All NLS Participants

Dinner & Evening Plenary

Featuring Stacie Hartman, Jane Saginaw, Ben Sax, Jonathan Greenblatt, Michael Solomonov, Einat Admony, Eitan Bernath, Shannon Sarna, Gilad Erdan

Mar 4, 7:00pm-9:30pm ET
The plenary will begin with remarks from ADL's National Commission Co-Chairs Stacie Hartman and Jane Saginaw; Chair of ADL's Board of Directors Ben Sax; and ADL CEO & National Director Jonathan Greenblatt. The program will continue with a thoughtful conversation with James Beard Foundation award-winning chef Michael Solomonov, James Beard Foundation nominated chef Einat Admony, and chef, author, TV personality and activist Eitan Bernath about what it is like to be an Israeli and Jewish chef in this moment. The plenary will close with the presentation of the Daniel R. Ginsberg Young Leadership Awards.

Speakers

Stacie Hartman

Co-Chair, National Commission, ADL

Stacie Hartman is a partner and chair of the Financial Services Group at the law firm of Steptoe and works from its Chicago and New York offices. She also chairs its Women’s Forum. Stacie co-chairs ADL’s National Commission and served on ADL’s DEI Task Force and serves on ADL’s Midwest Region’s Executive Council. Stacie is from Chicago and obtained her degrees from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and Northwestern University, and matriculated at Oxford University.

Jane Saginaw

Co-Chair, National Commission, ADL

Jane Saginaw is a student in the Ph.D. Program in Literature at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her memoir, Because the World is Round, recounts a family trip around the world in 1970 with her mother who used a wheelchair because of polio. Before returning to graduate school, Jane was a trial lawyer with Baron & Budd in Dallas, Texas. She later served in the Clinton Administration as the Regional Administrator of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region Six. In 2006, she was awarded Trail Lawyer of the Year by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for her environmental work involving groundwater contamination in Tucson, Arizona. Jane’s undergraduate degree is in cultural geography from the University of California, Berkeley. Her law degree is from the University of Texas, Austin. In 2023 she earned a Masters in Humanities from the University of Texas, Dallas. Her essays and poetry have appeared in Athenaeum ReviewImageD Magazine, and PB Daily.

Ben Sax

Chair, Board of Directors, ADL

Ben Sax is the Chair of ADL Board of Directors. In his 25 years of volunteering for ADL, Ben has served in various leadership positions, including Vice-Chair of the Board, National Chair of Development and New York Regional Board Chair. Ben also assisted in a complete revamp of the organization’s governance structure to bolster leadership, accountability and transparency to sustain the organization’s long-term future.

Ben is a partner at KORE Private Wealth, a multibillion-dollar registered investment advisor that works exclusively with wealthy individuals and their families to help navigate the world around them. Focusing on everything from financial, estate and tax planning to asset allocation and investment, Ben and his team work with clients to achieve their goals through objective thinking and innovative wealth solutions with a mission to educate, inform and help them feel secure in the decisions they make about their financial lives.

He has also taught financial literacy to young adults at several non-profit organizations over the years. Ben has a deep appreciation for the arts, is a graduate of Bowdoin college, has two adult children, two grandchildren and is married to Hollis, a professional photographer.

Jonathan Greenblatt

National Director and CEO, ADL

Jonathan A. Greenblatt is the CEO of ADL (Anti-Defamation League) and its sixth National Director. As chief executive of ADL, Jonathan leads all aspects of the world’s leading anti-hate organization. He is an accomplished entrepreneur and innovative leader with deep experience in the private, public and nonprofit sectors.

Since becoming CEO in July 2015, Greenblatt has modernized ADL while refocusing it on the mission it has had since its founding in 1913: to fight the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.

Under Greenblatt, ADL has modernized its operations, innovated its approaches to counter antisemitism from all sides and enhanced its efforts to combat extremism in all forms. During his tenure ADL rebooted its Center on Extremism that analyzes and monitors extremists and hate groups; launched “Never Is Now” the largest annual convening in the world focused on antisemitism and hate; created the Center for Technology and Society in Silicon Valley to fight the rising tide of online hate and harassment; partnered with the Aspen Institute to launch the Civil Society Fellowship, an innovative program that builds cohorts of emerging leaders across a continuum of ideology and identity; developed the Sports Leadership Council to engage athletes, teams and leagues to confront bigotry and discrimination more effectively; and executed Stop Hate for Profit, the successful campaign that organized businesses, celebrities, nonprofits and policy makers to fight the rampant racism, antisemitism and extremism on Facebook.

