NCSEJ Staff
Mark B. Levin
As Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of NCSEJ (former NCSJ) since 1992, Mark Levin is one of the organized Jewish community’s leading experts on national and international political and legislative issues.
In November 2008, Mr. Levin was the Soviet Jewry Freedom Award recipient at the Boston-based Russian Jewish Community Foundation's annual gala. In September 2008, Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko awarded him the Order of Merit medal in New York City. And, in June 2006, Mr. Levin was honored for 25 years of distinguished service with NCSEJ at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Levin has served three times as a Public Member of the U.S. Delegation to meetings of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE): at the October 2004 Human Dimensions Implementation
Meeting in Warsaw, Poland, the June 2003 Conference on Anti-Semitism in Vienna, Austria, and the November 1994 Review Meeting in Budapest, Hungary. In addition, Mr. Levin has represented NCSEJ at many other OSCE meetings and served as a Public Advisor for the U.S. Delegation to the OSCE's April 2004 Berlin Conference on Anti-Semitism.
Mr. Levin is a leader in the organized Jewish community effort to support financial and technical assistance to the former Soviet Union and has traveled extensively, representing NCSEJ and the Soviet Jewry advocacy movement. In October 1992, Mr. Levin was the Scholar-in-Residence for the UJA Young Leadership Chazak Mission to Russia and Israel. Mr. Levin made his first trip to Russia in 1982, leading a Congressional delegation that met with Soviet officials and Jewish activists. He organized the First International Parliamentary Spouses for Soviet Jews Conference in Washington, DC. Mr. Levin played an instrumental role in the creation of the Congressional Coalition for Soviet Jews – one of the largest Congressional caucuses ever formed.
In December 1987, as a member of the Summit Task Force, Mr. Levin was a key figure in organizing the Washington Mobilization on behalf of Soviet Jews which brought more than 250,000 people to the nation’s capital. In 2002, he again worked closely with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and other NCSEJ member agencies to organize the massive April 15 National Rally for Israel.
From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Levin served as Director of the NCSEJ’s Washington office. He has been a member of the organization’s professional staff since 1980. Prior to coming to NCSJ, he worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Mr. Levin is a graduate of the University of Maryland.
Lesley L. Weiss
Lesley Weiss is the Deputy Director of NCSEJ. She travels frequently to Eurasia and Eastern Europe, where she coordinates democracy initiatives, community education, and outreach efforts, and promotes partnerships between American Jewish communities and communities in the region. She monitors compliance by the governments of the region in the areas of free emigration and religious and cultural rights.
Ms. Weiss has extensive experience in program development and fundraising, community relations, legislative outreach, hate crimes training, combating anti-Semitism, and Holocaust education. She works closely with the governments and the Jewish communities in the region on the restitution and preservation of Jewish communal property.
She served in 2005 as a Public Advisor to the U.S. Delegation or represented NCSEJ at numerous OSCE Conferences on Anti-Semitism including in Cordoba, Spain; Bucharest, Romania; Warsaw, Poland; and Berlin Germany.
She also served as Co-Chair of the Working Group on Anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union at the 2013 Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism Conference in Jerusalem.
She currently serves as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)
In January 2013, President Obama appointed Ms. Weiss the Chair of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, having served as a Member of the Commission since 2011. She served as Chair until October 2017. She returned to the Commission in July 2022 when President Biden appointed her as a Member at the recommendation of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In April 2013, Ms. Weiss was a member of a U.S. Presidential Delegation to Poland for the 70th Anniversary Commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She was also a member of the U.S. Presidential Delegation to Poland for the opening of the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in 2014.
A daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Ms. Weiss accompanied her mother, Irene Weiss to the 70th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz in January 2015 and was a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum delegation to the 75th commemoration in 2020.
Ms. Weiss is a graduate of the Baltimore Institute for Jewish Communal Service (now the Darrell D. Friedman Institute). She received a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies from American University, a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland School Of Social Work, and a Master’s Degree in modern Jewish history from the Baltimore Hebrew University.
Ezra Hess is a Program Associate for NCSEJ. In this position, he researches and synthesizes current events for weekly briefings and country reports, processes donor information and donations, manages daily operations of the office, and oversees NCSEJ’s online presence.
Ezra completed his undergraduate education at Indiana University – Bloomington in 2021. He majored in Liberal Studies and minored in International Studies, Political Science, and History. Previous professional experience has included working for a Jewish non-profit in Los Angeles and interning for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Ezra is passionate about international security and diplomacy, writing essays on the liberal international order, American foreign policy, and analyses of various conflicts.
Ezra is an avid sports fan, rooting for all things Hoosier related, Anaheim sports teams for baseball and hockey, and Los Angeles sports teams for basketball and football.
Ezra Hess
NCSEJ's Ukraine representative on the ground. Ilya is a journalist and blogger based in Kyiv, and travels throughout Ukraine, reporting directly on the well-being of Jewish communities. He maintains contact with Ukraine's government and the diplomatic community, particular the U.S. and Israeli embassies. Ilya Bezruchko has worked at Kyiv's Jewish News One Channel. He is a member of the Union of Progressive Judaism in Ukraine's coordinating council and a leader in the Netzer Youth Movement in Ukraine.