Adam Milstein

Adam Milstein
אדם מילשטיין
Born1952 (age 73–74)[1]
Haifa, Israel
EducationTechnion (BSc)
USC (MBA)
Occupations
  • Real estate investor
  • philanthropist
TitleChairman of the Israeli-American Council
Managing Partner of Hager Pacific Properties
SpouseGila Milstein
Children3
Military career
AllegianceIsrael
BranchIsrael Defense Forces
Service years1971–1974
ConflictsYom Kippur War

Adam Milstein (Hebrew: אדם מילשטיין; born 1952) is an Israeli-American investor and philanthropist. He is a managing partner at Hager Pacific Properties.

He founded and funded organizations supporting Jewish causes, and organizations advocating support for Israel, including countering what he regards as anti-Israel initiatives such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.[2] He and his wife, Gila, founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation in 2000. He is a co-founder of the Israeli-American Council (IAC) and served as chairman from 2015 to 2019.[3]

Early life and education

Milstein was born in Haifa, Israel, the eldest child of Eva (née Temkin), a homemaker, and Hillel Milstein, a real estate developer.[4][5] The family later lived in Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin.[3]

Investment career

Milstein is a managing partner of Hager Pacific Properties, overseeing the firm's financing, disposition and accounting. The firm specializes in acquiring, rehabilitating and repositioning industrial, retail, office, and multi-family properties.

Philanthropy and political donations

Milstein and his wife Gila founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation in 2000. The organization sponsors education of students and young professionals to identify with their Jewish roots and gain knowledge to advocate for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.[4]

Milstein co-founded the Israeli American Council in 2007 and was named chairman of the group in 2015.[6][7][8] He sits on the boards of StandWithUs and Hasbara Fellowships.[9] He previously served on the boards of Israel on Campus Coalition, Jewish Funders Network, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) National Council.[10] He joined Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban in June 2015 to organize the inaugural Campus Maccabees summit, which opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) groups and activities on college campuses in the United States.[11] He strongly opposes the BDS movement, and has had several opinion pieces published on the subject.[12][13]

Milstein donated $1,000 to UCLA Hillel in 2014. According to the Daily Cal, Milstein requested other community members should send donations to Hillel earmarked for "UCLA Student Government Leaders."[14] The UCLA campus election code does not require the disclosure of campaign funding sources. According to Milstein, neither he nor his foundation gave money to Avi Ovid or Bruins United.[15]

In 2011, he and his wife launched Sifriyat Pijama B'America, which provided free monthly books in Hebrew to Israeli-Jewish American families in the United States, in partnership with IAC.[3] They started The Impact Forum in 2016, an initiative which "fights antisemitism, strengthens the state of Israel, and protects American democracy".[16][17]

Personal life

Milstein pled guilty to tax evasion involving his donations to the Spinka Hasidic sect in 2009[18] and served three months in prison, was required to do 600 hours of community service, and paid a $30,000 fine.[10]

The Jerusalem Post selected him for its list of the 50 most influential Jews in the world in 2016.[1] Algemeiner Journal named him to its list, "The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life" in 2015 and 2016.[19][20] In Gil Troy's book, The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland—Then, Now, Tomorrow (2018), he identified Milstein as a contemporary leader of cultural Zionism for his vision to "invigorate Zionism and Jewish identity" worldwide.[21]

He withdrew from speaking at the 2019 AIPAC conference after he posted tweets connecting Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to the Muslim Brotherhood. Milstein said his views as expressed on Twitter had been "mischaracterized."[22]

He lives in Encino, California with his wife. They have three daughters and three grandchildren.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b "Jerusalem Post 50 Most Influential Jews: Number 39 - Adam Milstein Orthodox Jew". The Jerusalem Post. September 29, 2016.
  2. ^ "We Will Boycott the Boycotters and Make them Illegal". Arutz7. 9 June 2015.
  3. ^ a b c David Fournier (May 14, 2020). "Meet Adam Milstein: Real Estate Investor and Active Philanthropist elected as one of Top 50 Zionist Influencers of 2020". TMC. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Making an impact through strategic venture philanthropy".
  5. ^ "From Business Success to Innovative Philanthropy".
  6. ^ "Why we set up the Israeli-American Council". Times of Israel.
  7. ^ "The Israeli-Americans: Who they are, what they want, where they're headed, why they matter". Jewish Journal. May 14, 2015.
  8. ^ "Israelis will power the future of American Jewry, IAC chair says". JTA. October 31, 2017.
  9. ^ "Gila & Adam Milstein". Merona Leadership Foundation. Retrieved July 27, 2025.
  10. ^ a b Kane, Alex (March 25, 2019). "Right-wing donor Adam Milstein has spent millions of dollars to stifle the BDS movement and attack critics of Israeli policy". The Intercept.
  11. ^ Guttman, Nathan (2015-06-09). "Secret Sheldon Adelson Summit Raises up to $50M for Strident Anti-BDS Push". The Forward. Retrieved 2025-10-24.
  12. ^ "IAC head Milstein urges: Boycott the boycotters". The Jerusalem Post. May 22, 2016.
  13. ^ Linde, Steve (April 25, 2016). "The Israeli-American connector". The Jerusalem Post.
  14. ^ Hunt, Chloe (4 July 2014). "Funds to UCLA student political party came from outside sources, leaked emails show". www.dailycal.org. Retrieved 23 November 2025.
  15. ^ "UCLA Jewish regent accused of improper campaign donations". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2014-07-02.
  16. ^ "Food, money and Jews". Jewish Journal. August 3, 2017.
  17. ^ Alan Rosenbaum (April 8, 2024). "'Our mission is to fight antisemitism, strengthen the state of Israel, protect American democracy'". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  18. ^ Bamford, James (May 16, 2024). "The Israel-Affiliated Organization Leading the Backlash Against Student Protests". The Nation. Retrieved 2025-07-15.
  19. ^ "The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life, 2015".
  20. ^ "adam milstein".
  21. ^ Troy, Gil (2018). The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland—Then, Now, Tomorrow. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 469–471.
  22. ^ Ron Kampeas (2019-03-19). "Prominent pro-Israel donor pulls out of AIPAC conference after saying two Muslim lawmakers 'clash' with American values". JTA.
  23. ^ "Adam Milstein". Hager Pacific. Archived from the original on 2013-07-27.
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