Lynda Ben-Menashe
President and Co-Chair, Engagement Committee
Lynda Ben-Menashe BA Dip. Ed., M Ed. has worked in Australia and overseas as an educator, writer and public diplomat. Her passion is innovation in the building of social capital, and she has worked with myriad ethnic NGOs to help them build their capacity and social cohesion generally.
Since 2007 she has served the Australian Jewish community through organisations including NCJWA; the Executive Council of Australian Jewry; World WIZO; and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, where she was responsible for developing and nurturing the strategic relationships between the Jewish and wider communities.
Programs she has 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 endorsed by both the Palestinian and Israeli Ambassadors to Australia.
Lynda is a feminist, a Zionist, an optimist and a realist.