Dr. Stephen Hazan Arnoff, who successfully expanded programing and grew the 14th Street Y in New York while executive director there before going on to become the first director of the Office of Culture, Community, and Society at Shalem College in Jerusalem, has been chosen to succeed Allan Finkelstein as president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Community Centers Association, the leadership organization for almost 350 JCCs, YM-YWHAs, and day and overnight camps throughout North America.

Hazan Arnoff, 45, was selected after a nationwide search and assumes his duties in February.

As director of Shalem College’s Office of Culture, Community and Society, Hazan Arnoff has been responsible for shaping the cultural life of the campus, as well as for creating both internal and external collaborations. At the 14th Street Y, where he became executive director in 2007, he launched a range of innovative programs including LABA: A Laboratory of Jewish Culture. He also served as a member of the senior leadership team at the Makor-Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y, also in New York.

Hazan Arnoff graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University and received his doctorate in Midrash and Scriptural Interpretation from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. A Wexner Graduate Fellow and a Mandel Jerusalem Fellow, Hazan Arnoff was also a Revson Fellow at JTS.

Prior to his Jewish professional career, Hazan Arnoff spent nearly a decade as a professional musician performing and recording solo and in bands. He has written extensively about art, religion, music and Jewish life, contributing chapters on Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan to books on these cultural icons, and also served as managing editor of Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture.