Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, Founder

Rabbi Schulweis is the founding chairman of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, an organization that identifies and offers grants to those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews threatened by the agents of Nazi savagery.

In 2004, after the revelation of the slaughter and unrest in Darfur, Sudan, he founded the Jewish World Watch, a synagogue-based organization dedicated to raising both awareness and funds to protest the first genocide of the 21st Century, and bring vital assistance to the victims of its unrest.

Rabbi Schulweis is the author of Ap proaches to the Philosophy of Religion, Evil and the Morality of God, or Those Who Can't Believe, Finding Each Other in Judaism, and In God's Mirror. An editor and contributor to a number of magazines, Rabbi Schulweis is the spiritual leader of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California.

Janice Kamenir-Reznik, Founding President

Janice retired from the active practice of law in 2002 to work full-time in the non-profit arena. Her most recent venture is Jewish World Watch, which she jointly founded with Rabbi Harold Schulweis to fight against the genocide in Darfur and against other global human rights abuses.  

Janice received her BA degree from UCLA (1973), and entered a double degree graduate program earning an MSW (USC, 1975) and a Masters of Jewish Communal Services (Hebrew Union College, 1975). After serving as the Director of the Commission on Soviet Jewry for the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, Janice attended law school, receiving her JD from UCLA in 1982. Janice practiced environmental real estate law for the firm of Reznik & Reznik, which eventually merged with the statewide firm of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler and Marmaro.

She also chaired the environmental practice group and remained a partner until her retirement from the active practice of law in 2003. During those years in practice, Janice was President of California Women Lawyers, the statewide women's bar, a founder and President of California Women's Law Center, a public interest organization advocating for the rights of women and girls, a trustee of the California State Bar's Trust Fund, and a trustee of the LA County Bar.

Currently, Janice serves as a County Commissioner, as a member of the LA County Child Support Advisory Board. In addition to the various legal related volunteer positions held by Janice over the years, she has served in a variety of Jewish community leadership roles. Among the Boards on which she has served are: Los Angeles Hebrew High School, Valley Beth Shalom (VBS), Los Angeles Hillel Council, UCLA Hillel, and the Jewish Federation Council. Janice is a graduate of the first Wexner Heritage Foundation Leadership Progam in Los Angeles and served as Chair of the Pluralism and Religious Diversity in Israel Committee of the Jewish Federation.  

Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug, Executive Director

Tzivia has a degree in Jewish Studies from UCLA and a law degree from Loyola Law School. She practiced law for several years before becoming the Western States Counsel for the Anti-Defamation League. She left the ADL after almost 7 years to serve as the Community Liaison on DreamWorks' first animated film, the Prince of Egypt. Prior to her role as JWW Executive Director, Tzivia served as the Senior Vice President for Public Affairs at the Jewish Federation, responsible for the work of the Jewish Community Relation's Committee.  

Naama Haviv, Assistant Director

Naama Haviv, who holds an MA/ABD in Comparative Genocide from Clark University, joined JWW's team in April 2007 as Projects Manager. At JWW Naama develops and implements youth initiatives, researches current world conflicts to assess the risk of genocide, and works with JWW's Funds Allocation committee to ensure the strength and quality of JWW-supported refugee relief projects.   Before joining the JWW team, Naama created and managed educational programs connecting students from the US to students in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Tajikistan and the West Bank for Relief International, and held research positions with the Institute for the Study of Genocide, the Middle East Media Research Institute and the American Anti-Slavery Group.

Mina Rush, Synagogue Resource Director

Mina graduated from UCLA and worked for several years in the entertainment industry before giving in to her passion for Jewish community service.   Since then she has worked in both a professional and volunteer capacity for several organizations serving the local Jewish community and Israel.   In addition, Mina spent the eleven years prior to joining Jewish World Watch in the field of Jewish Education. Mina and her husband Jordan are the proud parents of Tzvia, Atara, Harel and Penina. The Rush Family are active members of Bnai David Judea Congregation.

Ari Averbach, Synagogue Resource Coordinator

Ari Averbach joined JWW as its the Synagogue Resource Coordinator in December 2007.  He received his BA from New York University in Judaic Studies and Film Theory.  Prior to joining Jewish World Watch, he worked at a talent agency.  Ari works with 826LA to help students develop creative and expository writing skills, and is an active member of IKAR.

Jan Snider, Office Manager/Project Coordinator

Jan grew up in Malibu.   After living in Ohio for five years, she moved back with her husband, Doug to start Interconnect, a telecommunications company which they ran together for 25 years.   Jan is   a graduate of California Institute of the Arts.   Jan and Doug, along with their children Zach and Aleah are active members of Congregation Kol Tikvah where Jan has run the Purim carnival for the last 6 years.

Rachel Andres, Director of the Solar Cooker Project

Rachel Andres has been an independent consultant to non-profit organizations since 1997 working with community-based organizations, educational institutions, professional groups, and others on projects including curriculum development, conference planning, and leadership training. Recent clients have included the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Breed Street Shul Project, The Los Angeles-Tel Aviv Partnership, the Jewish Federation, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. She has a degree in Political Science from UCLA.