The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life
6 East 39th Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10016
tel: 212-279-2288
fax: 212-279-1155
info@steinhardtfoundation.org

Michael H. Steinhardt, Chairman

Robert P. Aronson, President

Rabbi David Gedzelman, Executive Vice President

Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Founding President

Jonathan J. Greenberg, z"l, Founding Director

For information about JJ Greenberg, the Founding Director of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, please see www.jjgreenberg.org.

STAFF

Naomi Gaton
Receptionist/Office Assistant
naomi@steinhardtfoundation.org

Shira Hutt
Program Officer
shira@steinhardtfoundation.org

Janet Mann
Office Services Manager
janet@steinhardtfoundation.org

Daniel Nieciecki
Assistant to Executive Vice President
daniel@steinhardtfoundation.org

Eli Schaap
Program Officer for Education and Research
elischaap@steinhardtfoundation.org

Alan Stricoff
Accountant
alan@steinhardtfoundation.org

Eli Valley
Senior Foundation Writer and Editor, Contact
eli@steinhardtfoundation.org

Michael H. Steinhardt, Chairman

Michael H. Steinhardt is a legendary money manager turned philanthropist who is dedicated to creating a renaissance in American Jewish life. After he graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 1960, Mr. Steinhardt began his financial career as a research associate, staff writer and securities analyst. In 1967 he formed his own hedge fund company, Steinhardt Partners L.P., where he made his fortune in one of the most spectacular careers in the history of Wall Street. Mr. Steinhardt has always believed that wealth and financial achievement alone are not sufficient to give full value and meaning to life. At the same time, he has felt growing alarm over the erosion and disappearance of Jewish identity in the Diaspora and the critical threat to continuity of non-Orthodox Jews. In 1995, Michael Steinhardt stunned the financial world by announcing that he would close his lucrative hedge fund to devote his time and fortune to the causes of the Jewish world. Mr. Steinhardt has masterminded his Jewish philanthropic activities through The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life. Mr. Steinhardt is also the principal supporter of New York University's Steinhardt School of Education. Other recipients of Mr. Steinhardt's philanthropy are the University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University, Tel Aviv University, and the Israel Museum. Mr. Steinhardt is a member of the new ownership group of Israel's leading bank, Bank Hapoalim, and is one of the principal investors behind The New York Sun, New York's newest daily newspaper. In 2001, Mr. Steinhardt published his memoirs, No Bull: My Life In and Out of the Markets (John Wiley & Sons, 2001). He and his wife, Judy, are the proud parents of David, Daniel and Sara, and the grandparents of Jacob, Joshua, Kira, Talia, Tora, Lila and Infinity.

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Robert P. Aronson, President

After serving as advisor to the Foundation for a number of years, Robert P. Aronson was appointed President of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life in October 2007. For the past eighteen years, Mr. Aronson has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. Mr. Aronson has been instrumental in creating the Detroit Federation's largest fundraising effort, the $60 million Millennium Campaign, to enrich Jewish family experience with a focus on renovation and renewal on the city's two Jewish Community Center campuses. He has championed strengthening Detroit's ties to Israel by overseeing the largest mission to Israel undertaken by a Jewish community, and through the Federation's participation in programs with its Partnership 2000 region of the Central Galilee. Mr. Aronson also serves as a private philanthropic consultant to William Davidson, owner of Guardian Industries Corp. He serves on the board of trustees of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan's School of Social Work. Mr. Aronson is a founder and creator of the Professional Leaders Project, a national initiative to recruit and develop professional and volunteer talent to assume executive leadership positions throughout the American Jewish community. He is also a member of the World Conference of Jewish Communal Service. Mr. Aronson's love of Israel goes back to his family roots and memories of his grandparents, who were the founders of Kibbutz Yif'at in the Central Galilee. Mr. Aronson is also an accomplished artist, having graduated from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the proud father of Max, Natasha and Isaac Aronson.

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Rabbi David Gedzelman, Executive Vice President

Since January, 2003, Rabbi David Gedzelman has been Executive Director of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life. David has been actively involved in JLN programs since 1995, when he was recruited to conceive and develop Makor in New York City. As the Founding Creative and Rabbinic Director of Makor, David created and led a cutting-edge venue for Jewish New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s, providing innovative arts, cultural and educational programming aimed at engaging an under-involved population in possibilities of Jewish Life and meaning. Before serving at Makor, David was Director of Hillel and Rabbi in Residence at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He also served as Director of Hillel at Pierce and Valley Colleges in Woodland Hills, California. At the same time, he was a Lecturer in Rabbinics at the University of Judaism's Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. Rabbi Gedzelman holds a B.A. from Hamilton College, an M. A. from Duke University in Religion and Rabbinical Ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He has studied in Israel at the Hebrew University and at the Pardes Institute. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement and serves on the Boards of Directors of The American Pardes Foundation, Hillel International, BBYO Inc. and The Curriculum Initiative.

