US, after she and her family fled the escalating anti-Semitism in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Prior to her appointment to the US State Department, Ellie Cohanim was Senior Vice President and Special Correspondent for the Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS), where she handled on-air reporting and anchored the broadcast of major international gatherings. Previously, she was an executive at Yeshiva University; The Jewish Theological Seminary; and UJA-Federation of New York. She has served on the boards of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the New York Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Ester Chapter of Hadassah.
Ellie Cohanim received her B.A. in Political Science, Cum Laude, from Barnard College, Columbia University; and conducted graduate study in International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is fluent in Hebrew and Farsi, familiar with German and Arabic.
Welcome Ellie!