Ted Lapkin

The AJA is a centre-right advocacy organisation appointing an executive director for the first time.

AJA President Dr David Adler said: “Ted brings extensive experience in public policy development and political communications and will play a key role in AJA’s strategy to establish itself as the go-to source for authoritative policy analysis from a centre-right Jewish perspective. This is a very positive and exciting step in the development of AJA.”

Ted spent the first half of his childhood in North Carolina until his Jewish family was bitten by the Zionist bug and made the move to Israel. Serving in the IDF, he saw action in Lebanon as a combat intelligence officer in the Golani Infantry Brigade.

Ted went on to study at Tel Aviv University, where he graduated summa cum laude – equivalent to first class or HD honours. He then returned to the U.S. for post-graduate study and began to work in politics as a media/government- relations strategist. This led to the offer of a communications director job in Washington for a member of the Republican Congressional leadership.

It was in Washington that he met an Australian woman who was visiting on holiday, resulting in his ultimate move to Melbourne. Ted then began to write political opinion columns for Australia’s major newspapers. This led to a job offer from the Australia-Israel & Jewish Affairs Council where he served as Director of Policy Analysis for three-plus years before heading off to work in an advisor role with the Howard Government.

Ted went on to work as a political and media advisor for a series of Liberal Senators, MPs and Ministers until 2015 when he opened his own digital media strategy firm. He provided strategic communications advice to numerous MPs and assisted the Catholic education sector in its successful campaign to roll back the Turnbull government’s ill- advised changes to private school funding formulae. He also consulted to the Zionist Federation of Australia.

Ted is particularly excited about the looming publication of his debut novel, Righteous Kill, described by his editor in the UK as a “Nazi-busting time travel techno thriller that’s huge amounts of fun!”