The Case for Support

Jewish gatherings in America are targets again, and Georgia is no exception. AIC keeps holding them in the open. We bring people the facts, we’re there when it counts, and we go to Israel when Israel needs hands. Volunteers run all of it, and your support is what pays for it.

The Problem, Here

• 3people murdered in antisemitic attacks in the U.S., 2025
• 39%rise in assaults with a deadly weapon
• 29acts of vandalism, a Georgia record

It’s close to home. ADL counted 83 antisemitic incidents in Georgia in 2025, 32 of them in Atlanta, and a record 29 acts of vandalism. Cheryl’s report Facts on the Ground (October 2025) lays out what that looks like here: antisemitic flyers thrown onto driveways in Brookhaven, neo-Nazis with swastika flags outside a synagogue in Cobb County, a bomb threat that emptied the Federation building and the Holocaust museum in Midtown. Jewish gatherings are targets now. Ours stay open, and we plan every one so the people who come are safe.

“These are not distant headlines. They show up on our campuses, on our streets, and in our inboxes.”

Cheryl Dorchinsky, Facts on the Ground, October 2025

Across the country ADL counted 6,274 incidents in 2025, about seventeen a day. That’s down a third from 2024’s record, and it’s still the third-highest year since ADL started counting in 1979. The part that didn’t come down is the violence. Physical assaults were higher than in any year before. Assaults with a deadly weapon went up 39 percent. Three people were murdered, two outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington and one after a firebombing at a walk for the hostages in Boulder. It was the first year since 2019 that Jews were killed in antisemitic attacks in this country.

The FBI’s numbers say the same thing: 1,528 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2025, close to two-thirds of every religion-based hate crime reported. ADL has tracked 23 terrorist plots or attacks against Jewish targets in the U.S. since 2020, and sixteen of them came in the two years to July 2026. People feel it. In AJC’s 2025 survey, 55 percent of American Jews said they’d changed how they live in the past year out of fear of antisemitism.

Sources: ADL’s Georgia figures, CBS News Atlanta (May 2026); ADL Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2025 (May 2026); ADL on the FBI’s 2025 hate crime data (August 2026); ADL Center on Extremism threat update (July 2026); AJC State of Antisemitism in America 2025 (February 2026).

What We Believe Changes It

The problem is that antisemitism is being normalized in Georgia’s civic life, and most people who care about Israel don’t know what to say when it happens in front of them. We believe that people who know the facts, and who have stood in a room with others who share them, speak up, and that a community that speaks up is harder to intimidate and harder to ignore. So we put the facts in front of people Sunday to Friday and in rooms around Atlanta, we build the coalition that stands behind them, and we go to Israel when Israel needs hands. We’ll know it’s working when the rooms fill, when members come back for a second year, and when we can post what every mission delivered.

A world where people put aside their differences and come together in informed support of Israel — and where antisemitism and antizionism have no home.

AIC is a grassroots, nonpartisan 501(c)(3). We educate, we mobilize, and we bring people together, in support of Israel and against antisemitism, close to home and around the world. Cheryl Dorchinsky and Rabbi Yitz Tendler of Congregation Beth Jacob founded it in 2018, and Cheryl has led it ever since.

What We Do

More than 231 programs since 2018, five missions to Israel since October 7, the Israel Brief in more than 10,000 inboxes, and from November, 41 live online sessions a year. Four pillars carry it, and each one has a program, a number, and a thing that happened because of it.

Figures as of October 2026. Mobilized means everyone AIC has brought into a program or briefed on Israel, each counted once.

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  Education

  Program. The Israel Brief, Sunday to Friday, and the speaker evenings.

  Output. More than 231 programs since 2018, and more than 250 briefs published.

  Outcome. People leave able to say what they know. After every online program attendees rate it and tell us what landed; the Nova tour’s rating and their own words are below.

• 

  Advocacy

  Program. Capitol days, rallies, and the security-gap report.

