Vikings Owner To Be Next Chair Of Jewish Agency For Israel

Minnesota Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf, a longtime advocate for Holocaust education and survivors, has been appointed as the chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s board of governors. 

Wilf has served in a variety of Jewish communal roles, most recently ending his almost four-year tenure as the chairman of the Jewish Federations of North America.

The Jewish Agency is the central organization that helps Jews make Aliyah, or immigrate, to Israel, while also investing in Jewish community and identity building globally.

“The organization is confident that Wilf’s inspiring commitment, leadership, and vision will serve the common goals of the State of Israel and the Jewish people,” The Jewish Agency said in a statement. 

Wilf is known in Minnesota for his involved approach with Holocaust education, taking several Vikings players and staffers on a 2019 trip to the National Museum of African-American History & Culture and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., where he shared his parents’ story of surviving the Holocaust.

“From ownership’s perspective, we really want to be a model in the community,” Wilf told TC Jewfolk in 2019. “The Vikings are about teamwork and giving back. I think those are the themes that are advanced by the visit we had in Washington.”

Earlier this year, Vikings placekicker Greg Joseph, his mother Illana, and Brett Taber, the Vikings VP of social impact, visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum on a trip organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Funding from the Vikings has also helped support the JCRC’s Holocaust education initiatives.