Benjy Rogers has done “just about every single Israel program under the sun.” So it makes sense that he now works in diplomacy and Middle East advocacy as the director for Middle East and North Africa initiatives with the American Jewish Committee.
In this role, Rogers travels frequently to countries in the Arab world and represents AJC worldwide in private meetings with leaders. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political anthropology and archeology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in public policy and Israeli politics from Tel Aviv University.
Rogers lives in Rockville with his wife and two young children and belongs to B’nai Israel Congregation.
Tell me about your Jewish upbringing and background.
[I was] born in [Washington], D.C., [and I] grew up mostly in Rockville. My dad is in the military; we were stationed in Hawaii for the first three years of my life, but moved back to Rockville when I was just about four. [I] grew up going to B’nai Israel [Congregation]; going to Hebrew school and Capital Camps as a kid. I did a Young Judaea Year Course after high school. After college, I did a program called Career Israel and I met my wife there.
After the program, I ended up coming back home, then I actually ended up a couple months later going back to Israel and got my master’s degree at Tel Aviv University.
Have you always seen yourself working in diplomatic affairs and policy making?
I’ve always been interested in the anthropology mindset. I’ve always been interested in people and culture and how culture impacts politics, so that evolved into wanting to get involved in the diplomacy and politics field.
Why are you interested in Middle East advocacy?
Israel is an important part of who I am, not just religiously, not just culturally, but it’s a real place to me. It’s where I met my wife; it’s where I had my most important experiences growing up. It’s a place I really love, and with AJC, I’ve had the chance to travel across the entire Arab world, and I fell in love with the culture and the people there. I think one of the heartbreaks of the region is that there’s so much potential but so many hurdles too.
Instead of being the person saying, “Everything’s terrible; we can’t do anything,” I feel quite lucky to work with an organization that’s looking at, “How do we bring people together, even in the most difficult circumstances?”
What do you like most about the work you do?
A lot of what we do is behind the scenes. AJC is sometimes referred to as the “best-kept secret,” but a lot of the work we do in the Middle East is very quiet, given the sensitivity. It’s a lot of responsibility; a lot of bringing together Israelis and Arabs. A lot of people say there’s no hope, but a lot of us traveling to the region get a better sense of what’s actually going on on the ground. You get a real sense of what the issues are, what people are saying firsthand, and you realize how complex everything is. I am grateful that I have a role that allows me to see that. With that information, it helps arm us for how we can build on that and bring people together.
What are the biggest challenges you face at work?
Post-Oct. 7, the environment changed drastically; our work became much more difficult, but much more important. One of the challenges right now is bringing people together — trust. “Do I want to be doing this right now? What’s the point? Where is it going to lead?” A lot of the initiatives that we focus on focus on building something together. We’re very interested in building diplomatic ties, political ties, but also more and more focused on how AJC can be a bridge that brings business leaders together. We’re not a business organization; I don’t know the first thing about business, but through our decades of trust we’ve built a lot of trust. We’ve built a big Rolodex, and we get to play a role in bringing people together to [solve common issues].
You travel a lot for work. How do you balance that with your responsibilities back home?
I’ve got a 2-year-old and a 6-month old; frankly, I’ve been traveling less. We’re in the process of creating this entity that AJC calls the Center for a New Middle East, which is engaging the Arab world. Now, I’m past the day-to-day rollout of that, which, luckily, has been keeping me very busy domestically, but I still get to travel from time to time. I’ll be in the [Arabian] Gulf in February; Morocco holds a special place in my heart, so hopefully, later in 2025, I’ll be there as well. The most important thing to me is my family, always, but I still love to travel.
