Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams announced that he will be leaving tomorrow for Israel to lead a five-day mission focused on developing transatlantic partnership in public safety and economic development, traveling with a 11-person delegation of current and former NYPD officials as well as local business leaders. Highlights of the trip, sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, Inc. (JCRC), will include a visit to an Israel Defense Forces base in the Golan Heights, a counterterrorism briefing with intelligence officials in the Israeli National Security Council, a meeting with the chair of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and a tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Borough President Adams underscored the importance of this mission for strengthening the critical ties between Brooklyn and Israel, particularly in the midst of rising extremism in the Middle East that also threatens American security.

“The State of Israel will find no better friend than the borough of Brooklyn, and strengthening our partnership is vital to advancing that friendship in the name of mutual benefit for our communities,” said Borough President Adams. “As Brooklynites, we are not only proud to be home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, we are reflective of their religious, ethnic, and ideological diversity and a model for greater cultural harmony. Our interests in public safety and economic development are best enhanced when we work hand-in-hand with our allies, and I am excited about the work we will accomplish on this trip with our Israeli counterparts on these important issues.”

Borough President Adams’s itinerary includes meetings with Efrat Mayor Oded Ravivi and Sdreot Mayor Alon Davidi; Knesset members Hilik Bar, Avi Dichter, and Avi Gabai; Al-Qassemi College of Engineering and Science President Dr. Dalia Fadila; IDF officials Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner and Major Kobi Harush; as well as NYPD Detective Charlie Ben-Naim, who is stationed in Israel. With an interest in promoting community models that develop diversity, he will visit Bialak-Rogozin School in Tel Aviv, where refugees and children of migrant workers are integrated into Israeli society with special education programs, and Olim Beyachad in Herzliya, a non-governmental organization working with Ethiopian immigrants. In Jerusalem, Borough President Adams will see the Old City, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Western Wall, and Via Dolorosa. Other sites that he and his delegation will tour in Israel include the Sea of Galilee, the Church of Beatitudes in Tabgha, and Mount Bental, which overlooks Lebanon and Syria.

Borough President Adams’s delegation to Israel includes retired NYPD Chief of Department Phillip Banks, III, NYPD Inspector and 90th Precinct Commanding Officer Mark DiPaolo, United Jewish Appeal (UJA)-Federation of New York Managing Director of Government and External Relations Jeff Leb, JCRC Executive Vice President & CEO Michael S. Miller, retired NYPD Inspector and current National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) President Timothy Pearson, NYPD Captain and 66th Precinct Commanding Officer Kenneth Quick, and NYPD Patrol Borough Brooklyn North Deputy Chief Jack Trabitz. Members of his office that will also traveling with him include his special counsel Ama Dwimoh, special assistant Joel Eisdorfer, and director of intergovernmental affairs Abe Friedman.

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