Elana Kahn 

Elana G. Kahn is Executive Director of the Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes within the Illinois Department of Human Rights. As part of a career dedicated to building bridges and moving through healthy conflict, she has experience in various modalities of conflict resolution, facilitation, and strategic communication.

She previously served as Associate Dean for Outreach at Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and Editor of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle. 

At the JCRC, she launched Hours Against Hate, a local effort to connect people across lines of race, religion, culture, class to dismantle bigotry and promote respect. She cultivated new interfaith and intergroup alliances, including a Black-Jewish Alliance, Muslim-Jewish Partnership, Latino-Jewish Alliance, and a Presbyterian-Jewish Dialogue. 

She currently serves as Board Chair of Tikkun B’Yachad: Repairing Together, a youth program focused on intercommunal relations and previously served as board chair of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee and the American Jewish Press Association. Other board service includes the following: Lux Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology; Community Coalition for Quality Policing; and We are Many: United Against Hate.

She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Emerson College and a master’s degree from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership.