Jim Joseph Foundation Names Barry Finestone as New Chief

Image by JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO

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.

Helen Chernikoff is the Forward’s News Editor. She came to the Forward from The Jewish Week, where she served as the first web director and created both a blog dedicated to disability issues and a food and wine website. Before that, she covered the housing, lodging and logistics industries for Reuters, where she could sit at her desk and watch her stories move the stock market. Helen has a Master’s of Public Administration from Columbia University and a BA in History and French from Amherst College. She is also a rabbinical school dropout. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @thesimplechild.

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