In 2022, Greenblatt released It Could Happen Here, a book that sounds an alarm, warning that hate and systemic violence is gathering momentum in the United States – and that violence on a more catastrophic scale could be just around the corner.

Jonathan serves on numerous corporate and non-profit boards and has been recognized on multiple occasions for his leadership at ADL. He has been named by The NonProfit Times to its list of Top 50 Nonprofit Leaders from 2016-2022. Recode named Jonathan to its inaugural “Recode 100,” a list of the top 100 people in business and technology. He has been named among the Top 50 Most Influential Leaders in the global Jewish community by The Jerusalem Post and as one of the Top 50 Jews to follow on Twitter by the JTA.

Before ADL, Greenblatt served in the White House as Special Assistant to President Obama and Director of the Office of Social Innovation. He came to that role after a long career in business. In 2002, he co-founded Ethos Brands, the business that launched Ethos Water, a premium bottled water that helps children around the world access clean water. Ethos was acquired by Starbucks Coffee Company in 2005. Following the acquisition, Jonathan was named VP of Global Consumer Products at Starbucks and joined the board of the Starbucks Foundation.

In 2009, Jonathan founded All for Good (AFG), the largest database of volunteer opportunities on the Internet. Incubated at Google, AFG developed an innovative strategy to organize the world’s volunteer listings. AFG was acquired by Points of Light in 2011. Jonathan also served as CEO of GOOD Worldwide, a diversified media company and as an executive at REALTOR.com, joining the company as a product manager and eventually heading up its consumer products division. REALTOR went public in 1999 (HOMS) and was acquired by News Corp in 2014.

Jonathan has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and as a senior fellow at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jonathan graduated cum laude with a BA from Tufts University and earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Michael Solomonov

5-time James Beard Award-Winning Chef

​Michael Solomonov is a beloved champion of Israel’s extraordinarily diverse and vibrant culinary landscape. He is partner in CookNSolo with Steven Cook and is the executive chef and co-owner of Philadelphia’s Zahav,the trailblazing restaurant that put the rich melting pot of Israeli cuisine at the forefront of dining in America today.A 5-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, he is known for his extraordinary skill at transforming simple foods into artful culinary masterpieces and is widely regarded as one of the country’s top chefs and entrepreneurs.

In addition to his duties at Zahav, Chef Solomonov is a partner in Laser Wolf Philadelphia, Federal Donuts, Dizengoff, Goldie, K’Far, and Laser Wolf, K’Far and Jaffa Bar at the Hoxton Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Awards and Recognition:

  • Laser Wolf Brooklyn was named “The Restaurant of the Summer” by the New York Post in June 2022
  • Laser Wolf Philadelphia was named one of the “Best New Restaurants in the World” for 2021 by Conde Nast Traveler, The New York Times’ “The 2021 Restaurant List” and GQ’s “Best New Restaurants in America, 2020”
  • Zahav was awarded 2019 Outstanding Restaurant by James Beard Foundation, the #1 restaurant in the country
  • In 2018, Food & Wine named Zahav one of the “40 Most Important Restaurants of the Past 40 Years”
  • Solomonov won the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Chef in 2017

Chef Solomonov is also an avid snowboarder, surfer, and overall fitness fanatic.

Zahav’s famous hummus is available at Whole Foods locations as of January, 2024.

Einat Admony

James Beard Foundation Nominated Chef, Owner of Balaboosta Resturant

Chef Einat Admony, known as the ultimate balaboosta (meaning “perfect housewife” in Yiddish) is the James Beard nominated chef and owner of Balaboosta, the fine dining Middle Eastern & Israeli restaurant and founder of beloved fast casual falafel chain, Taïm.

Admony is a pillar of the international Israeli cooking community. Her food tells an intricate story of strong immigrant roots and living the American Dream. Having grown up in Tel Aviv, she served as a cook in the Israeli Army before traveling Europe to work in kitchens, and eventually landing in New York City as an ambitious young chef. After 15+ years leading the New York culinary scene and establishing multiple restaurants, Admony continues to innovate and inspire with elevated yet comforting homestyle cooking from her childhood.

Admony is a double-time champion and competitor of Food Network’s Chopped and Throwdown! with Bobby Flay. She has been featured by The New York Times, Bon Appetit, HuffPost, Forbes, among many others. Admony has authored two cookbooks with Artisan Books: Balaboosta (2013) and Shuk (2019). In 2014, she was a recipient of the Great Immigrants award from Carnegie Corporation of New York for exemplary contributions to American life.

