Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team — of more than 400 New Yorkers from every faith and background — truly looks like New York. And we’re proud of the Jewish leaders (many of them JFREJ members) that are part of 17 transition committees.

These committees are designed to focus their members’ the diverse talents and experience on the city’s most urgent challenges, including housing prices, childcare costs, transportation access, emergency preparedness, and economic development.

Mazel tov to every single member of the transition. We can’t wait for NYC to become a beacon for what is possible across the nation when we confront our problems with the power of our multifaith, multiracial majority. 

Rabbi Ellen Lippman

Rabbi Lippman is the founder of Kolot Chayeinu, the Brooklyn congregation where the incoming mayor attended Rosh Hashanah services. She’s also the co-founder of Feeding the Homeless program at Hebrew Union College and served as the first social justice chair for the Women’s Rabbinic Network. She joins the Committee on Social Services.

Rabbi Rachel Timoner

Rabbi Timoner leads Park Slope’s Congregation Beth Elohim, which hosted Zohran in October. She serves on the boards of NY Jewish Agenda, Brooklyn Community Foundation, New York Board of Rabbis, UJA-Federation of NY, Plaza Community Chapel, and more. She joins the Committee on Immigrant Justice.

Rabbi Abby Stein

Rabbi Stein is an educator, author and activist. Stein founded support groups for trans people from religious backgrounds and published an acclaimed memoir. Born and raised in a Hasidic family of rabbinic descent, she is a direct descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism. Rabbi Stein joins the Committee on Health.

Ruth Messinger

Messinger was Manhattan Borough President, an NYC Council member. She led American Jewish World Service and was the first and only Jewish woman to win the Democratic nomination for NY mayor. She’s served on the boards of many Jewish orgs and foundations, and joins the Committee on Immigrant Justice.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik

Rabbi Potasnik is the executive vice president of the NY Board of Rabbis, Rabbi emeritus at Congregation Mt. Sinai and serves as an FDNY chaplain where he still serves surviving family members of first responders lost on 9/11. He will serve on the Committee on Emergency Response.

Rabbi Jason Klein

Rabbi Klein leads Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. He’s served as a Hillel Director, oversaw education at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, as chaplain for Brown University and was the first openly gay president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. He joins the Committee on Immigrant Justice

Jonah Boyarin

Boyarin has served on the NYC’s Commission on Human Rights and led antisemitism trainings across the city and nation, including the White House. He’s a writer, a Yiddish translator, and was named one of The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” in 2020. Boyarin joins the Committee on Community Safety.

Masha Pearl

Pearl is the executive director of The Blue Card, which helps provide financial assistance to thousands of Holocaust survivor households across 35 states that live at or below the poverty line. Masha is an Adjunct Professor at NYC’s Baruch College and joins the Committee on Social Services.

Katie Unger

Unger is a Board member of JFREJ and cofounder of The Jewish Vote. She advises labor, community, and movement organizations and has served as Deputy Commissioner of Community Affairs for the launch of Universal Pre-K and NYC's Paid Sick Leave laws. She’s joining the Committee on Community Organizing.

Marc Kagan

Kagan taught Zohran (twice!) at the Bronx High School of Science, with Zohran calling him “one of the best teachers” he had. He’s worked for NY’s transit system as a mechanic and in the union. Kagan joins the Committee on Transportation, Climate & Infrastructure.

Deborah Lolai

Lolai is a clinical instructor/lecturer at Harvard Law’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic, worked as a public defender at Bronx Defenders and as a member of NYC’s Task Force on Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Non-Binary, and Intersex Individuals. Lolai joins the Committee on the Criminal Legal System.

Nancy Romer

Romer is a labor and environmental activist. She’s taught psychology at Brooklyn College for over 40 years and is the co-founder of the Brooklyn Food Coalition. Romer joins the Committee on Transportation, Climate, & Infrastructure.

Paul Sonn

Paul Sonn is the State Policy Program Director for the National Employment Law Project. He helped design and successfully defend the first city minimum wage laws in the United States. He’s representing NELP leadership on the Committee on Worker Justice.

Bobbie Sackman

Bobbie Sackman is the Director of Public Policy at the Council of Senior Centers and Services of NYC and a leading expert on issues facing the elderly. She helps lead Jews for Racial and Economic Justice’s Caring Majority work to support elder caregivers and joins the Committee on Social Services.

Stephanie Luce

Luce is a professor of Labor Studies at the School of Labor and Urban Studies and Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author and co-author of several books on organizing and labor. Luce joins the Committee on Economic Development & Workforce Development.

David Greenberg

David Greenberg is Vice President of Community Research & Impact at Local Initiatives Support Corporation, with a background directing policy and advocacy for community housing organizations in New York City. Greenberg joins the Committee on Housing.

Josh Wallack

Josh Wallack helped launch Pre-K for all in New York City, providing free, full-day, high-quality pre-kindergarten to every family that wants it. Wallack is currently a program officer at the Ford Foundation and joins the Committee on Worker Justice.

Joel Berg

Joel Berg is the CEO of Hunger Free America, a national anti-hunger public policy and direct service nonprofit, and the author of All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?, the definitive book on American hunger of the last decade. Berg joins the Committee on Social Services.

Rebecca Bailin

Rebecca Bailin is the founder and Executive Director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, with over a decade leading transformative policy campaigns and securing billions for public programs through fair taxation. Bailin joins the Committee on Youth & Education.

Beth Finkel

Beth Finkel is the State Director for New York at AARP, where she has advocated for historic reforms for the millions of New Yorkers over 50. Beth’s on the Committee on Social Services.