2026 ANNUAL CONFERENCE AGENDA

All times listed below are EST.
 This is a draft agenda and is subject to change.

Tuesday, June 2
Location: Hilton Garden Inn Long Island City New York

5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Welcome Reception

Wednesday, June 3
Location: UJA-Federation of New York

8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Registration Desk Open

8:30 am - 9:00 am
Breakfast

9:00 am - 10:05 am
General Session: The Jews at America 250: Where Are We, How Did We Get Here, and Where Are We Going?
As America gears up to celebrate 250 years as a nation, this session will examine the state of American Jewry today, how we got here, what assumptions have been shattered in recent years and what challenges and opportunities lay ahead for American Jews. Pamela Nadell, historian and author of several books on American Jewish history, including her most recent, Antisemitism, An American Tradition, will look at some of the inflection points throughout our history that got us to where we are today. She will be in conversation with Gidi Grinstein, head of the Reut Group, a think tank currently focused on the future of the American Jewish community through a series of conferences titled AJ2054.
Moderator: Lisa Hostein, executive editor, Hadassah Magazine

Speakers: Gidi Grinstein, founder of Reut Group, president of Reut USA
Pamela Nadell, author, professor and Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's & Gender History, and director, Jewish Studies Program, American University

10:05 am - 10:15 am
Networking Break

10:15 am - 11:05 am

Editorial Breakout Session: Setting Your Strategy: Editorial Brainstorming

Join editorial colleagues from across the country to discuss takeaways from our opening session and how they might impact your publication and the community you serve.

10:15 am - 11:05 am

Editorial Breakout Session: Doing Jewish Differently: The Gen Z and Millennial POV
Session sponsored by: Nefesh B'Nefesh

Many Jews in their 20s, 30s and 40s are thinking about and engaging in Jewish life and community in ways that differ from their parents and grandparents. Whether they come from a traditional, institutional-based background or they are “October 8 Jews,” only recently connecting with their Jewish identity, many are finding new ways to be Jewish. We’ll hear from a wide range of individuals who will help us understand these new models and paths.

Speakers: Matt Armstrong, investment strategist, Morgan Stanley Global Investment Office

Amy Bebchick, chief program officer for OneTable
Sumner Lewis, social media strategist, community builder

Audrey Klepser, fifth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College and rabbinic intern at Columbia/Barnard Hillel

Rabbi Levi Shmotkin, director, Chabad Young Professionals

Moderator: Sumner Lewis, social media strategist, community builder

10:15 am - 12:00 pm
Business Breakout Session: Bootcamp: Setting Your Strategy: Building Competitive Advantage

In this session, you'll learn the difference between operational and strategic thinking, why most organizations lack good strategy, and how to build one — starting with a clear problem statement, a hidden obstacle, and an opinionated approach to solving it.
Speaker: Alison Go, product and strategy consultant

11:05 am - 11:15 am
Networking Break

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
A Conversation with ADL's Senior Vice President of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence, Oren Segal
Speaker: Oren Segal, SVP, Counter-Extremism and Intelligence, Anti-Defamation League

12:30 pm - 1:15 pm
Lunch and JTA User Session

1:15 pm - 2:05 pm
General Session: Building Community in an Age of Polarization

Divisions in the American Jewish community are nothing new, but somehow the debates, especially over Israel, seem more explosive than ever. This session will focus on how Jewish institutional leaders from across the religious and political spectrum are grappling with the intense divisiveness that is gripping so much of the Jewish world today. 

Moderator: Ami Eden, CEO, 70 Faces Media

Speakers: Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, spiritual leader of Park Avenue Synagogue
Rabbi Jason Klein, former associate chaplain, Brown University, former Senior Rabbi, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah

Hindy Poupko, senior vice president for community strategy and external relations, UJA-Federation New York

2:05 pm - 2:20 pm
Newsmaker Moment: Jewish National Fund

2:20 pm - 2:30 pm 
Networking Break

2:30 pm - 3:20 pm
General Session: Unlocking the Potential of Community-Building

Current and potential audiences are increasingly hungry for connection and meaning, and communities would benefit from news outlets doing more to facilitate convenings, conversations and solutions. Explore models and approaches for how media outlets can greatly enhance their value proposition to readers, advertisers and funders by meeting a wider variety of user needs.

Speakers: Kevin S. Adelstein, president, publisher and CEO, Cleveland Jewish News
Rebecca Phillips, publisher, 70 Faces Media

3:20 pm - 3:40 pm
Newsmaker Moment: ZAKA Search & Rescue

3:40 pm - 4:10 pm
Editorial Breakout Session: The Power of Podcasting

Two editors from very different types of publications share lessons from their respective forays into the podcasting space.

Speakers: Lonny Goldsmith, editor-in-chief, Jewfolk, Inc.

Stephanie Butnick, founder, GOLDA

Lisa Hostein, executive editor, Hadassah Magazine

3:40 pm - 5:00 pm
Business Breakout Session: Bloomberg Field Trip

Walk across the street for an inside view of this financial, software, data, and media company. Limited space, priority will be given to publishers and sales representatives (one slot per publication).

