Speakers

Ruth W. Messinger

Ruth W. Messinger is a social justice activist, advocate and consultant, working primarily in the Jewish and interfaith communities, committed to
teaching about leadership and moral courage. She has worked for Elluminate as its Senior Advisor since 2019. 

President and CEO of American Jewish World Service (AJWS) from 1998 to July 2016, she is currently the organization’s Global Ambassador, continuing her crucial work to engage rabbis and other faith leaders to speak out on behalf of oppressed and persecuted communities worldwide.

Before AJWS, Ruth had a 20-year career in public service in New York City as a City Council member and Manhattan Borough President and became the first Democratic Party candidate for Mayor. 

She also serves, currently, as a parttime faculty member at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and is a social justice consultant at the JCC
of Manhattan.

Ruth is an active member of her congregation, the Society for the Advancement of Judaism—Judaism that Stands for All, and serves on the
boards of the Interfaith Council of New York and Aegis Trust.

She holds a B.A. from Radcliffe College and an M.S.W. from the University of Oklahoma. She is married to Andrew Lachman and has three children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Moria Rodal Silfen

Moria is the CEO of the ATZUM – Task Force on Human Trafficking and Prostitution, which advocates for women’s rights, gender equality, prevention of sexual violence against women, and the eradication of human trafficking and prostitution in Israel. 

The organization engages the Knesset, Government officials, the legal community, enforcement agencies, and the media to pursue systemic change and ensure that victims of prostitution and trafficking have access to services and inclusion in Israeli society. 

In the Knesset, Moria served as Spokesperson for the Committee for the Advancement of Women and Gender Equality as well as for a few Knesset members and ministers throughout the years, including the Chairman of the Labor, Welfare, and Health Committee. She has a master’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from Tel Aviv University and a bachelor’s degree in Communication Journalism and International Relations from the Hebrew University. She is a mother of three and lives in Jerusalem, all out of active choice.

Rabbi Mary Zamore

Rabbi Mary is the Executive Director of Women’s Rabbinic Network (WRN), a partner organization of the Reform Movement, representing Reform female, nonbinary, genderfluid rabbis and advocating for their values and voices.

As part of her work with WRN, Rabbi Mary is the co-leader of the Reform Pay Equity Initiative, which addresses the wage gap within the Reform Movement, initiated WRN’s paid family and medical leave advocacy efforts, and works on issues of accountability and repair. She was named a T’ruah, Rabbinic Human Rights Hero and was a fellow with the Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life at Auburn Seminary, NYC, studying in the Oppressions and Repair Colloquium. Participating in many national #metoo conversations, Rabbi Mary shares WRN’s decades of experience and wisdom on creating safe, just, and equitable communities.

Ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1997, Rabbi Mary graduated from Columbia College

Susan Stern

Named as one of the “Women to Watch” by Jewish Women’s International, Susan Stern has dedicated much of her life to Jewish communities as an activist and political advocate in New York, nationally, and around the world. She was appointed by President Biden to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council, and was previously appointed by President Obama as Chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships where she helped to focus its work on human trafficking. Stern is currently Chair of the board of the Jewish Democratic Council of America and Vice President of Central Synagogue in Manhattan.

Marcy Syms

Marcy Syms is founding trustee and president of the Sy Syms Foundation, created in 1985. A social entreprenuer and activist in the field of gender equality, Marcy has helped start organizations and served on dozens of boards in the for-proit and non-profit sectors. In 2013 Marcy helped found the ERA Coalition and is now advisor to the ERA Project at NYU Law.

Her book Mind Your Own Business and Keep it in the Family has been widely taught in business schools. In 2022 and 2023 she was a Fellow at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative program. Visit her online at marcysyms.com

Shanie Reichman

Shanie Reichman is the IPF Atid national director at Israel Policy Forum, based in New York City, where she works to elevate the discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Shanie serves as the founding co-chair for the Forum Dvorah U.S. committee, on the board of Queens College Hillel, on the advisory council for the Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding, as the Deputy Communications Director for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy’s (YPFP) NY Chapter, and as a mentor with Girl Security. Her work has been published in the Forward, the Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Hey Alma, Jewish Unpacked, and International Policy Dige

Maryam Chishti

Maryam Chishti is the Co-Executive Director of The LUNAR Collective, which cultivates connection, belonging and visibility for Asian American Jews through intersectional programming, performance, digital storytelling and other media. The organization is the first and only organization to create communal spaces for Asian American Jews, and also project the rich diversity of the Jewish community to the wider society.

