Who We Are

Steve Eisenberg is a risk arbitrage specialist who previously served as a Vice President at Bear Stearns and a Managing Director at the investment firm Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum, Inc., Steve juggles a demanding Wall Street career with a passionate commitment to Jewish outreach programming. In addition to delivering JICNY’s flagship weekly Torah class on Monday evenings in Manhattan, he also manages JICNY’s Job Assistance website and coordinates the organization’s networking events. A gifted speaker and a celebrated educator, Steve is frequently invited to speak at events around the world and develops programs for outreach organizations across the United States.

Jodi Samuels has over 20 years of business management and startup experience and she voluntarily serves as the Executive Director of JICNY. She has worked in the not-for-profit, finance, fashion and beauty sectors and successfully started two non-profit Jewish organizations including the Jewish International Connection NY that currently boasts 10,000 members from 40 countries. Three years ago she launched jmedia connections and she has successfully built jdeal – a Jewish daily deal site, Buy Israel Week - an initiative to combat the BDS movement and jblasts – an email blast network with extensive reach into the US Jewish market. She is the co-founder of Metroimma, an online site for Jewish moms, with over 6000 active monthly members. Her latest initiative is jgives.com a destination site to give charity. Jodi started her first business at age 14. Her expertise in strategic and relationship online marketing has given her the foundation to acquire and retain a strong membership base for her businesses. After having a child with special needs, Jodi started a blog and became an activist and educator in the Jewish community with the rallying cry "let my people in". Jodi is known as a connector and networker in the Jewish community and has an impressive Rolodex of C-level contacts in the business and non-profit sectors.    

Stacey Slone Administrative Assistant. Stacey was born and raised in Atlanta, GA and graduated with a Bachelor's degree from Florida State University. Her 20-yr career spans several industries, including restaurant management, catering and event planning for kosher events.  Stacey lives with her husband and children in Ra'anana, Israel.

Jessica Abo Jessica is a journalist by day and social entrepreneur by choice. She can be found on NY1 covering everything from breaking news to Fashion Week or spotted playing herself in The Amazing Spider-Man 2,Delivery Man, Girl Most Likely, Gossip Girl and Nurse Jackie. This year, Jessica joined JICNY as a consultant. She also joined Apploi as their Chief Inspiration Officer. When she is not leading employment workshops for the tech start-up, Jessica can be found speaking to teenagers around the country as United Synagogue Youth’s first-ever Danny Siegel Changemaker in Residence. Jessica has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a variety of causes by running marathons and organizing her own charity events. She has won several awards for her journalism and philanthropy work, including being named to The Jewish Week’s 2014 “36 Under 36” list. Jessica received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She is the founder and President of Match4Good, Inc., and is very excited to launch her own digital network to empower kids, teenagers and college students. In her free time, Jessica enjoys co-chairing UJA’s Young Entertainment Division, sitting on the Broadcast, Cable and Film Committee and working on her first book.

Shawn Holt Technology- Shawn has a 17-year track record in strategy, marketing and technology as a product owner and consultant in several startups and F500 companies in the US and abroad. He’s accumulated 7 years of consulting experience at Booz Allen and Hamilton and as a solo practitioner. Projects include Web management and automation, CRM implementations and marketing programs. Selected client engagements include Air Products, Universal Studios, Viacom, Heinz, Pfizer, HP. Since graduating from Columbia Business School, Shawn has held product ownership and marketing positions at media and technology companies including Reed Elsevier, Oddcast, Mimeo and Yahoo.

Julie Bernstein Development Director-Julie has many years of experience in the non-profit and profit sectors, including being the strategic planner for the Halachic Organ Donor Society, a development associate for Safe Horizon, and a sales representative and business analyst at Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Johnson & Johnson company. Julie is also on the fundraising committees for the Jewish organizations 3GNY and One-by-One. Additionally, she is currently participating in the Manhattan Jewish Experience Fellowship program. Julie has a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from The College of New Jersey and a certificate in fundraising from Boston University.