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Zachary Schaffer

Co-Founder & Director of Community Empowerment, Project Shema

Zachary Schaffer is a facilitator, educator, and organizer based in Bedstuy, Brooklyn. He serves as the Executive Director of the Council of Young Jewish Presidents where he works to forge transformative multigenerational lay leadership in the Jewish non-profit sector. As a speaker, Zach has trained thousands of leaders across the country in nurturing relationships and understanding across divides. As an advisor and consultant, he supports professionals to build capacity around depolarization, community relations, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 

He is Co-Founder and Director of Community Empowerment at Project Shema, an organization that works to train and support progressive leaders to disrupt the spread of anti-Jewish ideas in “progressive” discourse. Zach is a workplace culture & respect trainer with Ta'amod, the Men as Allies consultant for Jewish Women International, and a facilitator with Resetting the Table. He is the President of Friends of Roots, a grassroots Israeli-Palestinian coexistence movement in the West Bank. He also serves on the North American Board of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish movement in North America.

 

He previously served as the Senior Manager of Community Strategy for the Jewish Federations of North America's Israel Action Network and as the Manager of Interfaith Partners for Peace, which brought Christian and Jewish clergy to Israel/Palestine to study conflict and reconciliation from a faith lens. He also founded the Jewish Caucus of the Brooklyn Young Democrats.

 

He is pursuing an MS in Nonprofit Management at Gratz College and received his undergraduate degree in Rhetoric and Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

1:05 - 1:55 PM ET

Sunday, May 1 GLI Breakout Sessions Block 1

Navigating Israel in Progressive Spaces

The debate over Israel/Palestine is growing more intense in progressive movements. At the same time, rising antisemitism globally has understandably elevated fears inside the Jewish community, making these conversations even more complicated. In this session participants will explore what makes these discussions so challenging and gain practical tips for how to engage more productively on these issues. This session will be led by our partners at Project Shema, an independent nonprofit that provides training and support to help the Jewish American community navigate the discourse around Israel/Palestine and antisemitism in the American left.

 

2:05 - 2:55 PM ET

Sunday, May 1 GLI Breakout Sessions Block 2

Navigating Israel in Progressive Spaces

The debate over Israel/Palestine is growing more intense in progressive movements. At the same time, rising antisemitism globally has understandably elevated fears inside the Jewish community, making these conversations even more complicated. In this session participants will explore what makes these discussions so challenging and gain practical tips for how to engage more productively on these issues. This session will be led by our partners at Project Shema, an independent nonprofit that provides training and support to help the Jewish American community navigate the discourse around Israel/Palestine and antisemitism in the American left.