Adam Milstein

Adam Milstein
אדם מילשטיין
Born1952 (age 72–73)[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
Years of service1971–1974
Battles / warsYom Kippur War

Adam Milstein (Hebrew: אדם מילשטיין; born 1952) is an Israeli and 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 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. The family later lived in Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin.[4]

He was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1971, and served during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.[5] After being discharged, he enrolled in the Technion and graduated in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering.[6] While in college, he worked with his father to expand the family's real estate construction and development business.

He married Gila Elgrably in Haifa in 1974. They moved to Los Angeles with their two daughters in 1981.[4] He received an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business in 1983 and started working in commercial real estate as a sales agent.[5]

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.[6]

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]

He co-founded the Israeli American Council in 2007.[7][8][9][10] He was named chairman of the group in 2015.[11][12][13] He sits on the boards of StandWithUs and Hasbara Fellowships.[14] He previously served on the boards of Israel on Campus Coalition, Jewish Funders Network, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) National Council.[7] 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.[2] He strongly opposes the BDS movement,[15][16] and has had several opinion pieces published on the subject.[17][18]

He and his wife co-founded Sifriyat Pijama B'America, which provides free monthly books in Hebrew to Israeli-Jewish American families in the United States.[15] They started "The Impact Forum" in 2016 an initiative which "fights antisemitism, strengthens the state of Israel, and protects American democracy".[19][20]

Personal life

Milstein pled guilty to tax evasion involving his donations to the Spinka Hasidic sect in 2009.[21] According to The Intercept, he served three months in prison, 600 hours of community service, and paid a $30,000 fine.[22]

The Jerusalem Post selected him for its list of the 50 most influential Jews in the world in 2016.[4][1][23] Algemeiner Journal named him to its list, "The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life" in 2015 and 2016.[4][24][25] 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.[26]

He withdrew from speaking at the 2019 AIPAC conference after he posted tweets connecting Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to the Muslim Brotherhood.[27]

He lives in Encino, California with his wife.[4] They have three daughters and three grandchildren.[4][28]

References

  1. ^ a b "Jerusalem Post 50 Most Influential Jews: Number 39 - Adam Milstein Orthodox Jew". The Jerusalem Post. September 29, 2016.
  2. ^ a b "We Will Boycott the Boycotters and Make them Illegal". Arutz7. 9 June 2015.
  3. ^ 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 c d e f g Wilson, Despina (July 6, 2025). "The Family Man Behind the Foundation: Adam Milstein's Personal Journey". CEOWorld Magazine.
  5. ^ a b Revesencio, Johna. "How to Succeed as an Entrepreneur: Lessons from a Millionaire". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2016-01-13.
  6. ^ a b "Adam Milstein: Jewish America's Strategic Voice". CEO Today. July 9, 2025.
  7. ^ a b Jacob Kamaras (February 5, 2015). "'Active' philanthropist Adam Milstein a growing connector in the Jewish world". JNS. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  8. ^ "The Israeli-Americans: Who they are, what they want, where they're headed, why they matter". Jewish Journal. May 14, 2015.
  9. ^ "Adam Milstein: Leading by example". Jewish Journal. November 18, 2015.
  10. ^ "Why we set up the Israeli-American Council". Times of Israel.
  11. ^ "Israeli-American group names new leaders ahead of national conference". JNS. September 17, 2015. Archived from the original on April 17, 2016.
  12. ^ "Ascending Israeli-American group seeks to be the 'glue,' not the 'wedge,' for US Jewry". JNS. November 20, 2017.
  13. ^ "Israelis will power the future of American Jewry, IAC chair says". JTA. October 31, 2017.
  14. ^ "Gila & Adam Milstein". Merona Leadership Foundation. Retrieved July 27, 2025.
  15. ^ a b Linde, Steve (April 25, 2016). "The Israeli-American connector". The Jerusalem Post.
  16. ^ "IAC head Milstein urges: Boycott the boycotters". The Jerusalem Post. May 22, 2016.
  17. ^ "It's Not Just About Israel. BDS Threatens Us All". Huffington Post. 22 December 2015.
  18. ^ "Israel to invest to track potential terrorists on social media". The Jerusalem Post. 27 January 2016.
  19. ^ "Food, money and Jews". Jewish Journal. August 3, 2017.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Bamford, James (May 16, 2024). "The Israel-Affiliated Organization Leading the Backlash Against Student Protests". The Nation. Retrieved 2025-07-15.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ "The Jerusalem Post's 50 Most Influential Jews". The Jerusalem Post. October 2, 2016.
  24. ^ "The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life, 2015". Algemeiner. March 20, 2016.
  25. ^ "Jewish 100, 2015: Adam Milstein – Community". Algemeiner. March 30, 2016.
  26. ^ Troy, Gil (2018). The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland—Then, Now, Tomorrow. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 469–471.
  27. ^ Ron Kampeas (2019-03-19). "Prominent pro-Israel donor pulls out of AIPAC conference after saying two Muslim lawmakers 'clash' with American values". JTA.
  28. ^ "Adam Milstein". Hager Pacific. Archived from the original on 2013-07-27.
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