Outside of leading several expanding food businesses, Admony can be found at home in Brooklyn or at her country house in the Hudson Valley, cooking for her two children, Liam and Mika, her husband and business partner, Stefan Nafziger, and a steady stream of dinner party guests.

Eitan Bernath

Award-Winning Chef, Author, TV Personality

Eitan Bernath is an award-winning chef, author, TV personality, entertainer, and social justice activist. The multihyphenate began his gilded entertainment career early, appearing as one of the youngest ever contestants on the Food Network’s Chopped at just 11 years old. Since then, Bernath’s social media presence has amassed over 8 million followers and 3 billion annual video views that reach more than 350 million consumers in 150 countries every year. He is the chief executive officer of Eitan Productions, the Principal Culinary Contributor for the Daytime Emmy® award-winning Drew Barrymore Show on CBS, and is a contributor to The Washington Post, Food & Wine, Saveur, and Delish. Bernath’s debut cookbook Eitan Eats the World, a national bestseller, hit bookstands in May 2022 from Penguin Random House with critical acclaim from outlets including USA Today, Good Morning America, and the Associated Press. Heralded as a leader in social media for mastering the art of quick-cut content, Bernath’s story and success has graced the pages of publications including The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, and People. In September 2021, Bernath became the youngest ever recipient of Forbes coveted 30 Under 30 award in Food & Drink. Building on his passion to contribute to the global effort to solve hunger, Bernath was appointed by the United Nations World Food Programme as a High Level Supporter in February 2023, becoming the youngest individual ever elevated to such a position. He also serves on City Harvest’s Food Council, World Central Kitchen’s Chef Corps, the Anti-Defamation League’s Entertainment Leadership Council, the White House Historical Association’s Next-Gen Leaders Cohort, and as an ambassador for Animal Haven, an animal shelter in downtown Manhattan.

Shannon Sarna

Acclaimed Jewish Food Writer & Cookbook author

Shannon Sarna is Founding Editor of The Nosher, part of 70 Faces Media and author of two cookbooks, Modern Jewish Baker and Modern Jewish Comfort Food. She has been featured in Bake from Scratch Magazine, Better Homes & Garden Magazine, Taste of Home Magazine, Bon Appetit, Food52, Forbes and USA Today.

Gilad Erdan

Permanent Representative from Israel to the United Nations

Gilad Erdan has served as Israel’s Ambassador to the UN since August 2020. From January until November 2021, Ambassador Erdan also served as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States. During Ambassador Erdan’s tenure at the UN, he initiated and passed a critical resolution in the UN General Assembly combatting Holocaust denial – making it only the second time in history that an Israeli-led resolution was passed at the UN. As a steadfast defender of Israel – in a place where anti-Israel lies are institutionalized – Ambassador Erdan constantly fights for Israel on the world stage and makes the truth heard loud and clear.

Erdan previously served as a Member of Knesset for seventeen years from 2003 to 2020. During this time, he was a senior Minister for 11 years in several Ministries in the Israeli Government, including in the Security Cabinet.

From 2015 to 2020, Erdan served as Minister of Public Security, where he was in charge of Israel’s first responders including the police and fire department. In this role, he oversaw the response to the difficult period of “lone-wolf terrorist” attacks and incitement that took place online. Erdan also established the Child Online Protection Bureau, a national authority that combines law enforcement with education and treatment to ensure the safety of minors online.

From 2015 to 2020, Erdan was also Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs, where he coordinated the government’s strategy against the Palestinian-led efforts to delegitimize and boycott the State of Israel.

From 2013 to 2014, Erdan served as Minister of Communications, where he increased competition in all sectors of the industry. In 2009, Erdan was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection. He was the first to bring the issue of climate change to the center of the Israeli public agenda.

Prior to serving in the Knesset, Erdan served as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, Director of the Department of Public Petitions in the Prime Minister’s Office, Parliamentary Assistant to MK Ariel Sharon, and CEO of the Economic Company of the Israel Builders Association.

Erdan graduated from Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Law and clerked at one of Israel’s leading commercial law firms in Tel Aviv. He was admitted to the Israel Bar Association in 1999 and holds a master’s degree in Political Science from Tel Aviv University.

Erdan is a native of the port city of Ashkelon. He is married and the father of four children