ADL names Jake Bennett Arizona director
Jake Bennett, an entrepreneur and former combat soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, was named director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Arizona Regional Office in Phoenix. Jake had served as CEO of Numa Tactical Eyewear since founding the company in 2006; prior to that he was an investment manager in New York and Los Angeles.
“Jake represents the next generation of leadership,” says Amy Altshuler, ADL Arizona regional board chair. “He is exceptionally bright and has the passion and business skills necessary to advance ADL’s mission.”
“I am very excited to be joining ADL,” Jake says. “ADL’s mission is about more than fighting anti-Semitism. ADL has a proud 100-year history of fighting for civil rights and civil discourse. It protects and preserves the best of what America is about: dignity and respect, inclusion and multiculturalism. Seventy years ago, my maternal grandparents survived Auschwitz and the massacres of their families and left a Europe that was torn apart by state-sanctioned bigotry and violence. They came to a country that was built on a promise of a better world, where people of different backgrounds, ethnicities and religions could live together as brothers and sisters. ADL was founded to help realize those ideals, and ADL’s vision is needed today as much as ever.”
Jake earned his B.A., cum laude, from Amherst College and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. He served in the IDF from 1999 to 2001. An Arizona resident since 2010, Jake teaches at Hebrew High and is involved with several Scottsdale congregations.
602-274-0991 | [email protected],
Phoenix federation hires Marty Haberer
Marty Haberer joins the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix as chief development officer this month. Marty began his career as a teen director at a Jewish Community Center in Riverdale, NY. He has held Jewish communal professional positions in New York, New Jersey, Cincinnati and Detroit. He served as the associate executive director of the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee in Florida for almost 13 years of his 29-year career. In addition to working in development, Marty has spent his career emphasizing Jewish education, training campaign solicitors and board members, and discussing the re-engineering of the federation for the 21st century.
Marty is a very active community member who serves in a variety of positions, including as a board member of his congregation. He has traveled throughout the former Soviet Union, Poland, Ethiopia, Hungary, Jordan and Greece and has visited Israel 38 times to “Save Jewish lives and enhance Jewish life” whenever and wherever there is an opportunity.
Marty lives with his wife of 26 years, Lori; their two children, Danielle, 21, and Noah, 19; and two mischievous dachshunds, Bailey and Marley.
jewishphoenix.org
Morris Hall adds Plitz and Hunsaker as partners
The law firm of Morris Hall, PLLC, a premier estate planning law firm, announces the promotion of James P. Plitz and B. West Hunsaker to partners.
Jim Plitz graduated magna cum laude with his Juris Doctorate from the Phoenix School of Law, and achieved the second-highest score on the 2011 Arizona bar exam. He passed the 2011 bar exam in New Mexico, as well. He was a contributing writer and an editor of the Phoenix Law Review. “I look forward to being an integral part of the firm’s continued success – in particular, being able to provide our clients with a premier estate plan,” says Jim.
Previously, West Hunsaker was an executive with JPMorgan Chase. He obtained his Juris Doctorate degree from the Phoenix School of Law. He has served on the National Planned Giving Advisory Council for Make-A-Wish America. He also serves as co-chair for planned giving advisory committees for both the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation and Make-A-Wish Arizona. In 2013 he was recognized nationally by Trust & Estates magazines as one of their six Practitioners With Heart. West says, “It is a great honor to become a partner of a firm, such as Morris Hall, that has a history of service to its clients, their families and communities throughout the Southwest.”
Senior Partner Dan R. Morris commented, “We are privileged to have Jim and West as partners of Morris Hall. Their experience and commitment in the practice of estate planning will continue to bring value to the clients they serve.”
602-249-1328 | morristrust.com
Aaron Scholar leaves Bureau of Jewish Education
Aaron Scholar is leaving the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix after a nearly 31 stint as director. Aaron has been responsible for supervising and expanding a vast array of innovative programs including the Phoenix High School of Jewish Studies, the Jewish Community Library, Family Education, Adult Jewish Studies and the annual Passages Lecture Series.
Previously he was a teacher and principal in the Jewish religious schools as well as in the Madison School District in Phoenix. Aaron is a graduate of Mesivta Chaim Berlin, a rabbinical seminary in New York City, and Brooklyn College. He earned an M.Ed. in school administration and supervision from Arizona State University.
480-634-8050 | bjephoenix.org
CJSN hires Amy Hummell as executive director
Amy Hummell joined the Council For Jews With Special Needs as executive director at the end of March. Amy brings to her new position years of nonprofit management and fundraising experience as the senior director of field services for the Arizona office of Autism Speaks, where she was responsible for autism advocacy, education and fundraising in four states. Most notably she oversaw all aspects of the Arizona Walk Now for Autism Speaks, the autism community’s largest fundraising and awareness event in the Valley. She is eager to expand her current work and relationships in the Phoenix disability community.
Board President Richard Lustiger said, “I am so pleased to have Amy Hummell joining us at CJSN, given her outstanding experience with special needs advocacy, and her long-established presence in the Phoenix Jewish community.”
“This is an exciting time for me and my family to combine work experience with personal beliefs,” said Hummell. The Hummells are members of Temple Kol Ami where her daughter became a bat mitzvah in 2014.
CJSN is a 30-year-old nonprofit that provides support services and resources to children and adults living with a variety of disabilities to insure their full and meaningful participation in the community.
cjsn.org | 480-629-5343
