"Leadership and the Pursuit of Justice" featuring Sheila Katz & Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

Sheila Katz is the CEO of National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), a Jewish feminist civil rights organization that has been working for equity and justice for women, children, and families for 129 years. Since becoming CEO, Sheila has led the organization to more than double the number of NCJW advocates to over 210,000 strong working collectively to ensure that the rights of women, children, and families are protected, translated into public policy, and upheld in our courts. Through meaningful education, strategic advocacy, and supporting the 50+ local NCJW sections in direct service, Sheila works to empower Jewish women and allies to engage in work that impacts those at the margins of society while centering the most impacted through partnerships and coalitions.

Under Sheila’s leadership, NCJW has responded to threats to abortion access, voting rights, childcare access, equal pay, and other issues of equity through protest, advocacy and new campaigns making it clear where Jewish women and allies stand on the most important issues of the day. Sheila spearheaded the creation of Jews for Abortion Access, and the launch of “Rabbis for Repro,” a network of more than 2,000 Jewish clergy teaching and preaching about reproductive justice and Judaism.

Before coming to NCJW, Sheila led student engagement and leadership at Hillel International, the largest Jewish on-campus community in the world. In her 12 years at Hillel, she founded programs to expand student participation in Jewish and civic life including “Ask Big Questions,” an award-winning national initiative to guide diverse students in meaningful conversations, and MitzVote, Hillel’s successful non-partisan civic engagement campaign.

Sheila holds an M.S. in teaching from Pace University and B.A. in politics from Ithaca College. She is a proud alumna of the Wexner Foundation Field Fellowship and Teach for America. Sheila was named as one of the top 10 faith influencers in 2021 by Religion News Service, as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world in 2020 by the Jerusalem Post and one of 2020’s faith leaders to watch by the Center for American Progress. She has also been featured in the New York Times, Oprah Magazine, the Washington Post, Haaretz and more. She sits on the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University.