The Social Justice Committee presents Criminal Justice Shabbat, featuring guest speaker, Zachary Katznelson.  

Zachary has been a key figure in the Independent Rikers Commission, serving as it's Executive Director. Sometimes called the Lippman Commission (after its chair Jonathan Lippman the former Chief Judge of NYS), its main thrust is to help NYC close Rikers and improve the functioning of the criminal justice system (including the treatment of the incarcerated) in NYC. Zachary is also co-chair of the NYC Jewish Coalition for Criminal Justice Reform. 

Zachary has two dozen years of experience achieving change at Rikers and other jails and prisons throughout the United States. He has represented people on death row with the Equal Justice Initiative, men in Guantanamo Bay with the British charity Reprieve, and women convicted of killing their abusers with the California Habeas Project. He helped found and formerly co-chaired Congregation Beth Elohim's (Brooklyn, New York) racial justice team, which uses faith-based organizing to reform the criminal system. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Isabel Burton and their three sons.