Meet Jewish Atlanta's 40 Under 40

Jewish Atlanta has no shortage of young, successful and engaged people, so when it came time to choose this year’s 40 Under 40 — our first such list since 2014 — we had a difficult time limiting ourselves to that number out of upward of 80 nominees.

Under different circumstances, we would have been proud to include the 40 who just missed the cut in place of the actual 40 on this list. That’s how strong the nominees were.

We looked for members of the community who had demonstrated professional success, leadership, volunteer work and Jewish involvement. Ultimately, we went for an overall feeling that they make Jewish Atlanta a better place.

The resulting list is made up of 20 women and 20 men. Six are in their 20s, while 34 are in their 30s. About half of them work in some capacity in the Jewish community, and all are active in at least one Jewish organization.

Five are repeat members of the 40 Under 40 from 2014, but we left off some obvious choices to repeat, such as the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival’s Russell Gottschalk, American Jewish Committee’s Dov Wilker and Jewish Educational Loan Fund’s Jenna Shulman, to highlight others they nominated.

Our 2017 40 Under 40 includes a rapper, a U.S. Marine, an international trade commissioner, a tequila baron, a camp director, an audiologist and two people working to bring equality to Atlanta’s farm-to-table movement.

Our list does not include any congregational rabbis or rebbetzins, but not because Atlanta lacks worthy under-40 people in those roles. As we did in 2014, we decided their total commitment to and all-consuming involvement in the community put them on a different playing field from their peers, but we intend to highlight them in the near future.

As an under-40 member of Jewish Atlanta myself, I feel this list highlights the bright future we have ahead and some of the young leaders lighting the way.

— David R. Cohen

Click on the names to read about the members of the 2017 40 Under 40.

Amanda Abrams, 37 – Chief programming and innovation officer, Marcus JCC

Robby Astrove, 38 – Natural resource manager, DeKalb County

Sivan Mazal Ben-Moshe, 35 – Assistant professor of medicine, internal medicine and geriatrics department, Emory University School of Medicine

Greg Bluestein, 35 – Political reporter, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nathan Brodsky, 26 – PJ Library and engagement associate, Jewish Federation

Maddie Cook, 27 – ‎International trade commissioner, Consulate General of Canada

Reuben “Prodezra Beats” Formey, 35 – Rapper

Elana Frank, 37 – Executive director and founder, Jewish Fertility Foundation

Leah Fuhr, 34 – Activist

Mark Goldfeder, 31 – Senior lecturer, Emory University School of Law; Spruill Family senior fellow, Center for the Study of Law and Religion; director, Restoring Religious Freedom: Education, Outreach and Good Citizenship

Nathaniel Goldman, 29 – CPA, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Becky Herring, 30 – Associate director, InterfaithFamily/Atlanta

Corby Herschman, 27 – Director of development, Girls Inc. of Greater Atlanta

Adam Hirsch, 35 – Managing partner and creative director, Goza Tequila

Joshua Jarmin, 33 – Founder, Blueprint Fitness

Jeremy Katz, 29 – Archives director, Breman Museum

Whitney Kweskin, 32 – Immigration lawyer, New American Pathways

Eliana Leader, 31 – Retreat center director, Ramah Darom

Gabrielle Leon, 32 – Program associate, Schusterman Foundation

Michelle Krebs Levy, 37 – CEO, The Sixth Point

Lindy Miller, 38 – Associate director, Deloitte Global

Alyza Berman Milrad, 37 – Psychotherapist and founder, The Berman Center