2025 YIR: Meet the New Consul General to the Southeast

Eighty Jewish Atlanta community leaders, many of whom were rabbis, convened at the home of Steven and Delilah Cohen on Aug. 27 to welcome the new Israeli Consul General to the Southeast, Eitan Weiss, who has held four posts in the past 18 years. Weiss began by commending Anat Sultan Dadon’s “six years in an amazing role here” as his predecessor and explaining that “diplomacy is not one man’s act.”

Earlier in the year, Israel’s Cabinet announced Weiss’ appointment as part of a group of new diplomats. The Atlanta consulate serves seven states: Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi.

Weiss was recently director of export control in Jerusalem and previously head of the Israel Metaverse project. He later served as a deputy chief (Los Angeles Consulate) and held roles at embassies in Ottawa and Moscow (which Weiss described as “freezing and full of fun”). Before entering the foreign ministry, he worked as a customer service manager at Orange in Rosh Ha’Ayin, Birmingham’s sister city in Israel. Weiss has a degree in international relations and political science from Hebrew University, and a master’s in conflict resolution from Tel Aviv University. He served in Army Intelligence in the Israel Defense Forces.

Owner and publisher of Atlanta Jewish Times, Michael Morris, asked Weiss what he needed to accomplish his goals. Weiss replied, “Not money. Be our eyes and ears with friends and families here and there where we come from a place of logic and pause before issuing a verdict.”

Weiss spoke of Israel still “licking its wounds” post-COVID and Oct. 7, with tourism and GDP indicators.

“Tourism got a big hit, and the government helped it float,” he said. He told of his outreach to college campuses where he has encountered stone throwing and shouting over letting him speak.

He pledged to build bridges the local Black, Muslim, and Latino communities with “real dialogue.”