Jim Joseph Foundation Names Barry Finestone as New Chief
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Helen Chernikoff February 17, 2016
A major Jewish foundation with a focus on Jewish education named its first president and CEO on Feb. 17.
Barry Finestone will succeed Chip Edelsberg, the Jim Joseph foundation’s first executive director, on Jan. 1, 2017, according to a press release from the foundation.
Image by Sasha Gulish
Currently the executive director of the Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund, Finestone is a Scottish native who has also led the JCC of San Francisco and the Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cincinnati.
“Barry’s experience at a wide range of Jewish organizations—from a funder, to a JCC, to a synagogue, to a camp—gives him a unique perspective on Jewish life today,” says Al Levitt, President of the Board of Directors of the Jim Joseph Foundation
Based in San Francisco, the Jim Joseph Foundation has given more than $400 million in grants to Jewish education programs for children, teens and young adults since its founding in 2006.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