4:10 pm - 4:30 pm
Newsmaker Moment: Met Council

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Networking Event at JCC of Manhattan

7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Executive Committee Dinner (By Invitation Only)

Thursday, June 4
Location: Center for Jewish History

8:00 am - 4:15 pm
Registration Desk Open

8:30 am - 9:15 am
Breakfast
A message from Rio Daniel, CEO, Center for Jewish History

9:15 am - 10:00 am
Editorial Breakout Session: The Next Big Jewish Storylines

The questions abound for American Jewry today: What’s working and what’s broken in our communal landscape? Where should we be investing philanthropic and institutional resources? With threats from the left and the right, have American Jews become politically homeless? What is the role of Israel in our future? As journalists, what issues are we not thinking about but should be?

Moderator: Abigail Pogrebin, author, journalist, public moderator

Speaker: Stephanie Ives, head of school, Beit Rabban Day School

Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer, president, Shalom Hartman Institute

9:15 am - 10:30 am
Business Breakout Session: Telling Our Story at a Time of Upheaval

Hear from two industry insiders about the most important business trends in digital media and the topic of creating a compelling brand narrative for advertisers that gets past circulation numbers. Then take part in a group brainstorm about how such principles apply to Jewish media.

Speakers: Howard Mittman, former CEO, Bleecher Report
Geoff Schiller, chief revenue officer, Vox Media

10:00 am - 10:20 am
Newsmaker Moment: Friends of the IDF (FIDF)
Speaker: Major General (Res.) Nadav Padan, CEO, Friends of the IDF 

10:30 am - 11:15 am
General Session: New York Politics

Speakers: Julie Menin, Speaker of the New York City Council

11:15 am - 11:30 am
Networking Break

11:30 am - 12:00 pm
Newsmaker Moment: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC): Inside the Global Jewish Response to This Moment of Crisis and Change
At a critical moment for the global Jewish community, JDC CEO Ariel Zwang sits down with 70 Faces Media CEO Ami Eden for a timely, frontline conversation. As the Jewish world confronts multiple conflicts, rising antisemitism, and growing social and economic instability, Zwang brings on-the-ground insight into how JDC is addressing the crises impacting Jews, Jewish communities, and Israel and strengthening them for the future.
Speaker: Ami Eden, CEO, 70 Faces Media
Ariel Zwang, CEO, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)

12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
Lunch and JNS User Session

12:45 pm - 1:45 pm
General Membership Meeting/The Future of AJPA

1:45 pm - 2:30 pm
Editorial Breakout Session: Telling Jewish Stories Through Food, Books and the Arts

Beejhy Barhany, an Ethiopian-Israeli-American chef who opened a kosher café in the heart of Harlem, is teaming up with Ari’el Stachel, a Yemenite-Israeli-American Grammy and Tony Award winner and writer, to celebrate Jewish food and culture through their Ethiopian and Yemenite lens. They will be joined by Esther Chehebar, author of Sisters of Fortune, who writes and speaks often about the growing Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn.

Moderator: Esther Chehebar, author, Sisters of Fortune

Speakers: Beejhy Barhany, chef and owner, Tsion Care

Ari'el Stachel, Grammy and Tony Award winner

1:45 pm - 2:30 pm
Business Breakout Session: Selling Value When Price is the Advertisers' Only Focus
Speaker: Ryan Dohrn, Emmy winning sales and leadership motivational speaker

2:30 pm - 2:45 pm
Networking Break

Catered by Beejhy Berhany and Tsion Cafe

2:45 pm - 3:30 pm
Editorial Breakout Session: Does AI Have a Jewish Problem?

As the rise of antisemitism coincides with the rise of artificial intelligence, AI may become either one of the greatest threats facing the Jewish people or a powerful ally. Maya Ackerman, the co-founder and CEO of WaveAI and author of Creative Machines: Art, AI & Us, who is also leading an international effort to document and fight AI-generated antisemitism, will discuss how generative AI rose to prominence, highlighting its origins in creativity and the Jewish pioneers who made it possible. The conversation will examine the challenges and opportunities AI presents for world Jewry and what can be done moving forward. There will be ample time for audience Q&A, creating space for an open and engaging conversation about the future of AI, creativity and the Jewish community.

Moderator: Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief, The Forward

Speaker: Maya Ackerman, generative AI pioneer, tech innovator, professor

2:45 pm - 3:30 pm
Business Breakout Session: 7 Ways Not to Get Ghosted After a Great Advertiser Meeting
Speaker: Ryan Dohrn, Emmy winning sales and leadership motivational speaker

3:30 pm - 4:15 pm
General Session: Making AI Work for You
A leader in helping Bloomberg News wrestle with ChatGPT and other Generative AI tools shows how smaller newsrooms can leverage this transformative technology.
Speaker: Brad Skillman, data/AI-focused trainer, Bloomberg News

4:15 pm - 6:00 pm
Sponsored Session: Center for Jewish History and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Visit YIVO’s New Interactive Learning and Media Center
Attendees will explore YIVO’s 100-year history, tour the new YIVO Learning and Media Center (YLMC), view remarkable materials from its collections, and gain insight into its current initiatives, including its global work in Ukraine and Lithuania. The program includes a behind-the-scenes look at how YIVO uses archival materials to teach Jewish history.
Speakers: Jonathan Brent, executive director/CEO, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Susannah Trubman, educator YLMC, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Alex Weiser, director of public programs, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
45th Annual Simon Rockower Awards Reception & Dinner Banquet

Friday, June 5

Group Activities