Dear Friends:
Today marks precisely 25 years since, in the midst of Philadelphia’s record-breaking cold month of January 1994, the Middle East Forum was founded in a downtown law office. Soon after, the late Albert Wood, Amy Shargel, and myself, sitting at my kitchen table, started turning it into a reality.
Since then, MEF has gone from a budget of $200,000 a year to $5 million, with a commensurate increase in staff, fellows, network, publications, activities, and influence. What began as just the publisher of the Middle East Quarterly has grown into a complex organization with intellectual, activist, and philanthropic components with offices in Washington and Jerusalem, and a bureau in Amman.
I’d like to take this opportunity, first to thank those several of you who were there and can recall those origins. I then thank everyone who has so generously funded our mission over the past quarter-century.
On the 20th anniversary, I published reflections on the internal growth of the Forum. Today, I wrote an external one, focusing on our place in the context of four U.S. presidents, that may interest you.
On behalf of the entire staff, I look forward to continuing and extending this teamwork with you.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Pipes
