EVENTS
Meet This Year’s Honorees
Michelle and Darren Black
Michelle Black is a dedicated leader in the Greater Boston Jewish community. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees at The Rashi School and Gann Academy where she is a strong champion for expanding the reach and impact of our local Jewish Day Schools. Michelle previously served on the board of Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), is an alumnus of CJP’s Acharai Leadership Development program and The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) National Young Leadership Cabinet. She is a past recipient of CJP’s Young Leadership and Circle of Excellence awards, recognizing her commitment and passion to Jewish communal service. Michelle currently co-chairs CJP’s Teen Initiative and recently co-founded TribeTalk, an organization that helps prepare teens for Jewish life on the college campus and navigate any antisemitism they may face. Michelle earned her BA from University of Pennsylvania and her MBA from Harvard Business School. Professionally, she worked as a change management consultant with a focus on non-profit management, leadership development, corporate strategy and organizational design. She now applies her business skills and experience to strengthen and support the local Jewish, non-profit communities.
Darren Black is a Managing Director at Summit Partners, a private equity firm where he focuses on health care investments. Darren currently serves on the board of directors for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, CJP, and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of New England. He has served as Campaign Chair for CJP and is a current co-chair of Gann Academy’s Permanence and Possibilities Campaign, leaning his time and expertise to building a strong future for Jewish day schools and the Greater Boston Jewish community at large. Darren earned his BA in government from Harvard College and his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In his free time, Darren is an avid athlete.
Darren and Michelle live in Newton, MA and are the proud parents of four Rashi Alumni: Evan ’16, Emily ’20, Scott ’20, and Alex ’22.
Clara Scheinmann ’04
Clara Scheinmann ’04 is the Director of Programs and Strategy for the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, launched by Robert Kraft in 2019. Clara works closely with the family to execute on the foundation’s mission – to win the hearts and minds of non-Jews and Jews through powerful positive messaging and partnerships, motivating and equipping them to be defenders of and upstanders for Jews and Israel. Previously, Clara held several key roles at MassChallenge, the global network for innovators who are working to solve massive challenges.
Most recently, she was the Director of Ecosystem Engagement and led the organization’s strategy and implementation for US expansion. During her tenure, she led major deals for the organization including negotiating rent-free office space for MassChallenge’s next Global Headquarters, securing a multi-million dollar commitment from the Commonwealth of MA, and $5M in major gifts from individuals. From 2013-2016, Clara served as the Social-Secretary to Israel’s Ambassadors to the United States Ron Dermer and Michael Oren, where as a trusted member of the Ambassador’s team, she oversaw and executed all official public events.
Clara is deeply involved in the local Boston and global Jewish communities where she has both completed several leadership development programs and co-chaired committees for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP). She is a first generation American, a dual French and American citizen, and speaks six languages including French, English, Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. As the daughter of an Ashkenazi father and a Sephardic mother, Clara has inherited a rich tradition and strong Jewish identity that motivates her to connect with others, hear their stories and develop solutions to ensure a strong future for the Jewish people.