Lynda Ben-Menashe
President
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Lynda Ben-Menashe BA Dip. Ed., M Ed. is a regular commentator across major media outlets, with advocacy focusing on women’s issues, building social cohesion, and more recently on the gendered dimensions of antisemitism in Australia today. Her passion is innovation in the building of social capital.
Lynda has served the Australian Jewish community for over 15 years through organisations including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, where she was Head of Engagement for 10 years, responsible for developing and nurturing the strategic relationships between the Jewish and wider communities.
Programs she created include the ‘We Are All Sydney’ leadership program for people from over 90 different ethnic communities, the Shared Table project for Jewish and Muslim women which won Rotary NSW’s inaugural Community Peace Prize, the annual Women of Diversity Dinner, annual Commemorations of the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran and study tours of Israel and the West Bank for groups of NGOs to examine grassroots peacebuilding.
Since October 7 2023, Lynda has also been running resilience workshops for women, men and young people across the Jewish community nationally. She is a Zionist, a feminist, a realist and an optimist.