2026 ANNUAL CONFERENCE AGENDA

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

Tuesday, June 2

5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Welcome Reception
Location: Hilton Garden Inn Long Island City New York

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

9:00 am - 10:05 am
Breakfast
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

10:15 am - 12:00 pm
Business Breakout Session: Bootcamp: Setting Your Strategy
Speaker: Alison Go

11:05 am - 11:15 am
Networking Break

11:15 am - 12:00 pm 
Editorial Breakout Session: Doing Jewish Differently: The Gen Z and Millennial POV

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. 

Speakers: Audrey Honig

Sumner Lewis

Amy Bebchick

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, senior rabbi, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah

Hindy Poupko, senior vice president, 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.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).

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: Campus Israel

3:40 pm - 5:00 pm
Editorial Breakout Session

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).

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

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

American Jewry is in flux in so many ways and the questions abound: What’s working and what’s broken ? 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 that we should be?

Moderator: Abigail Pogrebin, author, journalist, public moderator

Speaker: Yehuda Kurtzer, president, Shalom Hartman Institute

9:00 am - 10:30 am
Breakfast
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)

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
Speaker: 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 Grammy and Tony Award Winner, 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

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

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 - 4:30 pm
Sponsored Session - Center for Jewish History and YIVO

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Tour of the Center for Jewish History

6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
45th Annual Simon Rockower Awards Reception & Dinner Gala
Location: Center for Jewish History

Friday, June 5

Group Activities