Dr. John Ruskay has served in senior positions of leadership in the North American Jewish community for over 40 years. In each position, he has focused on seizing the opportunity to strengthen and renew Jewish life in the most open, accepting context in which Jews have ever lived. He served as Executive Vice President of UJA-Federation (1999 to 2014), Education Director of the 92nd Street Y (1979 to 1985), and Vice Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary (1985 to 1993). He earned his PhD in Political Science from Columbia University.

In 2016, President Obama appointed Dr. Ruskay to a two-year term as a Commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Dr. Ruskay is EVP Emeritus at UJA Federation, a Senior Fellow at the Jerusalem-based Jewish Policy Planning Institute, a Special Advisor to the Israel Policy Forum, and a Mentor in the Mandel Foundation Leadership Program. Dr. Ruskay has been an activist for over fifty years, including as a founder of the New York Havurah, Breira, the Abraham Joshua Heschel School, and the Coalition on the Environment in Jewish Life (COJIL). He also served for over a decade as Treasurer of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE).

Dr. Ruskay writes and lectures widely, and has received numerous honors including honorary degrees from Hebrew Union College (HUC), Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), Yeshiva University (YU) and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC). Dr. Ruskay lives in New York with his wife Robin Bernstein. Together they have five children and nine grandchildren.