Meet the New Heroes Judges!
Following the success of last year's Jewish Community Heroes campaign, we're kicking off the 2011 Heroes search by welcoming our new Judges!
We're honored to have a group of truly remarkable individuals help choose this year's Jewish Community Heroes. The judges represent many diverse fields — they are CEOs, innovators, athletes, entertainers, and leaders in the Jewish community.
2011 Jewish Community Heroes Judges
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Mayim Bialik is a popular television actress, most famous for her role as 'Blossom'. Today, she can be seen on the TV sitcom Big Bang Theory. She is active in the Jewish community and is a co-founder of an LA branch of Jewish Free Loan society. |
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Rabbi Yonah Bookstein is the founder and director of popular websites JConnect & Jewlicious. He has reconnected a generation of young Jews online and through several major events and festivals. Rabbi Bookstein is a 2009 Heroes honoree. |
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Amy Born is a member of the national board of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and is a consultant with Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, where she works with public, private, and nonprofit clients in the areas of organizational development, leadership assessment and development, and organizational psychology. |
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Etan Cohen is a comedian and accomplished screenwriter. He has written for the cult show Beavis and Butthead, and has brought his comedic style to films like Tropic Thunder and the upcoming Men In Black 3. Cohen is a Fellow with Wexner Foundation, an organization for young Jewish leaders. |
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Ami Dar is the founder and executive director of Idealist.org, one of the most popular nonprofit resources on the web, connecting 90,000 organizations around the world and 70,000 visitors every day. Ami is an Ashoka Fellow and currently serves on the boards of the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Allforgood.org. |
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Jane Eisner is the editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, a legendary Jewish life newspaper. She became the first female editor of the paper in 2008 and has overseen its development in print and online. |
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Jay Feinberg is the founder of Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation, which has made thousands of bone marrow matches by building database of potential matches in Jewish community. He is last year's Jewish Community Hero of the year. |
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Linda Hurwitz is the president of National Women's Philanthropy of The Jewish Federations of North America, a group that raises hundreds of millions of dollars every year for Jewish causes. The organization represents female donors from around the world committed to securing the well-being of the global Jewish community. |
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Lisa Colton is the founder and president of Darim Online, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Jewish organizations thrive in the digital age. |
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Dean Kamen is a physicist and prolific inventor. A modern-day Edison, he holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents for medical devices and innovative technologies like the Segway. He is the founder of FIRST, an organization aimed at motivating young scientists. |
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Karen W. Katz is President and Chief Executive Officer, The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. The Neiman Marcus Group is the premier retailer of luxury and fashion merchandise in the United States. Ms. Katz maintains a strong commitment to charity and community service in her native city of Dallas, Texas. |
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Lenny Krayzelburg is a four-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer, representing the US in 2000 and 2004. He has established two swim academies as well as the Lenny Krayzelburg foundation, dedicated to creating swimming opportunities for disadvantaged youth. |
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Shawn Landres is the co-founder and CEO of Jumpstart, a research & development laboratory for sustainable Jewish innovation. Jumpstart supports diverse nonprofit organizations from around the world, helping them deploy creative solutions to address Jewish life in the 21st century. |
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Samantha Levinson is the International N'siah (Teen President) of BBYO, the world's leading pluralistic Jewish teen movement. Samantha serves at the helm of the organization, supervising 60+ counterparts while travelling around the world motivating Jewish teens to grow their local BBYO programs, strengthen their Jewish communities and make a difference in the world. |
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Lori Palatnik is a writer and international Jewish educator who has appeared on television and radio. She is the Founding Director of The Jewish Women's Renaissance Project (JWRP.org), an international initiative that created a "Birthright for Mothers." |
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Rick Recht is a top-touring performer in Jewish music, playing over 150 US concerts a year, and holding seven popular albums. He is the founder of the Jewish Rock Radio, an online platform for strengthening and sharing Jewish identity through music. |
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Rochelle Shoretz is the founder of Sharsheret, an organization that has been helping Jewish women affected by breast cancer and their families for more than a decade. A breast cancer survivor and mother, she has dedicated her life to linking young Jewish women in the fight. |
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Randi Zuckerberg is the former marketing executive of Facebook, where she managed partnerships related to media, news & current events, politics and nonprofits. Randi has led Facebook's U.S. election and international politics strategy, in addition to managing media partnerships with companies such as ABC News and CNN. She is the founder of "R to Z Media" a social media firm. |



















