Brian Romick, a longtime senior aide to Rep. Steny Hoyer, will succeed Mark Mellman as the group’s president and CEO

Courtesy DMFI
Brian Romick
Democratic Majority for Israel, a top pro-Israel advocacy group, is announcing a new president and board chair, after a recent leadership shake-up that resulted in the sudden departure of its founder last month.
The organization said in a statement to Jewish Insider on Friday that Brian Romick, a longtime senior aide to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), will serve as president and CEO, succeeding Mark Mellman, a veteran Democratic pollster who founded the group in 2019 to counter growing anti-Israel sentiment on the left.
Former Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), a pro-Israel stalwart and Jewish Democrat who has previously chaired the Jewish Federations of North America, will lead DMFI’s board of directors, the group said.
In a statement shared with JI, Romick, who has helped guide Hoyer’s efforts to advance pro-Israel legislation and fight antisemitism, called DMFI “an essential voice in Washington and in the pro-Israel community across the country,” particularly during what he characterized as a “critical moment in the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
“I want to thank DMFI’s leadership and staff for their efforts over the last six years to build a robust presence in the Democratic Party that reflects our shared values with Israel,” Romick continued. “With the House and Senate in play during the upcoming midterm elections, I am committed to working with Kathy, the board and the staff to expand DMFI’s impact and ensure we are supporting pro-Israel Democrats next year.”
Manning, for her part, said that she was “thrilled to chair DMFI’s board at this very important time for the U.S.-Israel relationship and for the Democratic Party,” while also thanking “the past leadership for establishing DMFI and turning it into a vibrant and formidable organization with an outsized impact.
“I look forward to building on the strong foundation they have created,” Manning said in the statement.
DMFI has not shared a reason for Mellman’s abrupt departure in mid-April, which came as something of a surprise to political observers. He has not publicly addressed the matter.
Mellman had also served as the chairman of DMFI’s super PAC, which has become a prominent player in key Democratic primary battles where conflicts over Israel have featured prominently. The group has yet to select a new chair of its political arm, DMFI PAC, which will be a pivotal role as it begins to strategize in advance of next year’s primaries.
DMFI, for its part, has in recent weeks staked out an increasingly adversarial approach to the new Trump administration, expressing concern that it is leaving Israel exposed amid a U.S. ceasefire agreement with the Houthis in Yemen and criticizing the president’s plans to accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar as a threat to national security.
In a statement shared with JI on Friday, Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a pro-Israel champion backed by DMFI PAC, voiced confidence Romick and Manning would guide DMFI “through an ever-more complex and challenging era for the set of issues at the core of its focus.”
“Kathy and Brian are the right leaders for this moment when Democratic Majority for Israel’s mission is more important than ever,” added Todd Richman, a current co-chair of DMFI’s board. “Their deep experience and accomplishments on Capitol Hill, in Democratic politics, and as leading pro-Israel advocates will build on DMFI’s record of achievement.”
DMFI also announced two new additions to its board: Lisa Eisen, the co-president of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and the founding board chair of Israel on Campus Coalition; and Stuart Kurlander, a retired partner at Latham & Watkins who has served as a president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington
In January, the group named Brian Abrahams, a longtime pro-Israel activist who previously worked for the bipartisan lobbying group AIPAC, as its new vice president and chief advancement officer.

MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, gestures during an interview at the patriarchate headquarters in the old city of Jerusalem on April 22, 2025.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem who is a contender to be named the next pope, and report on the selection of Michael Anton to lead the U.S. delegation’s technical talks with Iran over its nuclear program. We also preview the American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum, which kicks off Sunday, and interview CEO Ted Deutch about the organization’s approach to the Trump administration’s efforts to address campus antisemitism. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Adam Neumann, Larry Summers and Ron Dermer.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: She forgot Yom Hashoah – then created a movement that changed the way Israel remembers the Holocaust; From seminary to secretary: How Uri Monson balances Pennsylvania’s budget and keeps Shabbat; and The quirky new VC being guided by Jewish values. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Technical talks on Iran’s nuclear program are taking place in Oman this weekend. More below.
- Elsewhere in the region, CENTCOM head Gen. Erik Kurilla is in Israel for meetings with senior officials to discuss Iran.
- The White House Correspondent’s Dinner will take place tomorrow night at the Washington Hilton in Dupont Circle.
- President Donald Trump will attend the funeral of Pope Francis tomorrow in the Vatican.
- Former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is facing at least two years in prison when he is sentenced today for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
- The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum kicks off on Sunday in New York. More below.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MARC ROD
The American Jewish Committee’s annual Global Forum Conference kicks off this weekend in New York. AJC’s CEO Ted Deutch told Jewish Insider that the organization is expecting over 2,000 attendees.
“It’s been clear since Oct. 7 [and] in everything we’ve seen since, the challenges that the Jewish community in Israel are facing are global challenges and they require global responses,” Deutch said. “AJC has people in 40 places around the world — 25 offices in the U.S., 15 more around the world — this is the opportunity for all of that global advocacy, all of those global advocates, to come together.”
Headline speakers will include Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, who moved his country’s embassy to Jerusalem last year and yesterday designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization and expanded Paraguay’s terrorist designations of the armed wings of Hezbollah and Hamas to encompass the entirety of both organizations. In addition, outspoken pro-Israel members of the European and Brazilian legislatures, as well as Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Auburn University basketball coach Bruce Pearl, will address the gathering. John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, and former Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass will be speaking.
Deutch said there will be a significant focus on the hostages — Noa Argamani and the family of Edan Alexander will be in attendance.
The event will also feature a debate between Ellie Cohanim, the former deputy antisemitism envoy in the first Trump administration, and Bill Kristol, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, on American leadership in the world and the implications of Trump’s America First foreign policy.
While not yet confirmed, Deutch said that the Trump administration had “expressed great interest” in sending a representative to speak at the conference.
Deutch also teased the announcement of a new collaborative effort to “help document antisemitism and the need to really confront it in all of its contemporary forms.”
In total, attendees and speakers will hail from more than 60 countries, including a feature discussion with Jewish community members from France, Mexico and Australia. Students will come from 46 U.S. colleges and universities and 27 other countries including Mexico, South Africa, North Macedonia and Australia. Young leaders from 14 countries who are part of AJC’s Access Global program will also be in attendance.
Deutch told JI that seeing university students step up as leaders and work together to strengthen each other has become “one of my favorite parts of AJC.” He said that there will also be opportunities for AJC’s campus programs to work with the World Union of Jewish Students and the European Union of Jewish Students and meet with Deutch and other AJC leaders.
“We’ve continued to work under the firm belief that the most important battlefield in the fight against antisemitism in the United States right now is in education,” Deutch added. He said that the conference will feature conversations with officials and activists at all levels, with a focus on both college and high school.
Speaking to JI at AJC’s offices in Washington this week, Deutch also delved into the nuanced approach AJC is taking on the Trump administration’s high-profile actions on campus antisemitism, including stripping grants from colleges and large-scale deportations of student visa holders, as well as offering an outlook on the ongoing Iran talks. Read more below.
letter to the president
Jewish Senate Dems accuse Trump of weaponizing antisemitism to attack universities

A group of Jewish Senate Democrats accused President Donald Trump of weaponizing antisemitism as a pretext to withhold funding from and punish colleges and universities, moves they said in a letter on Thursday “undermine the work of combating antisemitism” and ultimately make Jewish students “less safe,” Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What they’re saying: “We are extremely troubled and disturbed by your broad and extra-legal attacks against universities and higher education institutions as well as members of their communities, which seem to go far beyond combatting antisemitism, using what is a real crisis as a pretext to attack people and institutions who do not agree with you,” the lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), antisemitism task force co-chair Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), wrote to the president.