Career
During the late 1970s, Zogby was a founding member and leader of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign. In 1980, he co-founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee with former U.S. Senator James Abourezk and served as executive director until 1984. In 1982, while at ADC, Zogby helped create Save Lebanon, Inc., a private non-profit, non-sectarian humanitarian relief organization to fund social welfare projects in Lebanon and health care for Palestinian and Lebanese victims of war. In March 1985, Zogby founded the Arab American Institute, of which he is still president.
In 1993, Vice President Al Gore tapped Zogby to help lead Builders for Peace following the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord in Washington. As co-president of Builders, Zogby promoted business investment by Arab-Americans in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 1994, Zogby led a U.S. delegation to the signing of the agreement in Cairo, Egypt, along with the Builders co-president, former U.S. Congressman Mel Levine. Zogby also chaired a forum on the Palestinian economy at the Casablanca Economic Summit. After 1994, through Builders, Zogby worked with a number of U.S. Agencies to promote and support Palestinian economic development including AID, OPIC, USTDA, and the Departments of State and Commerce.
Since 1992, Zogby has written Washington Watch, a weekly column on American politics for major Arab newspapers, which is published in 14 Arab and South Asian countries. He has authored several books, including What Ethnic Americans Really Think (The Zogby Culture Polls) and What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns. He also blogs at The Huffington Post and is a member of Politico's Arena. Zogby hosted a weekly interview and call-in discussion program, Viewpoint with James Zogby, about Middle East and world issues on Abu Dhabi Television which was broadcast in America on Link TV, DirecTV and Dish Network. The show has won an award at the Cairo Radio/Television Festival.
In 1984 and 1988, Zogby served as Deputy Campaign manager and Senior Advisor to the Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign. In 1995 he was appointed as co-convener of the National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee (NDECC), an umbrella organization within the Democratic Party of leaders of European and Mediterranean descent, to which he was reelected in 1999 and 2001. Also in 2001, he was appointed to the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and in 2006 was also named Co-Chair of the DNC's Resolutions Committee. He served as Al Gore's Senior Advisor on Ethnic Outreach, a post he also held in the 2008 Obama Campaign.
As an author and scholar on Middle East issues and the Arab-American community, Zogby has over the years been invited to testify before a number of Congressional Committees and Executive branch forums, including on the subject of Arab attitudes toward the United States. He has been a guest speaker in the Secretary's Open Forum at the U.S. Department of State. Zogby has also addressed the United Nations and other international forums. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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