NEW YORK – The Orthodox Union (OU), the nation’s oldest and largest umbrella organization for the North American Orthodox Jewish community, has named Rabbi Ari Rockoff its first director of strategic partnerships.
In this role, Rockoff will be responsible for managing the OU’s portfolio of major funding partners, including foundations, federations, corporations and major Jewish organizations. He will be working with all OU departments and reaching out to a broad spectrum of community partners. He will work closely with senior OU management and lay leadership to create strategies for short and long-term development initiatives, and to raise funding for programs consistent with the OU’s strategic communal and partnership objectives.
Rockoff joins the OU’s institutional advancement department after spending five years as OU-NCSY’s director of leadership development, where he built a well-regarded professional talent system designed to maximize NCSY’s human capital resources through a focus on the acquisition of talent; training, mentoring and leadership development.
“Rabbi Rockoff brings a commanding knowledge of the Jewish communal world, along with an encyclopedic awareness of key strategic players and potential partners,” said Orthodox Union Executive Vice President Allen Fagin. “Ari will be a key player to identify opportunities for collaborative initiatives and to build long-term strategic relationships that will enable the OU to take the next leap in support for our work around the world.”
Prior to joining the OU, Rockoff spent more than a decade at Yeshiva University, where he was on the founding team of the Center for the Jewish Future and the lead designer of ChampionsGate, a leadership conference that brought together hundreds of Jewish lay leaders and professionals from around the country.
Rockoff is a graduate of Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business and received his rabbinical ordination from RIETS, a master’s degree in education from the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, and a master’s of business administration degree from Baruch College, where his studies focused on organizational behavior.
He resides in West Hempstead with his wife, Deborah, and their five children.