JAC was founded after the 1980 election when many friends of Israel in the Congress were defeated by an emerging force in American politics: Radical Right political groups that opposed Israel and the values of mainstream American Jewry. Concerned Jewish activists reached out to their networks across the country to spread the message that they could support Israel, fight the Radical Right and become a positive force in the political process. In the decades that followed, JAC remained committed to the US-Israel relationship as its core issue, while defending social policies consistent with the priorities of the American Jewish community, principally reproductive rights and separation of religion and state. With so many Jewish organizations advancing the goal of US support for Israel, JAC was the first and for many years the only bipartisan group to blend its support for the US-Israel relationship with a commitment to a progressive social agenda.
