Future of Jewish

Rabbi Dr. Benji Levy is a founding partner of Israel Impact Partners, which works with funders to accelerate the growth of the non-profits they care about. Levy served as CEO of Mosaic United, a historic joint venture partnership between Israel and global Jewry to strengthen Jewish identity and connections to Israel for youth around the world. Previously, he served for six years as the Dean of Moriah College in Sydney, Australia, one of the largest Jewish schools in the world with over 1,800 pre-kindergarten through high school students and 300 staff. Levy was named as one of three top global change-makers working for Diaspora Jewry by leading Israeli newspaper, Makor Rishon, and awarded "Educator of the Year" by JNF for his leadership and service to the Australian Jewish community. He received an Australian Postgraduate Award for his research in Jewish identity and published "An Oasis In Time: Seven Thoughts for the Seventh Day" with Maggid Books and Koren Publishing. The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

Gali Cooks is the founding president and chief executive officer of Leading Edge, an organization formed to influence, inspire, and enable dramatic change in attracting, developing, and retaining top talent for Jewish organizations. To Leading Edge, Gali brings extensive professional experience in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. Her career began in Washington, DC, where she was a speechwriter at the Embassy of Israel and worked as a Legislative Assistant at AIPAC. She was Founding Director of the PJ Library at the Grinspoon Foundation and also served as Executive Director of the Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation, overseeing the distribution of millions of philanthropic dollars. The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

Oren Jacobson launched Project Shema to help build bridges between the Jewish community and the progressive movement. His grandfather was among the 10-percent of Polish Jews to survive World War II, making his life a statistical improbability. This truth guides and motivates Jacobson to "live a life worthy of the Jewish lives lost for the crime of being a Jew, dedicated to supporting, strengthening, and protecting all who are attacked for the crime of being who they are." He lives near Chicago with his wife Betsy, an ER Doctor, as well as with their son Noah Lincoln, and their dogs, who are named after great champions for justice, Eleanor Roosevelt and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Together with Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University, he co-directs the Institute's Muslim Leadership Initiative, which teaches emerging young Muslim American leaders about Judaism, Jewish identity, and Israel. Halevi’s 2013 book, Like Dreamers, won the Jewish Book Council's Everett Book of the Year Award. His latest book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, is a New York Times bestseller. He writes for leading op-ed pages in the US, including the Times and the Wall Street Journal, and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic. The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

Canadian-based Peter Ekstein is the founder of the Jewish Year of Service program, which sends Jewish recent high school grads to Israel for a year of service. It all started with his fear that the Canadian Jewish community is becoming less cohesive, thanks to rising rates of intermarriage, the falling rates of participation in Jewish institutions — like synagogues, day schools and summer camps — and the growing divide in attitudes towards Israel between older and younger Jews. The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

Aliza Kline is the co-founder and CEO of OneTable which, since 2014, has grown to a national organization that engages tens of thousands Jewish young adults through peer-led Shabbat dinners. From the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, OneTable has expanded to serve the broader community — most recently by launching HereFor.com, a platform to enable individuals to find alternative High Holiday celebrations. Also the founding executive director of Mayyim Hayyim (mayyimhayyim.org), Kline has devoted her career to re-imagining Jewish ritual open to the full diversity of the community. The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.

Gidi Grinstein is the founder and president of The Reut Institute, a Tel Aviv based non-profit and non-partisan institution, described by Tom Friedman of the New York Times as, "Israel's premier strategy group." Before founding Reut, Grinstein served as Secretary and Coordinator of the Israeli negotiation team on the Permanent Status Agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Office, and later in the Bureau, of Prime Minister Ehud Barak ('99–'01). Some of Grinstein's chief achievements over the last 15 years include forming and training a cadre of leaders, designing the Birthright Israel program ('95-'99), and contributing to the reform of Israel's electoral system. Grinstein is a graduate of Tel-Aviv University in Economics ('91) and Law ('99) and of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government as a Wexner Israel Fellow ('02). He is a Captain (Res.) in the Israeli Navy and a former volunteer police officer. In 2013, Grinstein published his first book, “Flexigidity: The Secret of Jewish Adaptability & Challenge and Opportunity Facing Israel." The Future of Jewish is a podcast hosted by Joshua Hoffman, the founder of JOOL. In each episode, Joshua is joined by top leaders, thinkers, and doers who are paving the path for a promising Jewish future.