Maryam, the mixed-race daughter of an Indian father and a Jewish American mother, is a graduate of the Upstart Venture Accelerator Program, UJA’s Ruskay Institute of Jewish Professional Leadership and the Jews of Color Initiative’s Leadership Fellowship. She is also the founder of Moishe House Lower Manhattan. 

Maryam has brought her community’s representation to the fore through positions in the Office of Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, and the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Outside of LUNAR, Maryam enjoys storytelling at venues like The Moth, and performing with her improv troupe. Maryam has a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Brandeis University. 

Tali Ehrenthal

Tali Ehrenthal is the Executive Director of ASSAF – Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, a human rights organization advancing the dignity, rights, and wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers in Israel. ASSAF provides psychosocial and humanitarian support, engages in policy advocacy, and works toward systemic change and a more just, inclusive Israeli society.

Tali has led ASSAF since 2019, following six years as Director of the organization’s Psychosocial Department, where she developed and oversaw critical programs addressing trauma, mental health, and resilience among displaced populations. Since 2025, she has also been a lecturer at the Hebrew University School of Social Work.

Tali holds a BSW in Community Social Work, an MSW with a specialization in trauma, and an MA in Criminology – all from the Hebrew University. As a graduate of multiple leadership and therapeutic training programs, Tali brings expertise in nonprofit leadership, as well as in individual, group, and community-based social work interventions. Since 2005, Tali has worked and volunteered in Israel’s social sector, leading initiatives to support at-risk youth and young adults, trauma survivors, and marginalized communities. She is deeply committed to refugee rights, social inclusion, and the pursuit of justice for excluded communities.

Dr. Ramona Tenorio

Dr. Ramona Tenorio co-founded Tiyuv (“improvement” in Hebrew), a Jewish nonprofit dedicated to Jews of Color (JOC)-led, culturally responsive evaluation for racial and social justice programs within Jewish communities. By centering on the voices of JOCs and women, Tiyuv supports organizations in uncovering and addressing biases and practices that create barriers to equity and belonging, with the aim of fostering more inclusive environments.

Ramona is a Jewish Latina (Jewtina) of Mexican Indigenous and Dutch heritage, committed to anti-racism, gender equity, combating antisemitism, and advancing diversity. Her work with Tiyuv has brought her to national and international Jewish initiatives, including serving on the leadership team of MOED, the Global Jewish Partnership for Racial Justice. MOED is a global alliance working to support Jews of Ethiopian descent, Jews of Color, and those identified as non-white Jews, advocating for their full inclusion in Jewish life.

Ramona also serves on the board of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), where she co-chairs the Latino Jewish Alliance, building bridges between Jewish and Latino communities to address antisemitism and anti-Latino bias. She serves on the board and is the past president of Congregation Sinai in Fox Point, Wisconsin. In 2019, she founded Broader Impact, LLC, her research and evaluation consulting firm. Ramona holds a PhD in Anthropology with a minor in Latin American History, a master’s degree in Geography, and a bachelor’s degree in Geography, all from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Daniella Seltzer

Daniella Seltzer is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Jerusalem Food Rescuers, an organization working to build a more just, sustainable, and less wasteful urban food system in one of the world’s most complex cities. Through food rescue, education, civic engagement, and urban food policy, the organization aims to reshape how cities approach food, community, and sustainability—developing replicable models that are informing efforts in other municipalities across Israel.

Since 2019, Daniella has led cross-sector collaborations with municipalities, the wholesale market and food businesses, and grassroots networks to redistribute surplus food through decentralized community markets. Her work challenges traditional models of charity and positions food as a tool for social change, shared leadership, and structural transformation.

