The Olam Acronym Index
The standing reference for the acronyms that define Israel's institutions, capital markets, defense base, Aliyah operations, and multilateral architecture. Working glossary, grouped by domain, with canonical links.
The Olam covers a global Jewish business economy that speaks in compressed letters. Israeli regulators, U.S. agencies, multilateral institutions, defense programs, and Aliyah operations all run on acronyms that mean nothing to a new reader and everything to a practitioner. This index is the working glossary for everyone in between.
Entries are grouped by domain. Where The Olam has covered the subject directly, the acronym links through to the relevant piece.
Government and regulatory — Israel
BoI — Bank of Israel. The country's central bank, also operator of the sovereign wealth fund.
ITA — Israel Tax Authority. Administers Mas Rechisha, capital gains, the Olim tax break.
MoF — Ministry of Finance. Chair of the Citizens' Fund Council.
MOIA — Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. Recognizes Aliyah status for tax and mortgage purposes.
MOD — Israeli Ministry of Defense.
MFA — Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
NSC — National Security Council.
ILA — Israel Land Authority. State-owned-land registry; most Israeli "ownership" is long leasehold from the ILA.
ICA — Israel Securities Authority (translates as ISA in some documents).
IIA — Israel Innovation Authority. Successor to the OCS; primary R&D grant body.
SHAAM — Israel Tax Authority's digital customs and trade system.
Aliyah and migration
NBN — Nefesh B'Nefesh. Anglophone Aliyah facilitator; the operational front door for U.S., Canadian, and U.K. Olim.
JAFI — Jewish Agency for Israel. The historical Aliyah body; today a global partner organization.
JDC — American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Global Jewish welfare and development.
JNF — Jewish National Fund. Land, infrastructure, communal development.
WZO — World Zionist Organization.
Olim — Plural of Oleh; a Jew who has made Aliyah.
Mas Rechisha — Purchase tax. Reduced threshold for first-property Olim.
Capital markets and macro
TASE — Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
TA-35 — Lead Israeli equity index; the top 35 TASE-listed companies by capitalization.
TA-125 — Broad-market Israeli equity index; the top 125 TASE-listed companies.
NIS — New Israeli Shekel; the ISO 4217 code is ILS.
CIF — Citizens of Israel Fund; the sovereign wealth fund.
OECD — Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Israel joined in 2010.
IMF — International Monetary Fund. Conducts annual Israeli Article IV consultations.
MSCI — Morgan Stanley Capital International. Israel is in the MSCI Developed Markets index.
CPI — Consumer Price Index. Israeli mortgage tracks use this for the index-linked rate component.
Defense and security
IDF — Israel Defense Forces.
MAFAT — Directorate of Defense Research and Development; the MOD's central R&D arm.
DDR&D — English rendering of MAFAT.
IAI — Israel Aerospace Industries. State-owned aerospace and defense prime.
ESLT — Elbit Systems. NASDAQ ticker for the country's largest publicly traded defense company.
Rafael — Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Iron Dome co-developer.
IMI — Israel Military Industries; merged into Elbit Systems in 2018.
SIBAT — International Defense Cooperation Directorate; the MOD export licensing arm.
CAA — Civil Aviation Authority (Israel).
NCD — National Cyber Directorate.
Multilateral and diplomatic
AA — Abraham Accords. The 2020 normalization agreements with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
CEPA — Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement; the UAE-Israel bilateral trade framework that entered force in 2023.
IMEC — India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. The 2023-announced multimodal trade route via Israel.
GCC — Gulf Cooperation Council.
AL — Arab League.
OIC — Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
UNRWA — United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
PA — Palestinian Authority.
Major listed Israeli companies (by primary ticker)
TEVA — Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. NYSE.
CHKP — Check Point Software. NASDAQ.
CYBR — CyberArk. NASDAQ.
MBLY — Mobileye. NASDAQ.
TSEM — Tower Semiconductor. NASDAQ and TASE.
ZIM — ZIM Integrated Shipping. NYSE.
ICL — ICL Group. NYSE and TASE.
NICE — NICE Ltd. NASDAQ.
WIX — Wix.com. NASDAQ.
MNDY — Monday.com. NASDAQ.
U.S. and international
BIS — Bureau of Industry and Security. The U.S. Commerce Department arm administering dual-use export controls — relevant to every U.S.-headquartered Israeli technology company.
CFIUS — Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Reviews foreign acquisitions of U.S. assets; relevant to Israeli outbound M&A.
OFAC — Office of Foreign Assets Control. U.S. Treasury sanctions administrator.
SEC — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Regulator of U.S.-listed Israeli companies.
FCPA — Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
FMS — Foreign Military Sales. The U.S. government-to-government defense procurement channel; relevant to all major Israel-Gulf defense flows.
Note on usage
This index is updated as The Olam's coverage expands. Acronyms appear without expansion when their usage is established in the relevant publication; readers should treat this page as the standing reference.
