Jay Ruderman

Jay Seth Ruderman (born 16 March, 1966) is an American activist and philanthropist. He is the President of the Ruderman Family Foundation, which focuses on the inclusion of people with disabilities and on the education of Israeli leaders regarding the American Jewish community. The Foundation maintains offices in Israel and Boston. He is married to Israeli-American Shira Menashe Ruderman. They live in Greater Boston and have four children.

Jay Ruderman was born on March 16, 1966. He is the oldest of three siblings and attended public schools in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. He received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, where he served as president of the student body in 1986-87. He earned his JD from Boston University School of Law in 1993.

Ruderman began his career as Assistant District Attorney in Essex County, Massachusetts. He later worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), first as Deputy Director of the New England office and then as Leadership Director of the Jerusalem office. He served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as Liaison with the Jewish Diaspora. He has been President of the Ruderman Family Foundation since 2008.

Ruderman built the Ruderman Family Foundation from a local foundation serving the Boston Jewish community to one with an international focus. His leadership seeks to change the priorities of society and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities in their communities^[1].

The philanthropic strategy of the Foundation is to go narrow and deep. It focuses on a limited number of issues and works with the media to raise awareness of those issues in society.

The Foundation maintains major partnerships with the Government of Israel (GOI) and many national Jewish organizations in the U.S. and Israel. Key nonprofit and denominational partners include the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), Chabad Lubavitch, and The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ).

Signature programs of the Foundation include the Ruderman Prize in Inclusion, which recognizes Jewish organizations around the world that serve as examplars of disability inclusion. Twenty Ruderman Prizes have been awarded since 2012.

An additional signature program is the Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion, which has been given annually since 2013 to an individual for outstanding accomplishment in the field of disability inclusion. In 2013 the award was given to Michael Stein, co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability. In 2014 it was given to Ari Ne’eman, President and co-founder of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

The Foundation brought delegations of members of Israel’s Knesset to the United States to expose them to the diversity of the U.S. Jewish community in 2011, 2012, and 2014.

The Foundation created the ADVANCE Conference series in 2011, 2012, and 2013 to educate the Jewish funding community about the issue of disability inclusion. As a result of those meetings the Disability Peer Network was founded at the Jewish Funders Network by the Foundation and others.

Jay Ruderman has authored many opinion pieces on the issues of philanthropy, inclusion of people with disabilities and U.S. Jewry-Israel relations. In a recent Huffington Post piece, Jay asked “When Will Disability Slurs End?” after a recent spate of derogatory terms were used in the public sphere. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-ruderman/when-will-disability-slur_b_6593458.html) After the Boston Marathon bombing, Jay looked at those who were injured and became a person with a disability in an instant. (http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/disability-a-lifelong-marathon/) After Congress passed the ABLE Act, Jay co-authored an op-ed in The Hill with Rep. Gregg Harper (R- Miss.) about what the next steps are in order to level the playing field for people with disabilities. (http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/227866-congress-ready-willing-and-able)

In his piece Oceans that Divide, Jay discusses the widening gap between how Israeli leaders view the U.S. Jewish community and how U.S. Jewry views Israel and how important a strong relationship between the two is critical to Israel’s survival. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-ruderman/oceans-that-divide_b_6224760.html) Recently, Jay authored an op-ed about what billionaires and philanthropists owe the Jewish community. (http://www.jta.org/2015/03/05/news-opinion/opinion/op-ed-what-billionaires-owe-the-jewish-community) Finally, Jay is one of a small group of foundation presidents who are active on Twitter. Jay discussed the reasons he engages on social media in a GrantCraft piece. (http://www.grantcraft.org/blog/the-value-added-of-engagement)

Jay Ruderman has been interviewed and quoted in many articles and different publications. In this Bloomberg Businessweek article, Jay is quoted discussing the potential cutting of U.S. aid to Israel. (http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-08-05/its-not-just-critics-of-israel-who-want-to-cut-u-dot-s-dot-aid) In this wide ranging interview with Jewish News Service (JNS), Jay discusses the state of inclusion in the Jewish community, philanthropy and the relationship between U.S. Jewry and Israeli leaders. (http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/11/13/lets-build-a-more-inclusive-community-jay-rudermans-call-to-action#.VGTO6cmWwfM=) Jay Ruderman, his wife Shira and his sister Sharon sat down with The Jewish Journal to discuss the roots of the foundation, their view on philanthropy and how the foundation is helping to transform the Jewish community. (http://boston.forward.com/articles/185903/family-foundation-has-large-global-impact/)

• Jewish Funders Network
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Board of Directors and Executive Committee

• 2015 Visionary Leadership Award from the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)
• 2014 Lewis H. Millender Community of Excellence Award from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP)