The mission is to help assure a thriving future for the Jewish People and Judaism by engaging in professional strategic thinking and planning on short and long-term issues of primary concern to the Jewish People, with special attention to critical choices that have a significant impact on the future.

Director and Ziegler fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He was the chief envoy for peace in the Middle East for two US presidents and served as Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Office during the George Bush, Sr. Administration.

Ambassador Dennis Ross is director and Ziegler distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East Peace Process and in dealing directly with the parties in negotiations. A highly skilled diplomat, Ambassador Ross was the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He was instrumental in assisting Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement; he also successfully brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997, facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, and intensively worked to bring Israel and Syria together. A scholar and diplomat with more than two decades of experience in Soviet and Middle East policy, Ambassador Ross worked closely with Secretaries of State James Baker, Warren Christopher, and Madeleine Albright. Prior to his service as special Middle East coordinator under President Clinton, Ross served as director of the State Department's Policy Planning office in the first Bush administration. In that position, he played a prominent role in developing U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union, the unification of Germany and its integration into NATO, arms control negotiations, and the development of the 1991 Gulf War coalition. During the Reagan administration, he served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs on the National Security Council staff and as deputy director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment. Ambassador Ross was awarded the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service by President Clinton, and Secretaries Baker and Albright presented him with the State Department's highest award.

A 1970 graduate of UCLA, Ambassador Ross wrote his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decisionmaking, and from 1984 to 1986 served as executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford program on Soviet International Behavior. He has received UCLA's highest medal and has been named UCLA alumni of the year. He has also received honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary and Syracuse University.

Ambassador Ross has published extensively on the former Soviet Union, arms control, and the greater Middle East, contributing numerous chapters to anthologies. In the 1970s and 1980s, his articles appeared in World Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Orbis, International Security, Survival, and Journal of Strategic Studies. Since leaving the government in 2001, he has published in Foreign Policy and National Interest. Mr. Ross is also a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times. His recent book, The Missing Peace, a comprehensive look at the Middle East peace process, was published by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux in August 2004.

Former head of Israel’s Military Defense College.

Former advisor to Israel's Prime Minister and currently head the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Herzeliya Interdisciplinary Center.

Former Israel's Deputy Chief of Staff and head of Israel’s National Security Council.

Senior business consultant and former Director-General of Israel’s Ministry of Economics and Planning.

President and CEO of the United Jewish Communities.

Professor of Political Science at the University of Mexico, Mexico City.

Former Israel's Chief Negotiator with the Palestinian National Authority.

President of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago

Former Israel's Minister of Finance and Minister of Justice.

Executive Vice President of the UJA Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.

Former Israel's Minister of Education.

Member of the Canadian Parliament, Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights Program at McGill University, Canada. Professor Cotler's board membership was suspended since his appointment in December 2003 as Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada.