Executive Director of JHP and Lubavitch House at Penn
Rabbi Menachem Schmidt co-founded Jewish Heritage Programs in 1993 and is the guiding force behind its activities and expansion. In addition to JHP and all its student programs, under his direction, Jewish Heritage Programs has also become an umbrella group for the Jewish Business Network (JBN), Young Professionals Network (YPN), Old City Jewish Art Center (OCJAC).
Menachem was also instrumental in founding Philadelphia’s Jewish Relief Agency, which distributes food to more than a thousand impoverished families each month, as well as the Chabad on Campus International Foundation, where he serves as President. Menachem is a graduate of Syracuse University and gained his Rabbinic Ordination from Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch in Montreal in 1980, the same year he and his wife, Chava, founded Lubavitch House at Penn, where Menachem serves as Executive Director. Rabbi Schmidt is also a musician and he plays lead guitar in the Baal Shem Tov chasidic rock band.