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Jonathan J. Greenberg, z"l, Founding Director

JJ served as Executive Director of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life from its inception in 1995. He supervised the creation, development and direction of all JLN programs, and he was intimately involved in overseeing JLN's college programs, including Hillel's Steinhardt Jewish Campus Service Corps and Steinhardt Scholars, and the Steinhardt/Neubauer Jewish Heritage Programs. JJ worked closely with Michael H. Steinhardt and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg in developing, directing and implementing JLN's philanthropic vision. JJ's responsibilities at JLN included the conceptualization, development and supervision of programs; goal setting and strategic planning; development and administration of budget; and management and administration of policy and operations. Prior to his involvement in JLN, JJ worked with outreach programs for Jewish youth and adults. He served as National Advisor for the National Conference of Synagogue Youth and as Executive Director of the Jewish Youth Movement (JYM), which ran culture clubs in forty public and private high schools in the New York area. JJ was on the board of the Jewish Funders Network and was a board member of Lights in Action, a national Jewish student group that provided Jewish and Zionist education to college students in the United States and Canada.

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Naomi Gaton, Receptionist/Office Assistant

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Naomi has worked in various positions in customer service and production coordination. Prior to joining JLN, Naomi served as Executive Assistant to the President at Circle Glass, a Brooklyn-based glassware importer. She has also helped to publish a weekly newsletter for the congregation of Beth Shaul U'Miriam in Brooklyn, NY. Since personally overcoming cancer at the age of 21 and losing a very close family friend to breast cancer that same year, Naomi has been active in several cancer awareness programs. Her current goal is to complete the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (39 miles in 2 days).

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Shira Hutt, Program Officer

Shira holds a B.A. in history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and recently completed her M.P.A. in Nonprofit Management from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Shira is a Professional Leaders Project Academic Fellow. She serves on the board of Avoda Arts and is on the Advisory Committee of The Six-Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists. Prior to joining JLN, Shira served as the Arline and David L. Bittker Senior Fellow at Hillel's Schusterman International Center, where she worked on student leadership development, developed arts and culture programming and launched the Grinspoon Israel Advocacy Internship Program.

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Janet Mann, Office Services Manager

For twenty-four years, Janet and her family lived in the greater Boston area.  In 2000 she and her husband, both native New Yorkers, moved back to their home state and settled in Brooklyn.  Before joining JLN, Janet worked in a variety of  jobs as an Administrative Assistant and receptionist.  Prior to that she was the Customer Service Manager for Simplex Products in Sharon, Massachusetts.

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Daniel Nieciecki, Assistant to Executive Vice President

Daniel Nieciecki holds an MA from the Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought of New York University and a BA with honors in History from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. Prior to joining JLN, he worked for the Girl Scouts of the USA in the Membership Credentials department and the National Historic Preservation Center. He is a co-coordinator of Shabbat morning services and chair of the Bikkur Cholim committee at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York City.

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Eli Schaap, Director of Education and Research

Eli Schaap’s focus is on transforming Jewish education through consensus decision-making, action research, and other elements of change organizing. Most recently, he worked as a consultant to several national Jewish organizations. Previously, Eli served as the Associate Executive Director of CAJE. Prior to that, he worked for twenty years in the business community. As a volunteer, he founded and served as president of the Partnership Fund for Teaneck, a non-profit devoted to improving Teaneck intergroup relations. Eli received his training in a Ph.D. program in Ecology and Evolution at SUNY at Stony Brook. He has conducted action research and published several articles on the culture of employment, recruitment and retention of Jewish educators, on early childhood Jewish education, and on institutional finances. He has frequently presented his research at the Conference of the Network for Research in Jewish Education.

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Alan Stricoff, CPA, MBA, Accountant/Controller (Consultant)

Alan is an experienced controller and CFO, who, since 1994, has been a self-employed Fiscal Director/Controller for clients in the not-for-profit world. Prior to that, he served as CFO of Legacy International and as the Vice President for Finance of St. Laurie Ltd. Alan holds an MBA from Baruch College.

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Eli Valley, Senior Foundation Writer and Editor, Contact

Eli holds a B.A. with Honors in English from Cornell University. Prior to joining JLN, he spent several years working with the Jewish Community in Prague. He has written articles for a variety of publications and published a book, The Great Jewish Cities of Central and Eastern Europe: A Travel Guide and Resource Book to Prague, Warsaw, Cracow and Budapest (Jason Aronson, 1999).

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