Libby Lenkinski is an influential American-Israeli strategist, activist, and nonprofit administrator. Raised in the United States, where she attended Jewish day schools and participated in Zionist youth movements, she later moved to Israel before returning to the U.S. to work on progressive coalition building and political philanthropy.
Lenkinski served for over a decade in senior leadership roles at the New Israel Fund (NIF), including as Vice President for Public Engagement, where she directed philanthropic support toward civil rights groups, anti-occupation organizations, and Arab-Jewish shared society initiatives. She founded the non-profit Albi (meaning “my heart” in Arabic), a cultural platform designed to use storytelling and film to address political conflict, and served as an executive producer for the documentary “Israelism,” which examines changing attitudes toward Israel among young Jewish Americans. She also developed “Israel Therapy,” an educational framework designed to guide American Jewish community members through critical discussions on Israeli state policies and human rights.
Beyond administrative work, Lenkinski has participated in direct action and non-violent protests alongside Palestinian and Israeli activists in West Bank villages such as Bil’in and Nabi Saleh. Through her writing and public speaking, she advocates for an end to the occupation, calling for a “shared society” model in which all residents between the river and the sea possess full civil rights, security, and democratic representation.
She is also one of the initiators and signatories of the 2025 public statement, “Global Jewish Call on the UN and World Leaders to Sanction Israel.”