Shai Franklin
Connecting, Analyzing, Impacting, Delivering
News & Views
Israel post-October 7 analysis
October 18, 2023
Looted assets: a "woke" double standard?
U.S.-Somalia Business Council
NYC Mayor Adams visits Israel
Jewish history and wine
Intro: Gotham Government Relations
Israel post-October 7 analysis
Read Shai's 1997 interview on Congress and the Middle East with then-Senator Joe Biden!
Read Shai's 1997 interview with the late Senator Joseph Lieberman.
Read Shai's May 2020 papers on charting a future for the American Jewish community:
1. Beyond Coronavirus, Connecting Our Communal Conversations
2. Just Do It! A Mechanism to Get Us Started
RECENT OP-EDS
Don't Campus Situation to the Holocaust
5 May 2024 (Times of Israel)
America needs a domestic antisemitism czar
23 February 2024 (Jerusalem Post)
Time for Zelensky to Visit Israel
14 November 2023 (Kyiv Post)
If you aren’t confused, you’re doing it wrong
15 October 2023 (Times of Israel)
Are you racist, or just anti-anti-racist?
28 October 2021 (Times of Israel)
Reclaim Jewish-Polish Relations Before It's Too Late
9 September 2021 (Times of Israel)
Under Biden, the real fight against antisemitism can resume
9 December 2020 (Jerusalem Post)
After Electing Biden, Let's Repair Our Community
15 October 2020 (Times of Israel)
Who is Bari Weiss to complain about ‘cancel’?
15 July 2020 (The Times of Israel)
For the United States and United Nations, two heads are better than one
16 May 2020 (The Jerusalem Post)
A better way for Gulf states to engage Americans and American Jews
25 September 2018 (TRT World)
SHAI FRANKLIN IN THE NEWS
ÉTATS-UNIS: Washington, nid des lobbyistes ukrainiens
23 February 2023 (l'Obs) [French]
>> "Sometimes lobbying involves rolling up your sleeves."
>> Download original French version (PDF)
Kosovo looking for piece of Israeli normalization pie
11 July 2022 (JNS)
>> Shai Franklin, a partner with New York-based Gotham Government Relations and Communications who serves as chairman of the new chamber’s executive board, said American business and political relationships with Israel can be leveraged to improve relations between Israel and Kosovo, which have been somewhat held back as Israel navigates its ties with Serbia and Russia.
Inside Ukraine’s lobbying blitz in Washington
5 July 2022 (Vox)
>> As Franklin put it, “I tell foreign clients that there’s no shame in filing under FARA, but some of them are still pretty spooked by it, because of what happened over the last few years, because FARA has been associated with a crime.”
U.S. lobbyists connect Ukraine officials with powerful allies to help in war against Russia
15 March 2022 (CNBC)
>> Your Global Strategy, a lobbying and communications firm co-founded by international political strategists Shai Franklin and Michael Steiner, is working to connect local Ukrainian government officials with American mayors and governors...
The (more modest, less partisan) White House Hanukkah party is on!
28 November 2021 (The Forward)
>> Shai Franklin, a former Jewish community executive and a Biden supporter, said some people who would want to attend the Biden White House Hanukkah party are satisfied with the policy changes and progress Biden is making, so they can accept the lack of an invite.
Why some US Jewish groups now recognize the Armenian genocide, and others don’t
13 December 2019 (The Times of Israel)
>> “There’s a division of labor in the American Jewish community,” Franklin told The Times of Israel. “If the ADL has come out in support of the resolution, a lot of groups may see them as covering the wider community on this issue.”
Gotham will work for Libyan government
27 September 2019 (Politico)
>> Now Gerstman and another Gotham lobbyist, Shai Franklin, have been hired to lobby on behalf of Libya’s United Nations-supported government, according to disclosure filings shared with PI.
Former Trump lobbyists will represent Libya’s sovereign wealth fund
20 August 2019 (Politico)
>> Gerstman, Schwartz and another partner at their firm, Shai Franklin, will work to “change the sanctions” affecting the Libyan Investment Authority, according to a Justice Department disclosure. They’ll also reach out to Congress, the State Department and the Treasury Department as well as the media and the “business and banking sectors,” according to the disclosure.
A tale of two Hanukkah parties: Obama’s last and Trump first
17 December 2016 (JTA/The Times of Israel)
>> “It had a good turnout, but it was pretty obvious which organizations weren’t there,” said Shai Franklin, a veteran Jewish insider who attended. “There were not a lot of liberal Jews there.”
Why did the Bahraini Crown Prince snub the USA?
8 December 2012 (The Cable)
>> "In some sense, the crown prince was right," said U.S. non-government delegate Shai Franklin, senior fellow at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. "Since the last time we had this summit two years ago, Bahrain has been going through a difficult period. Bahrain has been assailed on Capitol Hill and elsewhere and perhaps rightly. But what has the U.S. government done to help Bahrain get through it? We’ve left it to other countries, we’ve left it to international organizations and NGOs. Maybe that’s worked, but we can’t take credit for that."