Antisemitism Panel

Adam Maslia: Director of SD Coalition against Antisemitism - MODERATOR

Sara Brown

Sara E. Brown, Ph.D. is a nonprofit executive, educator, and global expert on genocide studies. Holding the first Ph.D. in comparative genocide studies from Clark University’s Strassler Center, she has led Holocaust and human rights education initiatives, including at USC Shoah Foundation and Chhange.

With extensive experience in advocacy and research, Sara has worked in Israel, Rwanda, and Tanzanian refugee camps. She has taught at San Diego State, Kean, and Worcester State universities and is widely published.

She is the author of Gender and the Genocide in Rwanda and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook on Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide, and has consulted for the UN, Aegis Trust, and Common Circles.

Karen Parry

Karen Parry is the Executive Director of Hillel of San Diego- a multi-campus Hillel that supports Jewish life at UCSD, SDSU, Cal State San Marcos, and USD. Within her tenure, Hillel of San Diego has closed an $18M capital campaign, opened the Beverly and Joseph Glickman Hillel Center adjacent to UCSD, doubled the amount of students served, doubled the staff size, and exponentially expanded Hillel's resources and services provided. This year, Hillel of San Diego was awarded the Philip H. and Susan Rudd Cohen Outstanding Campus Award for their achievements in empowering student leadership and making the most significant growth and impact engaging Jewish students.

Karen has nearly two decades of community building experience. Previously, she served as the Development Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. As a San Diego native, Karen was the Education Director at Temple Adat Shalom and got her start in Jewish engagement as the Teen Director, JCC Maccabi Games Delegation Head, and Assistant Camp Jaycee Director at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, Jacobs Family Campus. Karen is also an alum of the Wexner Field Fellowship, JCCA Merrin Teen Professionals Fellowship, and served as part of URJ's Community of Practice in Congregational Education. When not supporting Jewish life, you can find Karen playing with her daughters, husband, and their beagle.... preferably at the beach.

Nicole Bernstein

Nicole Bernstein is a former high-tech executive who left Qualcomm in 2012 to focus on Jewish nonprofit work, political advocacy, and grassroots organizing. A granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and the first American-born child of an Israeli immigrant family, she spent a decade in Tel Aviv as a startup executive, earning recognition as one of Israel’s “Top 10 Best Women-Led Companies” in 2007.
She has served as the San Diego Executive Director of StandWithUs and AIPAC’s San Diego Director. Now based in Carmel Valley, she sits on the Del Mar Union School District Equity Advisory Committee.
In 2021, Nicole co-founded PeerK12, a grassroots organization unapologetically combating institutionalized Jew-hatred in K-12 education by mobilizing communities for legal protections, policy reform, and curriculum transparency. Visit www.peerk12.org to learn more.

Hillel SD Student Representative: Jacob Rendler

Jacob Rendler is a fourth-year student at UC San Diego, majoring in Human Biology on the medical track. Born to two Israeli parents and raised in San Diego, he has always been an active member of the local Jewish community through his Synagogue Chabad of Poway and attending the San Diego Jewish Academy.
As a current leader of Tritons for Israel, a student activist group dedicated to fostering dialogue, understanding, and support for Israel on campus, Jacob has been involved in advocacy for the Jewish and Israeli community and combating antisemitism and anti-Zionism at UCSD.
His deep connection to both his Israeli-American heritage and the broader Jewish community continues to inspire his work, fighting Jew-hatred and cultivating respect for the Jewish and Israeli community on campus and around the world.