Democratic Majority for Israel’s founder and president, Mark Mellman, a pollster and decades-long fixture of Democratic politics who sought to counter a rising generation of Democratic politicians critical of Israel, is stepping down from his leadership of the pro-Israel organization six years after its founding. The organization did not give a reason for his departure, which will come at the end of this week.

Mellman launched the organization in early 2019, soon after the first members of the Squad — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — took office, with the stated goal of fighting anti-Israel forces in the party and maintaining the Democratic Party’s historic support for Israel. 

“Most Democrats are strongly pro-Israel and we want to keep it that way,” Mellman told The New York Times at the time. “There are a few discordant voices, but we want to make sure that what’s a very small problem doesn’t metastasize into a bigger problem.”

DMFI was one of the first pro-Israel organizations to become a major direct spender in political campaigns, before AIPAC created its own political fundraising arm in 2022. One of its early successes came in Cleveland in 2021, when Shontel Brown defeated progressive activist Nina Turner in a hard-fought primary. DMFI spent $2 million backing Brown. 

DMFI did not name a successor for Mellman but said in a press release that its board “will announce soon new leadership to build on its past successes and position Democratic Majority for Israel for even greater impact in the future.” 

Mellman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.