Michael Freund

Michael Freund served as Deputy Communications Director in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office under Benjamin Netanyahu. A native New Yorker, he is a graduate of Princeton University, holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and is also an ordained Orthodox rabbi. Freund, who lived in Israel for over 25 years, has been a veteran writer and syndicated columnist for the Jerusalem Post, Israel’s largest English-language daily, for two decades, and appears regularly in the media. He founded and chairs Shavei Israel, a nonprofit that has brought more than 10,000 Jews on Aliya to the Jewish state from far-flung communities in places such as India, China, South America and elsewhere.  For his work with Shavei Israel he has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Jerusalem Prize and the Moskowitz Prize for Zionism.  

Freund is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation as well as the President of Chavrusa Consulting, which advises governments and companies. He is the author of two books and the proud father of five sons, one of whom is a Captain in an IDF intelligence unit and four of whom are IDF combat reservists in elite units who have been serving in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon since the start of the October 7, 2023, war. He remains a loyal New York Mets fan.