2021 Recipient: Jeffrey H. Finkelstein
Jeffrey H. Finkelstein, MA'93, President/CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, is honored with the 2021 Bernard Reisman Professional Excellence Award.
The Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University is pleased to announce Jeff Finkelstein as this year’s recipient of the Bernard Reisman Award for Professional Excellence, and as the Commencement Speaker for the Hornstein Class of 2021.
“Throughout his exemplary career, Jeff Finkelstein has strengthened Jewish communities locally and around the world supporting countless people in need, engaging youth, and raising the funds necessary to ensure a vibrant Jewish future,” said Dr. Shirley Idelson, Leon A. Jick Director of the Hornstein Program.
“When Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue was struck in the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history, Jeff was present—not just for the victims in that shattering moment, but for the whole community in its aftermath. The powerful response he continues to lead has focused on remembrance and healing in the Jewish world and beyond. We at Hornstein could not be prouder of our alumnus.”
About Jeffrey H. Finkelstein
Jeffrey H. Finkelstein, MA’93, became President/CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh in August 2004. He joined the Pittsburgh Federation staff in 1998 as Director of the Annual Community Campaign and was promoted to Vice President of Development in January 2001.
Finkelstein has served on the Pennsylvania Governor’s Pandemic Advisory Committee, the Allegheny County Jail Advisory Committee, and the University of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics special Criminal Justice Taskforce.
He is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh and the Wexner Heritage Program, a past Chair of the Large City Executives Group of the Jewish Federations of North America, the immediate past President of JPRO Network, and a board member of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.
Finkelstein came to Pittsburgh following five years of development work with THE ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. He has a strong background in Jewish Communal work, with an MA in Jewish Communal Service from the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University, a BA in Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and a BA in Sociology from Columbia University.
He was chosen as a winner of the 2019 Fox Rothschild Outstanding CEOs and Top Executives award, and he has received additional honors including the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Leonard H. and Doris M. Rudolph Jewish Communal Professional Award and the Martin L. Waxman Fellowship from The ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.