Who Is Amy Spitalnick? Profile of the JCPA CEO

Amy Spitalnick is the Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), the umbrella public-affairs arm representing more than 125 Jewish community-relations councils and national Jewish organizations across the United States. Since taking the role in 2023, she has become one of the most visible — and most contested — figures in progressive Jewish advocacy, positioning JCPA at the intersection of antisemitism policy, democracy work, and coalition politics on the American left.

Background and career

Before JCPA, Spitalnick served as executive director of Integrity First for America, the nonprofit that funded Sines v. Kessler, the landmark civil suit against the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. A federal jury in 2021 awarded plaintiffs more than $25 million against neo-Nazi and white-supremacist defendants, and the case became a template for using civil litigation to hold violent extremists financially accountable.

Earlier in her career, Spitalnick was communications director and senior policy adviser at J Street, the liberal Israel-advocacy organization; press secretary for the New York State Attorney General’s office under Eric Schneiderman; and a spokesperson for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration. She is a graduate of Tufts University.

Role at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs

JCPA, founded in 1944, historically coordinated the domestic public-policy agenda of the Jewish federation system. Under Spitalnick’s leadership the organization has re-launched as an independent 501(c)(3) and reoriented its programming around what it calls the “inextricable link” between Jewish safety and a pluralistic democracy — a framing that ties opposition to antisemitism to broader civil-rights, voting-rights, and anti-extremism work.

Under her tenure JCPA has:

• Launched a national Task Force on Antisemitism & Democracy co-chaired by former elected officials from both parties.
• Convened cross-communal coalitions with Black, Muslim, LGBTQ+, and immigrant-rights organizations.
• Testified before Congress on domestic extremism and hate-crime data collection.
• Issued public statements on federal legislation including the Antisemitism Awareness Act and Countering Antisemitism Act.

Public profile and media presence

Spitalnick is a frequent commentator on MSNBC, CNN, and PBS, and has written for outlets including The Atlantic, The Forward, Time, and The New York Times. She was named to the Forward 50 list of the most influential American Jews and has been recognized by the Anti-Defamation League and the Charles Bronfman Prize jury for her civil-rights work.

Controversy: the AOC–AIPAC exchange

In November 2024, following the U.S. presidential election, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly criticized AIPAC, calling it a “special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats.” The remark drew immediate condemnation from many Jewish organizations who described it as recycling classic antisemitic tropes about outsized Jewish political influence.

Spitalnick’s response on X — in which she partially agreed with Ocasio-Cortez’s criticism of AIPAC while declining to condemn the framing — ignited days of debate across Jewish media. Critics, including George Mason University law professor David E. Bernstein and Kiryas Joel Superintendent Joel Petlin, argued that the head of the JCPA should have used the moment to unequivocally reject the trope. Supporters countered that her post drew a legitimate policy distinction between critiquing a lobbying organization and traffic in antisemitism.

The Jewish Legal News covered the initial exchange in “Amy Spitalnick and JCPA Build Bridges with Left Wing Antisemitism.”

Debate over the JCPA’s direction

Spitalnick’s tenure has re-opened a long-running argument inside the Jewish organizational world about the proper scope of communal advocacy. Critics on the political right argue that her coalition partners — including figures such as Reverend Al Sharpton and progressive groups that have been critical of Israel — are ill-suited allies for a body claiming to speak for the mainstream Jewish community, particularly after the October 7, 2023 attacks. Supporters argue that broad multi-faith coalitions are the only durable answer to a domestic-extremism threat that reaches far beyond any single community.

Personal life

Spitalnick lives in New York City. Personal biographical details — including questions frequently searched online about her husband and family — are not publicly documented by Spitalnick herself, and The Jewish Legal News does not report unverified personal information.

Further reading

• Amy Spitalnick and JCPA Build Bridges with Left Wing Antisemitism
• Amy Spitalnick and Her Role in Shaping the Jewish Advocacy Landscape
• More coverage: Fighting Antisemitism
• More coverage: Jewish Organizations