NY Jewish Week’s 36 to Watch 2023

The New York Jewish Week has honored remarkable New Yorkers for the past 16 years for their contributions in the arts, religion, culture, business, politics and philanthropy. Our goal is to identify the innovators who are remaking the Jewish community, or contributing to society in ways that draw upon their diverse Jewish identities and sensibilities. 

This year’s class of “36ers” includes a 17-year-old author as well as an 87-year-old police chaplain. There are foodies and performers, rabbis and activists. They form a group of individuals, including some you may know and others you should, who together paint a portrait of a city, and its Jewish community, rebounding from a period of upheaval and eager to face the future.

Keep reading to celebrate their achievements!

CHANIE APFELBAUM
Kosher food writer

AARON BENDICH
Klezmer music impresario

LARISA BOAS
Providing services to new immigrants in Brooklyn

LILY BRASCH
Model and disability advocate

MICHELLE DARDASHTI
‘Radical pluralist’ rabbi

MICAELA DIAMOND
Star of Broadway’s ‘Parade’

DANIEL EDELMAN
Breakout Red Bulls midfielder

MIRIAM EZAGUI
Explaining Orthodoxy on TikTok

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ERIC FINKELSTEIN
Reimagining the Jewish luncheonette

SANDY FOX
Chronicling American Jewish history

RACHAEL FRIED
Queer Jewish Youth leader

DAN GOLDMAN
Congressman

ORLY GOTTESMAN
Gluten-free pioneer

LILY HENLEY
Ladino singer/songwriter

MATTIE KAHN
Writer

ALVIN KASS
Chief Chaplain, NYPD

SUSAN KORN
Designer of cool Judaica

STEPHANIE LUXENBERG & AYELET PEARL
Creating Jewish community in Astoria

ANDREW MANDEL
Innovating the hybrid synagogue

BARRY MANILOW
Hitmaker with a show headed to Broadway

HEATHER MILLER
Bringing ‘race consciousness’ to Jewish communities

SAM MORRISON
Comedian and writer

SHOSHANA NAMBI
Sharing Uganda’s Jewish story

ZIBBY OWENS
Literary powerhouse

DANIEL POSNER
Sending U.S. athletes to Israel

MIRA RIVERA
Pathbreaking rabbi in Harlem

MODI ROSENFELD
Making Jewish jokes

JESSICA SEINFELD
Fighting antisemitism online

JULIAN SHAPIRO-BARNUM
‘Recess Therapy’ interviewer

SUZETTE SHEFT
Novelist and high school student

MIA SIMRING
Rikers Island chaplain

MAGDA TETER
Archiving Bronx Jewish history

JESSICA TISCH
Keeping New York City clean

MAYER WAXMAN
Queens Jewish Community Council leader

BEATRICE WEBER
Yaffed executive director

DANI ZOLDAN
Stand Up NY comedy club owner