HR0200 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0200 LRB102 17958 LAW 24681 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to recognize Aviv Ezra on the occasion of his retirement as Consul General of Israel to the Midwest; and

WHEREAS, Aviv Ezra was born in Israel to an Israeli diplomat and a teacher in 1972; he served in the Israel Defense Forces, where he achieved the rank of captain; he received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel; and

WHEREAS, Aviv Ezra joined Israel's Foreign Ministry in 1999; he served as the economic and commercial attaché to Cairo, Egypt from 2000 to 2002; he served as the deputy consul general for the Southeastern region of the U.S. at the Consulate General of Israel in Atlanta, Georgia from 2002 to 2006; he was appointed as a policy advisor to the director general of the Foreign Ministry in 2006; after serving five years as Israel's liaison to the U.S. Congress, he was appointed as counselor in the Foreign Ministry's North America Division Congressional Affairs Department in 2013; and

WHEREAS, Aviv Ezra was appointed as Consul General of Israel to the Midwest based in Chicago in 2016 and was responsible for nine Midwestern states, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin; and

WHEREAS, During his five-year tenure, Aviv Ezra oversaw a number of developments in Israeli-United States relations, including Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University joining the University of Illinois in the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), the implementation of the NATAL Model for trauma resiliency in Bronzeville, the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the City of Chicago and the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in 2019, the launch of a non-stop flight route between Chicago O'Hare Airport and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion in September 2020, the partnership of Mt. Sinai Chicago Hospital and Shamir Medical Center, co-leading the Chicago-Israel Healthtech Summit alongside the digital health hub MATTER and the Sheba Medical Center, and many more too numerous to mention; and

WHEREAS, Aviv Ezra is married to Einat, and they have three children; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize Aviv Ezra on his retirement as Consul General of Israel to the Midwest, and we commend him for his years of service to Israel-United States relations; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Aviv Ezra as an expression of our esteem and respect.