Erica Frankel

Erica Frankel has spent nearly two decades shaping the future of Jewish life — founding bold organizations, training hundreds of educators and rabbis, and building communities that meet people where they are.

By day, she is the Executive Director of Assembly, a national initiative reimagining how Jewish communities gather and grow. Before that, she spent years scaling the Jewish Learning Fellowship (JLF) into the largest educational program on college campuses, where more than 15,000 students discovered the power of Jewish text and tradition in community.

Across every chapter of her work, Erica has trained, mentored, and supported rabbis and spiritual entrepreneurs — by starting initiatives like the Fellowship for Rabbinic Entrepreneurs and through countless coaching relationships with a singular focus: helping leaders build the communities they’re called to serve. Most recently, she founded IYUN, which now connects thousands of adults around the world through the study of Torah and serves as a teacher-training platform for hundreds of Jewish community builders.

And yet, Erica’s deepest roots are local. She and her husband, Rabbi Dimitry Ekshtut, have lived in Harlem since 2009 and spent the last decade building Jewish life block by block. They’ve engaged thousands of neighbors, mentored dozens of grassroots organizers, and seeded a thriving Jewish ecosystem where culture, Torah, and community intersect.