Meet Our Team
Moshe Feiglin - Chairman of Zehut
Moshe Feiglin is the head of the Zehut political movement, dedicated to providing Israel with authentic Jewish leadership based on Jewish identity liberty and meaning.
In 1993, Moshe Feiglin co-founded the Zo Artzeinu ("This is our Land") movement with Shmuel Sackett to protest the Oslo Accords. In 1996, he established the Manhigut Yehudit movement to foster Jewish leadership for Israel. In 2000, the movement joined Israel's Likud party as a faction dedicated to the same goal. Mr. Feiglin declared that he would be a candidate for chairmanship of the party as a springboard for premiership of the State of Israel. Moshe Feiglin was Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Likud MK from 2013 - 2015.
In January 2015, after losing the Likud primaries, Moshe Feiglin announced his resignation from the Likud and the establishment of the new Zehut party. “I had hoped that the Likud would bring us straight to the premiership,” he said, “but clearly, it is incapable of doing so. It is time for us to set out on our own as an independent, responsible political movement that will lend hope to Israelis of all walks of life.”
Moshe Feiglin and the Zehut party advocate Jewish identity and values for Israel, human rights and liberty, family values, free market economy tempered with the Jewish values of kindness, Israeli sovereignty over all the land in its hands, Jewish rights on the Temple Mount and much more. Mr. Feiglin is determined to provide Israel with the authentic Jewish leadership that it so desperately needs. His goal is to be prime minister of Israel and to lead the nation to its Jewish destiny with authentic Jewish values.
Shmuel Sackett - Chairman of Zehut International
Shmuel is the co-founder of the Israeli political party Zehut. He is also the Chairman of Zehut International. The goal of this party is to lead Israel based on Jewish identity, liberty and meaning. Its ideology is based on authentic Jewish values and concepts and its dream – and vision - is to turn Israel into the proud, strong and Jewish state it was destined to be!
Shmuel Sackett is also the co-founder and International Director of Manhigut Yehudit. The goal of Manhigut Yehudit is to educate the world about what lies at the root of Israel’s problems and how Jewish leadership – and only Jewish leadership - can bring true peace to the region, make Israel a light onto the nations and ultimately bring the final redemption closer to reality. Manhigut Yehudit is non-political and spreads its message via lectures, seminars, websites, social media, videos, articles, books and speaking engagements around the world.
Shmuel Sackett is married with 6 children and 7 grandchildren, Baruch Hashem. He was born in 1961 in Middle Village (Queens, NY), moved to Kew Gardens Hills (Queens, NY) in 1974, married in 1981 and made aliyah in 1990 from Woodmere (Long Island, NY). Sackett attended YCQ (elementary school), YHSQ (high school) and holds a B.S. in Management from Touro College.
Before becoming a full-time activist in 1996, Sackett was Marketing Manager for the Israel Postal Authority (’91-’95).
Shmuel Sackett has spoken in 500 Jewish communities, college campuses and radio programs across America and Canada.
He is also a convicted felon… and proud of it!! In 1995, in a massive protest against the Oslo Accords, Sackett started the Zo Artzeinu (This Is Our Land) Movement with Moshe Feiglin. Zo Artzeinu introduced the concept of non-violent civil disobedience to Israel. Sackett and Feiglin led over 100,000 people into 80 intersections across Israel where they blocked streets and highways. After many similar demonstrations, they were arrested and charged with Sedition and 11 counts of incitement. In Sept 1997 they were found innocent of all counts of incitement but found guilty of Sedition. Sackett was sentenced to 12 months in prison but served most of his time via community service.
Prior to making Aliyah, Sackett was very involved in Kiruv (outreach) in the Jewish community in NY. In the years 1982-86 he was Youth Director of Havurat Yisrael (their first one!) and also started 2 NCSY chapters in Forest Hills, Queens. In 1988 he began a very popular “lunch and learn” program in the Sinai Heritage Center in lower Manhattan (Wall St area).
Shmuel and his wife were both members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and - to this day – are proud students of Rabbi Meir Kahane and his son, Rabbi Binyamin Kahane, may Hashem avenge their blood. When Rabbi Kahane was elected to the Knesset (1984), he appointed Shmuel as Director of Kach International on USA college campuses.
