FESTIVAL ORGANIZERS

Avi Amon is an award-winning, Turkish-American composer and sound artist. Avi’s multi-genre work has been developed or presented by HBO Films, Hulu, Spotify/Gimlet, Tribeca Film Festival, Ars Nova, LCT3, New York Theater Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and SoHo Rep, among others. Avi is the resident composer at the 52nd Street Project, an inaugural fellow with THE WORKSHOP, and teaches at NYU Tisch.

Liz Alpern is co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods and co-owner of The Gefilteria, a food venture that’s been reimagining Old World Jewish Foods since 2012. She is also the creator of Queer Soup Night, a global event series highlighting the talent of queer chefs and raising funds for locally based social justice organizations. Her passion for food extends to the world of food systems, and she serves as a consultant to the national non-profit Fair Food Network.

David Brendel is a writer, producer and literary consultant with projects in film, television, theater, and music. He’s produced concerts at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to The Venice Biennale, worked as a writer and creative consultant for such artists as Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd, and most recently, curated an installation at Lincoln Center’s Library for the Performing Arts.

Jordan Cohen is an executive director of communications at The New York Times where he manages external communications for The Times's standalone subscription products. Jordan is a Brooklyn native and his father spent his childhood summers at SGC Bungalow Colony in Swan Lake, New York.

Julian Fleisher is a songwriter, bandleader, producer and singer who regularly appears at Lincoln Center, BAM, Symphony Space, The 92nd St Y and Joe’s Pub, where he is currently in the midst of a year-long residency. Julian also hosts two shows on NPR’s flagship radio station in New York: The Naked American Songbook, a music and talk show, and 44 Charlton, a monthly, live variety show. He also owns Stamford Coffee in the Catskills town of Stamford.

June Hersh is a cookbook author and food writer with a focus on preserving Jewish food memory. She has authored several books including the bestselling Recipes Remembered, a Celebration of Survival, retelling the stories and recipes of Holocaust Survivors. Her most recent book, Iconic New York Jewish Food a History and Guide with Recipes, is a love letter to notable noshes brought forward by Jewish immigrants. The idea of celebrating the Borscht Belt resonates with June as she and her family were regulars at The Concord Hotel. A highlight for her was dancing on stage with Nipsey Russell. June, then a preteen will never forget the resounding noise as the audience rapped their wooden sticks on their table -- the Borscht Belt's way of showing appreciation in lieu of applause.

Wayne Hoffman is a journalist, author and executive editor of Tablet magazine. His cultural reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post among other publications. His most recent book, The End of Her: Racing Against Alzheimer's to Solve a Murder, is published by Heliotrope Books.

Adam Kantor is an Emmy and Grammy Award-winning actor and singer who starred in the Broadway productions of The Band’s Visit, Fiddler On The Roof, and RENT.  He produced Saturday Night Seder, which raised $4 million for the CDC Foundation. Adam has deep roots in Ellenville: his great-grandmother’s family owned and ran the iconic Tamarack Lodge.

Rose Kuo is a veteran film industry leader who has stewarded film festivals, film productions and served as a senior film executive. She founded the festival consultancy Festworks and has led some of the country’s premiere festivals, including the Film Society of Lincoln (which co-organizes the NY Jewish Film Festival) and the American Film Institute's AFI Fest. She also served on the board of Creative Capital, a national arts funding organization.

Stephen Laughton is a British playwright and screenwriter whose work explores queer identity, its intersection with faith and rising anti-Semitism. His recent play “One Jewish Boy” ran on London’s West End and is currently being adapted into a film. He lives in New York City, where he is the Writer-in-Residence at the American Museum of Natural History.

Laurie MacMillan is an award-winning documentary editor and communications professional. She co-founded the Coney Island Film Festival and served as program director. During her tenure, the festival was dubbed one of the "Coolest Film Festivals in the World" and "25 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" by MovieMaker Magazine. She served on the Board of Directors for Coney Island USA, the arts organization responsible for the Mermaid Parade, Sideshows by the Seashore, Burlesque at the Beach, and the Coney Island Museum.

