Executive Director Announcement
JPLA is excited to announce that Brooke Wirtschafter will be our first Executive Director. Brooke has been a member of our Board and a leader in our work from the start. For the last nine years, she’s served as the director of community organizing at IKAR, developing teams of volunteer leaders, cultivating relationships with local Jewish, labor, nonprofit, and multi-faith organizing partners and elected officials, as well as national Jewish justice organizers.
At IKAR, Brooke worked with clergy and lay leaders to advocate at the local, state and national levels on immigrants’ rights, criminal legal system reform, climate action, homelessness, and affordable housing. Brooke’s experience and relationships will help JPLA to realize its vision.
Brooke says, “LA is where I have built a life, found a community, and raised my family. My Jewish community here has been a source of friendship, support, and inspiration to live up to our tradition’s teachings to love our neighbors through collective action. I’m excited to work together with you to become a powerful voice in LA’s civic life for loving our neighbors.”
Brooke Wirtschafter
Executive Director
Brooke has been a member of our Board and a leader in our work from the start. For the last nine years she served as the Director of Community Organizing at IKAR, developing teams of volunteer leaders, cultivating relationships with local Jewish, labor, nonprofit, and multi-faith organizing partners and elected officials, as well as national Jewish justice organizers. At IKAR, Brooke worked with clergy and lay leaders to advocate at the local, state and national levels on immigrants’ rights, criminal legal system reform, climate action, homelessness, and affordable housing.
Brooke currently serves on the boards of LA Voice, a Los Angeles countywide multifaith justice and advocacy organization and of Sympara, a faith-based civic place-making nonprofit. She has been a member of the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, a NewGround Fellow, and a JOIN for Justice community organizing course instructor. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.A. from San Francisco State University in History. Her undergraduate thesis was about Jewish women in New York City at the turn of the Twentieth Century organizing a boycott when the price of chicken got too high for them to afford. They fought and won! She’s been interested in grassroots Jewish organizing ever since.
Brooke lives in the West Valley with her husband, Jonathan, and is happy to have raised three kids who are now adults in LA.
Favorite LA institution: Topanga State Park