Ellie Cohanim

Senior Fellow

Ellie Cohanim is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Security Policy. She is also host of the weekly newsmagazine show, “Global Perspectives with Ellie Cohanim” for Jewish News Service (JNS) and Visiting Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum. Ms. Cohanim previously served as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism at the U.S. Department of State by appointment of the President of the United States and the US Secretary of State.

Ms. Cohanim was the State Department’s first Iranian-born Envoy, and led diplomatic initiatives which resulted in forging groundbreaking partnerships in the Arab world to combat anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and Islamophobia. Ms. Cohanim also persuaded the first-ever Muslim faith group to adopt the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism, all as part of the Abraham Accords efforts. As Deputy Envoy, Ms. Cohanim was the lead official for the State Department in creating and implementing policy on countering anti-Semitism in the Near East and Western Hemisphere regions. She worked closely with Jewish communities in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Colombia in confronting local issues of anti-Semitism.
 
Ms. Cohanim can often be seen on Fox News and Newsmax; and is a contributor to National Review, Newsweek, The Hill and Washington Examiner.
 
Ellie Cohanim arrived as a child refugee to the US, after she and her family fled the escalating anti-Semitism in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  
 
Previously, Ellie Cohanim was Senior Vice President and Special Correspondent for the Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS) and was an executive at Yeshiva University; The Jewish Theological Seminary; and UJA-Federation of New York. She serves on the boards of the Iranian-American Jewish Federation of NY and Latino Coalition for Israel; and has previously served on the boards of the American Jewish Committee (AJC-NYR), the New York Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Ester Chapter of Hadassah.
 
Ellie Cohanim received her B.A. in Political Science, Cum Laude, from Barnard College, Columbia University; and conducted graduate study in International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  She is fluent in Hebrew and Farsi, familiar with German, Arabic and Spanish.