Mary McCann is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company, executive director of the Atlantic Acting School and an actor who has appeared in numerous films, plays and television shows. Mary has performed in over 40 plays at Atlantic including the title role of “Harper Regan” and “Blue Bird” with Simon Russell Beale. Film and TV roles include “The Chair” with Sandra Oh, “Dirty John, and The Betty Broderick Story,” and “Little Children.” Mary, who with her husband Neil Pepe lives in Ellenville and New York City, has also appeared at Ellenville's Shadowland Stages in “God of Carnage.”

Victoria Messner is a creative director and co-founder of Reservoir Studio, an independent creative house in Ellenville that focuses on branding, photography, and new business and community support. She is co-founder and president of The Coalition of Forward-Facing Ellenville (COFFE), a community-based non-profit organization, and an organizer of Market on Market, a monthly farmers and artisans market that she established with her wife, Natalia Moena.

Collier Meyerson is a journalist, writer and Knobler Fellow at the Nation Institute, where she focuses on race and politics. She received an Emmy for her work on the MSNBC’s "All In with Chris Hayes" and won the 2016 National Association of Black Journalists’ award for commentary. Most recently, Collier co-wrote, produced and narrated the podcast series "Love Thy Neighbor," which explores the Crown Heights riots of 1991. She is a contributor at New York Magazine.

Shira Milikowsky is a theater director based in Brooklyn and the Berkshires. Specializing in new plays and radical re-imaginings of musicals and classic texts, she is also co-founder of The Neon Coven, a performance and production company that creates nightlife musicals and other immersive pop-up events. The Coven's inaugural production, Oscar at the Crown, took Brooklyn by storm in 2019. Shira is an associate lecturer in theater, dance and media at Harvard, and a former artistic associate at the American Repertory Theater.

Eve Orenstein is a nonprofit management professional with extensive experience in development and marketing focusing on individual giving, event planning, and institutional giving. She is currently senior manager of development and special events at the American Academy in Rome. A professional opera singer, Eve is half of the opera/electronic duo Orbiting Olympia.

Neil Pepe is a Tony Nominated theater director and the artistic director of the Atlantic Theater Company. He has directed scores of award-winning plays, including the Broadway production of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” “Speed-the-Plow” and “A Life in the Theatre,” as well as the musical “Hands On a Hard Body.” Other credits include premieres of plays by Jez Butterworth, Ethan Coen, John Guare and Simon Stephens. He and his wife Mary McCann split their time between New York City and Ellenville.

Jon Adam Ross is managing director and a founder of The In[heir]itance Project, a devised-theater company which puts communities’ lived experiences in conversation with their inherited sacred texts. Jon has spent nearly 20 years making art with religious communities around the country as an actor, playwright, and teaching artist. He has served as an artist in residence at Union Theological Seminary, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and many other religious and educational institutions.

Lacey Schwartz Delgado is an attorney and award-winning writer, director, producer, storyteller, and outreach strategist who uses the power of narratives to build community and impact change on personal, familial, institutional, and societal levels. A Catskills native, Lacey lives in Rhinebeck with her husband, Antonio Delgado, the Lieutenant Governor of New York.

Michelle Stern is an Emmy award winning producer who started her career as an immersive theater-maker in the mid-1990's and expanded into event production in the early 2000’s. While known for her high level of expertise in non-traditional and experiential work in both the theater and event worlds, she also has extensive experience in more traditional events like fundraising galas, award shows, and conferences, and has produced countless live performances and presentations, as well as technology-driven performances and filmed works, and virtual events.

Lisa Wilf is a former attorney who has turned her film passion into programming film for the Winter Film Awards Festival in NYC for the past 4 years. Previously, she was a securities fraud attorney for Milberg Weiss LLP. As a child growing up in the Bronx and Rockland County, her family frequently vacationed in the Catskills.