Limmud FSU International Foundation has confirmed the appointment of Natasha Chechik as the organization’s Executive Director, the Executive Committee announced this week. Natasha Chechik has been serving as Acting Executive Director for the past few months; she became a member of the Limmud FSU team in 2016 when she was appointed Director of Public Affairs and Communications, having previously worked intensively with Limmud FSU as a team member of an Israeli media strategy firm. “We are delighted to formalize Natasha as our key professional,” said Matthew Bronfman, Limmud FSU chairman. “She has carefully, and with immense dedication, steered the Limmud FSU ship over the past year, which has probably been one of the most challenging 12 months we have ever experienced.” As the pandemic lockdown made physical conferences impossible, Limmud FSU was quick to start providing digital e-learning opportunities on Jewish, general – and coronavirus – topics. “We have every confidence that as the world, cautiously and carefully, opens up again, and Limmud FSU can mount face-to-face gatherings of Jewish learning, Natasha will maximize our outreach to Russian-speaking Jews in the countries of the FSU, in North America, Europe and Australia, as well as in Israel,” said Aaron G. Frenkel, Limmud FSU president. Over the past month, Limmud FSU has mounted three in-person events, in Moscow, New York, and San Francisco, and is planning a series of conferences of Jewish learning in Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Australia and Canada later this year. Limmud FSU generally mounts peer-led, volunteer-based gatherings of Jewish learning that specifically reach out to Russian-speaking Jews around the world from Moscow to the US West Coast, and from Europe to Israel, and, since its creation by Chaim Chesler and Sandra F. Cahn over 15 years ago, has mounted more than 75 events that have impacted some 70,000 Russian-speaking Jews across the globe. Born in Moscow, Natasha Chechik made Aliyah in 1997. She holds a B.A in International relations and Journalism from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has worked in Israel and Germany in governmental affairs and media strategy in both commercial companies and government ministries. Natasha resides in Tel Aviv, and is fluent in Russian, Hebrew, English, and Spanish.