Who We Are

We are very pleased to announce the appointment of a new Executive Director, Deborah Kardon Schwartz.  Debbie comes to Action for Post Soviet Jewry from a career in Jewish community service, including as Director of the Leadership Program of the Eli& Bessie Cohen Camps, a teacher of Holocaust education at Temple Beth Elohim, and Director of Family Education and Congressional Life at Temple B’nai Torah.

Debbie takes over from Judy Patkin, who has been the Executive Director of Action since the early ‘70s, when the plight of Soviet Jews became a prominent cause.  Judy entered into a relationship with the community of Dnepropetrovsk in Eastern Ukraine, founding the Adopt-a-Bubbe program and other efforts to help indigent Jews in that region.  Working closely with Combined Jewish Philanthropies, she helped create a network of coordinators who brought humanitarian help to these often isolated and ill Jews.

When Judy came to the Board and asked us to find a replacement for her after so many decades of service, we could hardly imagine anyone who could take her place.  We were delighted to find Debbie, who shares Judy’s passion for Jewish life and has a lot of organizational and leadership skills that will allow Action to move to the next stage in its history.

Barbara Karchmer, President

Carol Clingan, Vice President  

Robert Gordon, Treasurer

Barbara Anatolev, Clerk

Robert Gordon, Founder Emeritus

Zale Anis

Mila Bronstein 

Susan Brown

Sergey Broude

Evgenia Doktor

Tatyana Goldwyn

Melinda Harrison

Shirley Hurwitz

Roz Kaplan

Boris Katz

Robert Strassler

Nathan Vogel