  Output. More than 11,115 community members mobilized, and more than forty organizations behind the May 2021 rally.

  Outcome. Georgia has a legal definition of antisemitism. AIC was at the Capitol for HB 30, and Governor Kemp signed it in January 2024.

• 

  Missions

  Program. Direct-aid missions to Israel, with the people on the ground who know which family needs what.

  Output. Five missions since October 7, and more than 200 volunteer days on the ground.

  Outcome. The closet at Shuva Junction restocked, the mural delivered to Rambam hospital in Haifa, and every list posted day by day after the trip.

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  Joy and Resilience

  Program. The Kosher Duck Revolution, and the evenings people come to because they want to.

  Output. Ducks found in eighteen countries, every one pinned on the map by the person who found it.

  Outcome. A soldier recovering from a wound he took in Gaza held one of the ducks and said, “It reminds me HaShem hasn’t forgotten me.”

The Right People in Front of the Room

A U.S. Special Envoy to combat antisemitism. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs. A Holocaust survivor who was experimented on as a child. American families who lost someone to terror and are still fighting for justice. We bring them to synagogues, churches, living rooms, and hotel ballrooms, often with partner organizations, and online for anyone who can’t get there, so people walk out with the facts and the confidence to use them.

And from November, every month. Until now AIC programmed when it could fill a room. Israel Up Close runs twice a month: a 45-minute talk from somebody who knows Israel firsthand, then questions, and members’ questions go first. It is free for every AIC member at every level, and $18 at the door for everyone else. The Author’s Table reads one book a month, and the author comes to every session. No other book club in Atlanta can say that. It is free for members and not open to non-members. The Mitzpe Quarterly Briefing presents Mitzpe’s own research four times a year. And once a year, the whole membership meets Cheryl and Uri. That is 41 online sessions a year, hosted by Uri Zehavi, alongside the evenings in rooms.

Three authors are already booked. The Author’s Table opens in November 2026, and the author comes to every session. American Intellectual Antisemitism, with Shai Davidai, on Tuesday 17 November, free and open to everyone, members and not. Then Eight Ways to Say I Love You, with Amanda Elliot, on Tuesday 15 December, for members. Then Digital Warrior, with Rachel Lester, on Tuesday 16 March 2027, for members. From the second session on, the club is for members, who buy the book and nothing else.

And the talks begin. Israel Up Close opens on Thursday 5 November, free to everyone for the first talk, and then runs twice a month: the first Thursday at noon ET and the third Thursday at 7:30 PM ET. Speakers are announced as they are confirmed. The Mitzpe Quarterly Briefing follows on Tuesday 2 March 2027, four times a year. And on Thursday 24 June 2027, every member at every level sits down with Cheryl and Uri for the first AIC Members’ Town Hall, the year reported back to the people who paid for it. The evenings keep coming, each one with security at the door, and the Brief keeps going out Sunday to Friday.

Three years to the day. On October 7, 2026, David Sussman, a licensed Israeli guide who has guided AIC audiences since 2020, took us live across the Nova festival site and through the communities along the Gaza border. More than 250 people signed up, too many for our Zoom room, so the night before we moved it to a Microsoft Teams town hall. If you missed it, the whole tour is online, along with three short clips from it. Watch the tour

Education, Sunday to Friday

An educational program of AIC

The Mitzpe Institute

Israel Brief subscribers

10,000+

Countries reached, and all 50 states

95+

Briefs published

250+

Long-form dossiers

35+

Figures as of October 2026.

Education is the first thing AIC does. Our evenings do it a room at a time. The Mitzpe Institute does it Sunday to Friday.

Mitzpe is AIC’s educational program for research and analysis. Its Israel Brief is an assessment of Israeli security and the Middle East, out Sunday to Friday, and it reaches more than 10,000 subscribers in more than 95 countries and all 50 states. Mitzpe’s analysts work from the ground in Israel, in Gaza, and in Judea and Samaria, and they show their sources and say how sure they are. Every call they make stays on a public record, misses included.

