Jeff Ballabon

Jeff (Jeffrey) Ballabon is a lobbyist, media executive, and an Orthodox Jew.

He is a member of The Livingston Group, a D.C.-based lobbying firm. He also is president of Ballabon Group, an issue campaign consultancy advising clients on government relations, crisis management and media strategy.

He is a lawyer and graduate of Yale Law School, with degrees in Jewish law from Ner Israel Rabbinical College (Baltimore, MD) and in literature from Yeshiva University (New York). He served as counsel to Senator John Danforth of Missouri and to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. He interned briefly at the State of Israel's Ministry of Justice, where he worked on several matters, including the formulation of Israel's Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty.

He subsequently ran the public policy and communications departments for Court TV, Channel One News and Primedia. In the 1990s, during the era of extremely high profile trials, like the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Ballabon was a leader in the campaign to allow US court proceedings to be televised.

The Forward labeled Ballabon one of the "50 Most Influential Jews in America," called him "the architect of Bush's 2004 re-election effort in the Orthodox community."

Ballabon is a key point of contact for the Jewish community with Christian leaders, as well. "If you're looking for a New Yorker with deep ties to the Christian right - you know, the folks running America - Mr. Ballabon is your man," wrote The New York Observer.

As a fundraiser for the 2004 Bush campaign, he co-chaired a dinner which "raked in $4 million." (Village Voice)

In October 2007, in reaction to the announcement of the Annapolis Conference he was retained to mount a response to the threatened division of Jerusalem and he founded the Coordinating Council on Jerusalem.

External links and references

* [http://www.ccjer.org Coordinating Council on Jerusalem Website]
* [http://www.livingstongroupdc.com/inthenews/releases/Press_Release-Jeff_Ballabon_and_TLG_Announces_Expansion_into_NYC_market_5-14-07.pdf Livingston Group Announcement]
* [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerGuest.jhtml?itemNo=933172 Haaretz biography]
* [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/13/jerusalem/ Salon Coordinating Council story]
* [http://www.observer.com/node/50572 Observer profile]
* [http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0343,harkavy,48033,1.html Village Voice fundraising story]
* [http://opinionjournal.com/nextjustice/?id=110007259 WSJ Opinion Journal]
* [http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/article/777/ Jewish Media Resources story]
* [http://www.chaisociety.org/ Yale 300]
* [http://www.ballabongroup.com Ballabon Group Website]
* [http://www.ballabon.com Ballabon Jewish Political Outreach Website]