After launching his career in Jewish community advocacy in the halls of Congress, one of Portland’s own is coming home.

Eli Berne has been named the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s new Director of Governmental Affairs, a role he’ll take up Oct. 1.

“As Jewish communities face security challenges and feels the impact of antisemitism, the Jewish Federation, like many others, are strengthening their government relations efforts. Eli Berne has been working with Jewish Federations across the country to enhance their relationships with local, city and state elected officials,” Federation President and CEO Marc Blattner said. “Now, we are delighted that Eli is coming home to Portland to be our Jewish Federation’s Director of Government Affairs focused on elected officials in Oregon and Southwest Washington.”

Berne is the son of Portlanders Craig Berne, a former Federation board member, and Jan Berne. A 2018 graduate of the University of Oregon’s political science program, Eli Berne has been working in Jewish advocacy even before he graduated.

“I was very engaged in Ducks for Israel when I was in college. We had a big BDS resolution while I was at school,” he said. “Some of the things that I’ll say ‘the other side’ were saying not just about Israel, but about Jews, really woke me up to the reality that if we don’t advocate for ourselves and fight for ourselves, then no one will. That kind of sent me on the path to getting civically engaged and paying closer attention to politics and then creating a career in politics.”

After graduation and two years in a development role at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Berne took a role in local government and Jewish community affairs at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C., making him the primary contact for community organizations and municipal governments within the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Later, he was promoted to Congregational Affairs Officer.

“I was at the embassy during Oct. 7, which was obviously a very difficult day for everyone, but especially the embassy,” he said. “We were working overnight shifts around the clock. One of the things I was doing was sorting confidential images and pieces of material; some of which was being shared with Congress, some of which was being shared with the media, some of which was to distribute to our local contacts across our consular region. That was a really difficult job, but one that I considered critically important in that moment in time.”

Berne later moved to the Jewish Federations of North America, where he eventually became State Director for Government Relations, working with Federations throughout the country. Some of this was coordinating with government relations professionals on a local level.

“Some federations have never engaged in meaningful advocacy at the local or state level at all,” he explained. “That’s where I was most hands on in terms of building out a strategy, implementing that strategy, determining what bills have been passed in other states could essentially work in those states.”

Much of his focus was on state-level nonprofit security grant programs, antisemitism in primary and secondary education and, more recently, state response to cuts to federal supplemental nutrition assistance programs and Medicaid. The Pacific Northwest has now called him home, however, to do that work more locally.

“My family’s here. I’m from here. I love it here. It’s really, really an amazing special place,” Berne explained. “Jews have been in Portland for about 180 years and I foresee us being here for a very long time and I wanted to be a part of the work that makes Portland and Oregon a place where Jews can thrive and we can have a vibrant and flourishing Jewish community.”

There’s plenty to do, he said, to make that happen.

“There’s been some steps that other states have taken, that other cities have taken that have sent the message that ‘we are supportive of the Jewish community, and we want the Jewish community to be here.’ That’s not something we’ve necessarily seen from Oregon’s legislature or their governor or the city of Portland in the last few years,” Berne said. “I think there’s a lot of challenges in those spaces currently, and we’ve seen a lot of challenges over the past few years, but that also means there’s a lot of opportunity and there’s a lot more that we can be doing and that they can be doing in particular to stand up for the Jewish community and say Portland is a place where Jews belong.”

Beginning Oct. 1, you can reach Berne at eli@jewishportland.org.

PHOTO: Courtesy Eli Berne