Neta Meltzer has been named the Jewish Community Relations Bureau | American Jewish Committee (JCRB|AJC) executive director, having served as interim executive director for 10 months.
Meltzer will also be the Bert Berkley Chair for Community Relations.
“After conducting an extensive national search, our board is highly confident that Neta’s steadfast leadership, balanced approach and unique background serve as the optimal mix of talents needed at this time to provide stewardship as JCRB|AJC enters its next chapter,” said Barry Kaseff, JCRB|AJC board president, in an email to community members.
Meltzer had previously served as JCRB|AJC’s community and government relations director, starting with the organization in November of 2023. Her time and work at JCRB|AJC, as well as her leadership and achievements as interim executive director, inspired confidence in the board’s decision to promote her.
“This moment is perhaps one as challenging as our Kansas City Jewish community has seen,” Kaseff said. “Building upon her relationships with local Jewish leaders, and with a renewed focus on Jewish community engagement and relationship-building with interfaith and intergroup communities, Neta will continue to lead her staff and collaborate with the board as she has already done so aptly.”
Meltzer was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and grew up in the Kansas City Jewish community. Three generations of her family are at the Jewish Community Campus regularly. Her mother, Edna Meltzer, is the Hebrew Department chair at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, and her daughter, Mira, is a student at the Child Development Center.
“This is the community that I grew up in,” she told The Chronicle in 2023. “This is a community that my daughter is going to grow up in, so to be able to do this kind of work here on the local level is really personal and really meaningful to me.”