Rooted in the Jewish principle of Bal Tashchit (the prohibition against needless waste), she sees food as a powerful entry point into broader systems change. Daniella has been recognized for her leadership in social innovation by both Globes magazine’s “40 Under 40” and the Hebrew University Alumni Association. She holds a B.A. in Equity Studies and Community Engagement with a focus on Food Security from the University of Toronto, and an M.A. in Cultural Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Leah Kabran Eden

Leah Kabran Eden is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Equity Advocates, an organization dedicated to tackling the root causes of food inequity in New York through policy change and grassroots power building. The organization leverages policy development, coalition building and empowerment of grassroots food justice leaders to drive meaningful and sustainable change.

With a background as an organizer, anthropologist and policy analyst, Leah has spent her career at the intersection of food, economic and social justice. She previously served as a Policy Specialist at the United Way of New York City and addressed food security, asset building, and educational equity issues. As the Director of Food Policy for New York City Council Member Ben Kallos, she developed and advanced a progressive food policy agenda including increased access to healthy food, school meals, and obesity prevention programs.

In 2016, Leah was recognized as one of Hunter College’s 40 Under 40: The Rising Stars in New York City Food Policy. Leah holds a master’s degree in Food Systems from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from Boston University.

Lani Santo

Lani Santo is the CEO of Footsteps, which provides comprehensive individual support to people who have chosen to leave the insular communities of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. It also aims to shift culture and increase thought leadership, educating the greater Jewish and broader public about the experiences of this population in order to make space and community for them.

Under her leadership, Footsteps has brought its issues into the mainstream dialogue of the Jewish community and beyond. Highlights include Footsteps’ participation  in a Peabody-nominated New York Times investigative piece on ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, and the Netflix documentary, One of Us.

Prior to joining Footsteps, Lani served as a Senior Program Officer at American Jewish World Service. She is an alumna of the Wexner Field Fellowship and has served as a board member or advisor for Avodah, Unchained at Last and Upstart, among other organizations. She graduated from Barnard College and holds a MPA degree in Public and Nonprofit Management from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.

Tal Hochman

Tal Hochman is the Executive Director of the Israel Women’s Network (IWN), committed to creating social, economic and legal conditions for women to prosper across all sectors of Israeli society.  

IWN is promoting feminist policy through legal tools, parliamentary work and government engagement; creating power multipliers in the feminist field; influencing public discourse to advance women’s interests; and working to include women’s voices in national security decision-making processes. Over the past decade, Tal has been active in promoting women’s rights and raising awareness of women’s issues, and previously headed IWN’s government relations department.  

Tal has a master’s degree in International Social and Public Policy at the London School of Economics, focusing her dissertation on Israel’s recent legislation decriminalizing women in prostitution and working as a parliamentary advisor. She has a bachelor’s degree in Social Work, and worked as a social worker in a shelter for youth in prostitution.

Emily Martin

Emily Martin is Chief Program Officer for NWLC, leading the development and execution of an integrated policy and legal strategy across NWLC’s gender justice priorities, with a particular focus on women and girls of color and LGBTQI+ people. She was previously NWLC’s Vice President for Education & Workplace Justice, where she oversaw NWLC’s advocacy, policy, and litigation efforts to forward frameworks that allow women and girls to achieve and succeed at work and at school. This included supervising the work of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, which connects those who have experienced workplace sex harassment with attorneys and provides financial support for litigation and storytelling in select workplace sex harassment matters. She also served for many years as NWLC’s General Counsel.

Lisalyn R. Jacobs

Lisalyn R. Jacobs is the CEO, of Just Solutions: Bringing in Justice. With 35 years of experience as a lawyer and policy expert, she has vast experience at the federal level in working with both the executive and legislative branches, and on federal judicial nominations. She advises federal and non-profit clients on a variety of issues including racial, gender and economic equity, restorative justice, campus sexual violence, workplace and other economic protections for victims of domestic and sexual violence, sexual harassment, and stalking, criminal justice and policing reform, and the intersections of two or more of these issues.

Ronie Nof Malc

Ronie Nof Malc is the Executive Director of Women and Their Bodies (WTB), an Israeli nonprofit which works to improve the health of women and girls in Israel and to elevate their interests in the healthcare system in which there is a gender gap in care, research, and outcomes. 

Believing that all women and girls are entitled to high-quality healthcare and the ability to make informed choices about their bodies, health and sexuality, WTB creates spaces for women and girls to gain knowledge and perspective on their bodies and health, and to learn about their healthcare rights and how to access and utilize existing health services. At the same time, WTB works to elevate and amplify women’s voices in the healthcare system to close existing gender gaps.

Ronie is an advocate for gender equality and women’s rights as well as an attorney with extensive experience in public service. Prior to becoming the Executive Director of WTB, she was the Director of the Knowledge and Action Center of the organization. She has actively engaged in assisting women in the cycle of prostitution. She holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Political Science, and a master’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from Tel Aviv University.

Dyonna Ginsburg

Dyonna Ginsburg is the CEO of OLAM, empowering and equipping Jewish individuals and organizations committed to global service, international development and humanitarian aid. OLAM convenes and mobilizes Jewish leaders, organizations, practitioners, and others to take meaningful action in support of the world’s most vulnerable people, and amplifies their work and impact. 

Dedicated to the Jewish community’s embrace of tikkun olam, Dyonna has served as Director of Education and Service Learning at The Jewish Agency; Executive Director of Bema’aglei Tzedek, an Israeli social change NGO; and co-founder of Siach, a global network of Jewish social justice and environmental professionals.

She received the Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism; the Schusterman Fellowship; and the World Council of Jewish Communal Service’s Ted Comet Exemplar Award for Outstanding Leadership in Strengthening the Jewish People. She has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Jewish Education from Hebrew University.

Lori Cohen

Lori is the CEO of Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT), a leading policy, advocacy and educational organization whose mission is to end child sex trafficking and exploitation.

Before joining PACT in 2019, Lori, an attorney, co-founded and led a legal services program that assisted survivors of international and domestic sex trafficking and related forms of gender-based violence. She draws upon her years representing a broad range of trafficking and exploitation survivors to inform her role at PACT.

Lori has conducted trainings in the U.S. and abroad for attorneys, prosecutors, judges, health care professionals and private industry leaders, and has taught at Yale University and the University of Michigan Law School. Lori received her JD from Yale Law School.

Lauren Hersh

Lauren Hersh, J.D. is a Founding Co-Chair and National Director of World Without Exploitation, a movement working towards creating a world where no person is bought, sold, or exploited. Lauren is an internationally recognized lawyer, activist, educator and writer working to combat violence against women and girls in schools, online and in the legal arena. Lauren’s work to combat gender violence began at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office where she prosecuted a wide range of cases impacting women and girls. Realizing that sex trafficking cases were going unrecognized, Lauren led the charge in 2009 to create one of the first Sex Trafficking Units in the United States. She received a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and a JD from Brooklyn Law School. Lauren believes that lasting change requires legal reform and meaningful community engagement. Lauren sees visionary leadership as “the ability to bring together the right partners to build a movement, create a shift in policy and perspective, see gaps and holes and strategically fill them.”’

Jocelyn Frye

Jocelyn Frye is President of the National Partnership for Women & Families—a policymaking and legal advocacy organization which works to advance health care, civil rights, economic justice, and racial equity in America. She is the first Black woman to head the National Partnership, which was founded 1971.

Prior to her current role, Jocelyn helped spearhead the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress, one of the country’s leading progressive think tanks. Her work there spanned a wide range of issues, including narrowing the gender pay gap, improving women’s employment opportunities and economic stability, combating gender-based discrimination and gender-based violence, and addressing the Black maternal health crisis.

Before CAP, Jocelyn served in the White House during the administration of Barack Obama. She oversaw the broad issue portfolio of Michelle Obama, including the First Lady’s two signature initiatives—tackling childhood obesity and supporting military families. She also helped establish the first White House mentoring program for local high school students.

A lawyer by training, Jocelyn received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her undergrad degree from the University of Michigan. Jocelyn is a proud native of Washington, DC, and was raised by two loving parents who worked as federal civil servants. She still resides in the district with her husband, Brian Summers, and is a member of the Deacons Ministry of Shiloh Baptist Church of Washington, DC.