Kim Bistrong has joined J.’s staff as development director.
Bistrong has a long history in Bay Area Jewish nonprofits. Before coming to J., she served as development director at the American Jewish Committee’s Northern California regional office, and, prior to that, at the Jewish Film Institute, which presents the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival each year.
“What made me so excited for this position at J. is that the J. captures all different kinds of Jewish conversations,” she said. “As independent journalism is facing such incredible challenges, it’s a place where I just feel safe to get news.”
Bistrong has also worked with major arts organizations in her hometown of New York City, including the Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Jewish Museum.
“We’re so glad at J. to have Kim on the team,” said J.’s CEO Jo Ellen Green Kaiser. “She’ll really bring a lot to J. and we’re excited for the community to meet her.”
While she’s a thorough New Yorker and a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts (the original “Fame” school), she made aliyah and lived in Israel for 10 years. She’s been in the Bay Area since 2014 and, she said, learned everything she needed to know about the region from J. when she first arrived.
“J. introduced me to the entire community and its diversity of voices, and provided me with what I needed to know to navigate my new surroundings,” she said. “I feel blessed to be able to give back to J. in my new capacity.”
Besides working in the Jewish community, her passions are her daughter, who just graduated from high school, and playing old-time Appalachian mountain music on her banjo.