The American Middle East Press Association, a nonpartisan nonprofit that launched last summer, invited the Bay Area Reporter on a trip to Israel in June.
Kim Kamen, AMEPA's chief operating officer, told the B.A.R. that the group started in 2023 and obtained 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in February. The tax-exempt organization is based in Monsey, New York.
AMEPA's budget is $1.16 million, Kamen noted. It does not receive funding from the Israeli government, officials said.
"We launched in earnest in 2024 as soon as we hired our media advisers," Kamen stated to the B.A.R. July 12. "We rely on private donations and are not affiliated with any governmental entity."
AMEPA states on its website that it seeks to serve as "a trusted resource for journalists looking for experts and spokespeople on the current conflict and beyond." Kamen said that it was based on the Europe Israel Press Association, an organization AMEPA is affiliated with that is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It was founded 12 years ago by Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the chairman of the European Jewish Association. Since then, EIPA has connected European journalists to Israelis and Israeli officials through press trips. It has offices in Brussels, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, and Madrid.
Tal Rabina, a media consultant with EIPA, told reporters on the June 23-27 trip that "we are not the [Israeli] government. We are not the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]. We are an NGO [non-governmental organization]. ... We are trying to be very informative."
AMEPA brought two American reporters on the press trip, "Wartime in Israel," with its counterpart, EIPA, which itself brought 22 journalists from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. EIPA is also not funded by the Israeli government. There was not any pre-approval of interview questions, article topics, or requests to view articles before publication.
Trips organized by AMEPA since the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war have been centered on the conflict, but not all press trips focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Rabina said. After X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk agreed with a post on X that the Jewish people have a "dialectical hatred" of whites, EIPA participated in his visit to the site of Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland where the German military killed over a million people during the Holocaust. In total, the Nazi government killed over 6 million Jews, along with millions of others, during the Holocaust. Musk later said he was "frankly naive" about antisemitism. EIPA has also brought European Union leaders to Auschwitz, Rabina said.
Kamen said that Margolin "and supporters of EIPA came together and said there's nothing like this in the U.S. They saw this as a tremendous opportunity and saw how successful EIPA has been and wanted to leverage the experience with EIPA to create something similar in the U.S. The idea was the same — to be a trusted resource on Israeli matters ... within the broader context of the Middle East."
Margolin told the B.A.R. he was supportive of AMEPA's formation.
"I believe the people of the world are entitled and should be able to have real information and full information about important subjects before they have an opinion on this," Margolin said. "I also believe the U.S.-Israel relationship is very important and for this reason I believe the American people should have the full information about Israel and about its relationship with the U.S."
Kamen said AMEPA will be seeking more funding from donors soon. There is "one American who has been a donor to us," Kamen said.
But Kamen did not name the person, saying they would prefer to remain anonymous. After the B.A.R. pressed to talk to the person, Kamen reached out to the American donor. She told the B.A.R. July 16 that the person decided to continue staying anonymous and wouldn't speak on the record.
The B.A.R. asked Kamen if any donors to the European organization could be named. Kamen said that "European donors, unlike American donors, tend to stay behind the scenes. It's cultural."
Margolin said July 8 that no EIPA donors were willing to talk to the media.
"I spoke with several of our donors. I asked them if they're willing to speak with journalists; unfortunately they all said they appreciate what we do, they're happy to support it, but they'd prefer to be anonymous," he said. "They don't want any publicity about what they do; they don't want to speak to media. They do what they do because they believe in the concept, they believe in education, they believe in sharing information, but they do not wish to speak to the media, so unfortunately I cannot help more."
As AMEPA is new, the only publicly-available information on the IRS website is an April 22, 2024 letter confirming the organization's nonprofit status, and stating its accounting period ends December 31. The letter also states the organization will be required to file Form 990 financial disclosures in due time. Form 990s, which U.S. nonprofits complete, are generally filed about a year and a half to two years later.
Never miss a story! Keep up to date on the latest news, arts, politics, entertainment, and nightlife.
Sign up for the Bay Area Reporter's free weekday email newsletter. You'll receive our newsletters and special offers from our community partners.
Support California's largest LGBTQ newsroom. Your one-time, monthly, or annual contribution advocates for LGBTQ communities. Amplify a trusted voice providing news, information, and cultural coverage to all members of our community, regardless of their ability to pay -- Donate today!