Abba Poliakoff elected president of Baltimore Jewish Council; Dr. Arthur Abramson steps down; Howard Libit takes over as executive director of BJC

Major changes came to the Baltimore Jewish Council at its annual meeting held on June 8, 2016.  

The meeting was held at the Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion congregation in Northwest Baltimore with approximately 150 people in attendance. At the meeting, long time executive director, Dr. Arthur Abramson, was honored as he stepped down from the post he held for the past 26 years as executive director. Governor Larry Hogan attended the meeting to honor Dr. Abramson and present him with a formal commendation.

At the meeting, Abba David Poliakoff, a prominent business lawyer and member of the community, was elected as President of the Council. He succeeds Lainy LeBow-Sachs, who had presided over the Council over the past two years. Mr. Poliakoff has been on the Executive Committee of the BJC for the past six years, most recently as First Vice President. He was also Chairman of the Board of the Maryland Israel Development Center.  Mr. Poliakoff, a member of Gordon Feinblatt LLC, was appointed by Governor Hogan as co-chair of the Regulatory Reform Commission for Maryland. 

The Council had previously announced that it had selected Howard Libit as the new executive director following a nationwide search chaired by Mr. Poliakoff and staffed by the BJC executive committee and community members. Prior to his appointment as executive director, Mr. Libit was the director of strategic planning and policy and chief of public affairs for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and before that one of the principals of Center Maryland, an online news magazine. Mr. Libit had also worked at the Baltimore Sun for 15 years, and in his final position as assistant managing editor for news oversaw the newspaper’s local, state, national, foreign, business and investigative coverage.

The other members elected the Executive Committee of the BJC are: Yehuda Neuberger, First Vice President; Rabbi Andrew Busch (Baltimore Hebrew Congregation), Second Vice President; Elizabeth Green, Treasurer; Ben Rosenberg, Secretary; Marjorie Manne, Assistant Treasurer; and Judith Tortora, Assistant Secretary.  Lainy Lebow-Sachs will remain on the Executive Committee as the immediate past president, and Howard Libit occupies the executive director's seat.

The BJC Annual Meeting was chaired by Ms. Lebow-Sachs and Ron Shapiro, a former president of the Council. A number of past presidents attended and spoke in honor of Dr. Abramson.