That’s what we ask of everyone who comes to an AIC program: know the facts, and be ready to say them. When something happens in Israel, our members and partners don’t have to wait for the evening news to understand it. The Brief reaches the Knesset and Senate offices on both sides of the aisle, and plenty of people who’ll never make it to one of our evenings.

So far Mitzpe has published more than 250 briefs and more than 35 long-form dossiers. The Flash Brief is free, Sunday to Friday, and so are the Field Dossiers. The full Brief, the Closed Dossiers, Vantage, and Watchwords come with AIC membership, at every level. About Mitzpe

At Home and in Israel

We show up here. Five days after October 7 we went ahead with a scheduled evening at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, and within a week we were collecting supplies for IDF soldiers. We were at the Georgia Capitol for HB 30, the law that gave Georgia a definition of antisemitism, which Governor Kemp signed in January 2024. We’ve marched in Washington and rallied in Atlanta.

From Atlanta to Haifa. In December 2023, two months after the attack, volunteers spent a day at the Marcus JCC painting a mural for Rambam hospital in Haifa, and Israel’s Consul General came to speak. A month later AIC carried the mural to Haifa and handed it over.

We go to Israel. Within weeks of October 7, Cheryl was in Israel volunteering, and AIC has gone back ever since: five direct-aid missions and more than 200 volunteer days on the ground. In July 2025, right after the twelve-day war with Iran, our volunteers sat with wounded soldiers in rehab, gave blood at Magen David Adom, and cooked for nearly 200 soldiers at a base in Judea and Samaria. One Shabbat dinner ended in a bomb shelter during a Houthi missile alert. Before that mission we told donors that every dollar given for relief would go to supplies and that we’d deliver them ourselves. Then we posted what we delivered, day by day. Every mission is self-funded: participants buy their own tickets and put in the days, so the money raised for relief goes to relief. Our missions

“You responded to our call with astonishing generosity. But this wasn’t simply tzedakah, it was solidarity.”

From AIC’s mission diary, July 2025

The Kosher Duck Revolution. Cheryl started hiding kosher-themed rubber ducks for strangers to find. Every duck carries a QR code, and every find drops a pin on a sightings map: a cruise-ship buffet in the Bahamas, the Chagall windows in Jerusalem, a car wash in South Carolina, a burger joint in Athens. Ducks have turned up in eighteen countries so far. Because a community that only ever gathers around danger will not keep gathering, we build the other side too. It’s Jewish pride that doesn’t wait for a crisis. About the ducks

What It Costs to Run

AIC doesn’t have a building of its own, so every program happens in somebody else’s space, and every in-person event we hold has licensed, armed security. In a year when Jewish gatherings are targets, that’s part of the price of meeting openly, and we won’t skip it. The whole operation, the evenings, the security, the missions, the Brief, and the ducks, runswith nobody drawing a salary from any of it.

• $750goes toward the security at an evening
• $1,500goes toward a whole evening, start to finish

Here is how it is paid for. Memberships, partners, and gifts, in one place.

Join, Partner, or Give

• Join

  From $9 a month or $72 a year

  Every level comes with Live updates from AIC’s missions in Israel, first word on every AIC event, Mitzpe Institute membership: the full Israel Brief, Sunday to Friday, Israel Up Close talks, free (two a month), and the Author’s Table, free, and each step up adds more.

  Become a Member

• Bring Your Organization

  Free for partners

  Congregations, schools, nonprofits, and civic groups partner for free, and their people get AIC memberships through a member code. Businesses sponsor, at $1,000 a year and $360 for one talk.

