Zachary Shaffer

"Zachary Schaffer is a Jewish communal professional who has spent his career empowering people to work across differences and more constructively engage with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Council of Young Jewish Presidents, where he works toward achieving inclusive and competent multigenerational board leadership for the Jewish community. He has led workshops all across the country on civil discourse, coalition-building, storytelling, and empathetic advocacy. In his former job, he was privileged to support local and national Jewish community efforts to build relationships across religious, political, and ideological divides. He has led interfaith delegations of clergy and seminarians to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, is a trained Resetting the Table facilitator, and proudly serves as the Chair of the Board of Friends of Roots, a grassroots movement of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. He is a Mid-Career Fellow at Gratz College pursuing his Master of Science in Nonprofit Management. He graduated with honors from the University of Pittsburgh with degrees in Rhetoric and Political Science, and a certificate in Corporate/Community Relations. He currently resides in New York City.