Abby Leibman, who as president and CEO of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger presided over the organization’s significant growth and expanded its national policy footprint, will step down in mid-2027 after 15 years, the organization shared exclusively with eJewishPhilanthropy.

Leibman said she is leaving the organization in “a really strong place,” as it prepares to search for her successor.

Leibman told eJP that her departure is timed around both personal and organizational milestones. “I have a milestone birthday coming up in 2027… I’ll be 70, and I firmly believe in the idea of the rotation and transition of leadership in the nonprofit sector, so 15 years felt like a very good investment of my time and energy,” she said. She added that the organization’s current position makes it an appropriate moment for transition: “Moving on and transitioning leadership at a time when the organization is really at a great strength moment… feels like a good spot.”

The search process will take place over the coming year, with a successor expected to be named in spring 2027 and her final day set for June 30, 2027, Leibman said. 

She first joined Mazon in 2011, coming from a background in legal advocacy and nonprofit leadership in California — co-founding the California Women’s Law Center, directing legal programs at Public Counsel, and consulting for Jewish organizations including Valley Beth Shalom synagogue and the Jewish Federation Los Angeles. She said her understanding of what a Jewish anti-hunger organization should be evolved substantially during her tenure.

Leibman has served as CEO of Mazon for more than a third of its existence.

Early on, she said, the organization’s framework was primarily charitable giving. Under her leadership, MAZON has significantly expanded its national policy presence, including what Leibman described as a “strong, vibrant presence in Washington, D.C., which we didn’t have when I got here.” She also pointed to organizational growth, saying, “Our budget has more than doubled since I’ve been here,” and “the number of staff we have is more than double what it was.”

That shift, she said, has helped reposition toward a more explicitly advocacy-driven institution grounded in Jewish ethical language. “Mazon was always about being a voice to change the way things are for people who are struggling with hunger… it was always about ensuring that there are policies, laws, approaches being made by those in power,” she said.

Leibman is stepping down at a moment she described as uniquely consequential for anti-hunger policy. “The drastic changes, the gutting of the nutrition and safety net in this country mean that there is a greater awareness… of persistent hunger in America,” she said, calling recent federal policy shifts “unprecedented in this country.”

Specifically, she departs at a moment of acute pressure on Jewish philanthropic infrastructure designed to combat hunger. The Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law on July 4, is projected to cut $184 billion from SNAP through 2034 — the largest cut to the program in its history — while shifting significant new costs onto states. 

Those cuts have already strained Jewish communal infrastructure in ways that have tested the limits of what philanthropy can absorb. Late last year, when SNAP benefits lapsed during the government shutdown, Jewish philanthropy struggled to absorb the surge in need, even temporarily, with the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty surging food to its more than 200 network pantries across New York City, at a cost of roughly $500,000 in private funds for a single week. Just this week, the UJA-Federation of New York announced a $5 million commitment to 17 local nonprofits to help individuals remain eligible for SNAP benefits. 

Leibman said Mazon’s response going forward will continue to focus on lobbying and advocacy, including efforts to translate Jewish values into legislative proposals. One of her final goals in the role, she said, is to create “model legislation that would really truly reflect Jewish values in the way in which we respond to hunger in the United States,” adding that the goal is to define “what the future of SNAP should look like in this country.”