  Partner or Sponsor

• Give

  A gift pays for specific work

  • $36 The materials behind a community briefing.
  • $180 Advocacy training for a group of community members.
  • $750 Toward licensed security at a community event.
  Make a Gift

A donation brings nothing back, so all of it is tax-deductible to the extent the law allows. A membership comes with a Mitzpe Institute membership, which is for members only and has no market value. The higher levels add in-person event admissions, so their receipt subtracts what those are worth. Atlanta Israel Coalition, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN: 84-2603211.

Who Stands with Us

• “The Atlanta Israel Coalition leads with courage, compassion, and a genuine commitment to collaboration — a trusted partner in education, empowerment, and meaningful community engagement.”

  Anila Ali, President, American Muslim & Multifaith Women's Empowerment Council (AMMWEC)

• “The Atlanta Israel Coalition does an amazing job uniting the metro Atlanta community against antisemitism and keeping us educated, mobilized, and proud to support Israel.”

  Surinder Dhar, Vice President, HinduPACT

“The Atlanta Israel Coalition represents the very best of grassroots pro-Israel advocacy. With warmth, dedication, and a genuine commitment to bringing people together, AIC creates meaningful opportunities for people of all backgrounds to learn, connect, and stand with Israel.”

Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder, Esq., CEO & Director, National Jewish Advocacy Center

The word coalition is in our name for a reason. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast have put their names on AIC programs, and so have the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel and the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation. In May 2021, days after the ceasefire, AIC helped pull together a solidarity rally in Midtown Atlanta with more than forty organizations, congregations, and schools behind it. Since 2019 more than sixty organizations have put their names on AIC programs. The first to sign on as named partners under the new partnership are American Muslim & Multifaith Women's Empowerment Council, National Jewish Advocacy Center, The Mattathias Project, Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, Beth Jacob Atlanta, and Southern Jewish Life. See who stands with us

How We Run

Volunteers run AIC, Cheryl included, and nobody draws a salary.

We hold ourselves to the standards of much bigger organizations. In July 2026 our board adopted amended bylaws and six standing policies, covering conflicts of interest, whistleblowers, gift acceptance, and financial controls among them, and every one of them is public. Candid, the national nonprofit database, gives AIC its Platinum Seal of Transparency, its highest. We’ve climbed to it from Bronze in our first full year.

AIC files the IRS Form 990-N each year, the short form for small organizations, and posts it with the IRS determination letter on our governance page. The bylaws say what changes as AIC grows, and they’re public too.

The Ask

$10,000, by 11 January 2027, to fill the suitcases and restock the closet. On 11 January Cheryl and Kirsten Abrahamson, our Treasurer, fly to Israel for AIC’s sixthmission since October 7, and they come home on the 22nd. One stop is already on the list: Shuva Junction, near the Gaza border, where Achim Shuva has fed and supplied soldiers on their way in and out of Gaza since October 7. Our volunteers restocked its closet in December 2025, and Cheryl has promised to do it again. The suitcases carry trauma kits, the first-aid kit a soldier carries on their body, warm socks, protein bars, and whatever else the people we work with in Israel say is needed.

Cheryl and Kirsten pay their own way, tickets and all, so the money raised for relief goes to relief. A gift goes where it’s needed most, unless you mark it for Missions & Humanitarian Relief. Give to the mission

More members and more gifts mean more of all of it: more evenings, in more rooms, with more people walking out ready to speak up.

What You’ll Hear Back

Before the July 2025 mission we told donors every dollar given for relief would go to supplies and that we’d deliver them ourselves. Then we posted what we delivered, day by day. That is the promise again. The list before we go, a post from the road each day, and the delivered list with photographs the week after we’re back. You get it in the AIC Dispatch, and it stays on the mission page where anyone can check it. Once a year the whole membership sits down with Cheryl and Uri at the AIC Members’ Town Hall and hears the year reported back.

Join Us, or Give

We’ve been at this since 2018, here and in Israel, and the last three years have asked a lot of this community. We didn’t go quiet then and we’re not going to now. If you believe in this work, join us, or give. Either way, you’ll be part of it.