Staff and Board

Staff

Rachel Pfeffer, Ph.D, Interim Executive Director
Rachel is a Brooklyn native with over 15 years of experience as an executive director and 30 years as a grassroots activist. She comes to JVP after serving as the Interim Executive Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an organization that does important work on behalf of peace in the Middle East and beyond. Rachel has published a number of articles and a book on gender specific youth development, founded a number of award winning non-profit organizations including the Center for Young Women’s Development, Young Women United for Oakland, and Sister Outsider to name a few.

Sydney Levy, MS, Director of Campaigns and Chapters 
He is a longtime human rights professional and activist who was born in Venezuela and lived in Jerusalem for 7 years where he received his Masters degree in Jewish History from Hebrew University. Sydney speaks Spanish and Hebrew as well as English. In addition to his work in a volunteer capacity as one of the key strategists on the Caterpillar campaign, he has worked for 15 years in nonprofits including the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and most recently as Program Director at Media Alliance.

Cecilie Surasky, Director of Communications
Cecilie joined JVP as a Ford Foundation New Voices human rights fellow and brings extensive experience in social justice communications and advocacy as an independent video-maker, commercial talk radio host, newspaper columnist, and longtime communications consultant to NGOs. She has worked on a variety of causes and is one of the movement’s key media practitioners and strategists. Cecilie graduated from Brown University with a BA in Religious Studies with special honors for her work in Modern Culture and Media. She is the founder of Muzzlewatch, JVP's acclaimed blog documenting efforts to silence open debate about Israel-Palestine policy.

Sarah Anne Minken, Director of Education and Outreach
An activist, educator and researcher. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Sarah Anne lived in Haifa, Israel and Washington DC before coming to the Bay Area to start a doctorate in Sociology at University of the California-Berkeley. After writing her masters thesis at UC-Berkeley on the Israeli military refusal movement with a special focus on the relationship between militarism and gender roles in Israeli society, Sarah Anne will focus her dissertation on questions of fear and political identity. Sarah Anne was awarded a National Science Foundation Research Fellowship in 2004 and won the UC-Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award in 2006-7. She's also fluent in Hebrew. As an activist, Sarah Anne has focused on feminist and anti-war issues for a decade, concentrating primarily on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and American Jewry's response and responsibility for what happens in the Middle East and the U.S. Sarah Anne is also a part of the Institute for Comparative Conflict Studies, a new endeavor by scholars and activists to engage in transformative education around dynamics of national and ethnic conflict.

JVP National Board 2008

Chair: HENRI PICCIOTTO (Bay Area) is a math educator and a Sephardic Jew from Lebanon. Active in the movement for a just peace in the Middle East since 1982, he was a founding member of JVP's board, where he has served ever since. He has helped unify JVP members, balancing both JVP's grassroots and professional components, and has helped formulate JVP's strategic vision; he coordinated the program for JVP's national conference. (Policy Committee)

Vice-Chair: HOWARD LENOW (Boston) has been a union side labor and civil rights lawyer practicing in Boston for nearly 30 years. His legal battles have included gay and lesbian civil rights and political action. He co-leads JVP's Health & Human Rights Projects' regular delegations to Israel/Palestine and speaks in high schools, colleges, churches and civic groups. (Internet and Policy Committee)

Secretary: HANNAH SCHWARZCHILD (Philadelphia) is an attorney and long-time peace and justice advocate. The daughter of a Holocaust refugee and lifelong human rights activist, Hannah grew up in New York City. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and its Boalt Hall School of Law, Hannah has represented victims of workplace discrimination and harassment as well as labor unions and nonprofit organizations. (Policy Committee)

Treasurer: JESSE BACON (Philadelphia) is a schoolteacher and father, now from Philadelphia. He has a Masters in teaching from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He is an observant progressive Jew, and is trying to be a good ally for Palestinians and all dispossessed peoples, while staying true to the best traditions in Judaism. He visited Israel and Palestine in 1996, 2001, and 2002. He served for three years on the local steering committee of Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, and one year on the board of Pursue the Peace Chicago. (Human Resource, Policy and Communications Committee).

David Basior (Seattle)  is a 29 year old recovering Jewish professional. He grew up as a character in "How the Jews Became White Folks" and now after working with Hillel, BBYO, Hadassah, a local Jewish rag and even Birthright Israel, David organizes with Jewish Voice for Peace in Seattle while teaching at an anti-bias pre-school/elementary school. He is a member of the Professional Leaders Project talent network where he had his first appearance as a "guest artist." Spending a year living in Jerusalem introduced David to Israel/Palestine work while volunteering with Rabbis for Human Rights and traveling to the West Bank with Encounter. He lives life as a visible Jew wearing tzitzit and a kipah and embraces a neo-observant Jewish life. David is a bnai mitzvah tutor and is a sax player.

JEAN ENTINE (Boston) has been Executive Director of several social justice organizations, including the Boston Women's Fund. She brings over 40 years of non-profit experience and has also been active in solidarity work in Central America, Mozambique and South Africa. (Fundraising, Human Resources, Hiring, and Campaigns and Chapters Committee ).

BARBARA HARVEY (Detroit) was born in New York City. Since the mid-1980’s, her practice has focused on union-side labor law and union democracy and, in particular, the Teamster reform movement. She served as the Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. Since 1990, she has served continuously on the Association of Union Democracy board of directors, the only organization in the United States devoted to advancing the democratic internal governance of labor unions. (Human Resource, Internet Committee)

PENNY ROSENWASSER (Bay Area) has led four women's peace delegations to Israel/Palestine, published "Voices from a 'Promised Land': Palestinian & Israeli Peace Activists Speak their Hearts" (Curbstone Press, 1992), and has published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tikkun, Bridges, Lilith, Planet Out, & the Women's Studies Quarterly. She earned her Ph.D. in the psychological effects of anti-Semitism on Jews, coordinated JVP's national conference. (Fundraising Committee).

Contact JVP's Board at board-at-jewishvoiceforpeace.org