Aryeh Sonnenberg - International Director
Aryeh lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh (yes, he knows the neighbor of your sister-in-law’s brother), where he and his wife and kids (7 of them, plus one granddaughter, KA”H) have lived since making aliyah, from Baltimore, in 1997.
Born and raised in San Jose, CA, Aryeh learned in Ner Israel for several years, and received an MBA from Loyola College in Baltimore.
Aryeh and family uprooted themselves from the very comfortable Greenspring neighborhood of Baltimore, in order to join those people who were “fighting our fight” in the Holy Land.
Aryeh has earned a reputation as a local “activist,” through his involvement with many local organizations, including Beis Tefillah Yonah Avraham, one of the largest English-speaking shuls in the neighborhood.
Aryeh has been working with Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sacket for over 15 years: From Manhigut, as a member of the Likud’s Central Committee, and now, as the International Director of Zehut International. Aryeh’s passion for customer service and membership relations make him the perfect person for this position!
Aryeh’s commitment to Zehut is indicated by his cutting back his involvement at a hi-tech company in Hertzliya, in order to make this position his priority.
Jeff Cohen - USA Director
Jeff is what you might call a jack of all trades. While he is a software developer by day, he is also a SCUBA instructor, EMT, juggler, unicycle rider, baseball coach, and all around Mr. fix it. He volunteers as an EMT with Hatzalah of Union County and is a lieutenant with the Union Township Emergency Medical Unit. When he is not under water, saving lives, building furniture, or keeping too many balls in the air, he is working for his true passion, Israel.
Jeff grew up in Teaneck, NJ before it was the bastion of kosher restaurants and shuls that it is today. His father was involved in the ground breaking of B'nai Yeshurun, Teaneck's first orthodox synagogue. Growing up, he attended Moriah elementary school and Frisch Yeshiva High School and then attended SUNY Albany where he attained a B.S. in physics.
Jeff first visited Israel in the summer of 1989 on a trip with Tagar/Betar. It was then that he began to unlock his passion for Israel. While it was only a five week trip, three weeks on an army base in Ketziot and then two weeks of touring, it was life altering. After college he attended Bar-Ilan university in 1990-91 (ask him about his crazy Gulf war story), where he cultivated his love of Israel. After returning to the US and working in atmospheric research for a short time, he quickly returned to Israel to lead an American Zionist Youth Foundation tour in the summer of 1992. Once again, reluctantly returning to the US, he worked for Young Judea in their Israel programs department.
While developing his career in software engineering at Bell South Wireless, Jeff moved to the community of Elizabeth, NJ, got married and had two children. He went on to work in Manhattan for Sotheby's, the auction house, for nearly fifteen years where he would periodically ask his boss if he could work out of the Tel Aviv office. Unfortunately, the answer was always no. Now he finds himself back in the communications business with a company in NJ called iConectiv.
During all this time Israel was a constant. Jeff was always looking for the latest news on what was happening in Israel and that is how he happened upon Manhigut Yehudit. While listening to Yishai Fleisher on Israel National Radio one Monday morning, he heard a segment called Manhigut Mondays with Moshe Feiglin. After hearing Moshe that day and saying to himself, "Hey, this guy makes a lot of sense!", he made sure to listen every Monday morning. Not too long after that he attended a Manhigut Yehudit annual dinner and after that he was fully on board.
Jeff would do whatever he could for Manhigut Yehudit. After meeting Shmuel Sackett at the Israel day parade in NYC to pass out flyers about Manhigut Yehudit, phone calls and emails with him became a regular occurrence. Whether it was designing flyers for speaking engagements or organizing the speaking engagements himself, he did whatever he could do to help. When it became apparent that the weekly newsletter might have to stop, Jeff took over as the editor to make sure that those people who rely on it week after week to get their dose of Jewish Leadership would continue to get it.
While Jeff aspires to make Aliyah and be part of the Zehut family in Israel, when Shmuel and Moshe asked him to take on the role of US Director of Zehut International, there was no hesitation to accept the position. While Jeff is in the diaspora he will continue to do whatever he can to help those who wish to "fix the world in the kingdom of heaven".