Join the Museum and New York Board of Rabbis for a special conversation with Congressman Ritchie Torres, Museum President & CEO Jack Kliger, and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik. With some special guests, our speakers will discuss contemporary antisemitism and hate across the range of American politics, the country’s political divides, the Congressman’s connection to Israel, and immigration policy, among other topics.
Congressman Ritchie John Torres is the U.S. representative for New York’s 15th congressional district, covering most of the South Bronx. Torres served as the New York City Councilmember for the 15th district from 2013 to 2020. He was the first openly gay candidate to be elected to legislative office in the Bronx, and the council’s youngest member. Torres assumed Congressional office on January 3, 2021. This made him and Mondaire Jones the first openly gay Black men elected to Congress. It also made Torres the first openly gay Afro Latino elected to Congress. As such, he is one of the co-chairs of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equalityt Caucus in the 117th United States Congress.
Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, J.D. is the Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis, the largest interdenominational rabbinic body in the world. He is Rabbi Emeritus at Congregation Mount Sinai in Brooklyn Heights. Rabbi Potasnik hosts and co-hosts a variety of radio and television programs and is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought & Culture.
Jack Kliger is President & CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Kliger was born in Florence, Italy to Polish and Hungarian Holocaust survivors before emigrating with his family to Brooklyn as a young child. He has had an accomplished career in media, publishing a number of different magazines including Elle, Woman’s Day, and Car and Driver. Kliger was named President & CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in 2019 after 13 years of service on its Board of Trustees.
