As a dedicated community leader and firm believer in the value of education, Ivan Kaufman founded the North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in 2001 before transitioning the school to its permanent home in February 2007. The new, 11-acre sprawling campus was the first modern Orthodox secondary education school built on Long Island in more than 20 years.

Mr. Kaufman and a group of dedicated founding families led the fundraising effort to build the multi-million dollar, 118,000 square-foot facility, which features 38 classrooms, four science labs, an art studio, music conservatory, student lounges, student dining room, gymnasium, soccer field, basketball and tennis courts and outdoor terrace gardens. At the heart of the building, just off the two-story lobby, is a grand synagogue with a skylight and balcony where students gather daily for services. Today nearly 400 students from the North and South Shores of Long Island, the Five Boroughs, Westchester and Connecticut attend the yeshiva, where they learn and practice the values of the Jewish community as well as those of citizenship, caring, concern, leadership and friendship.

Mr. Kaufman also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of The Birthright Israel Foundation, a program that provides young Jewish adults the opportunity to travel to Israel at no cost. Since the year 2000, the program has provided free trips to more than 230,000 young adults, allowing them to connect with their roots, strengthen their identities as Jews and bond with their peers.

Mr. Kaufman has also served as a regional spokesman for Global ReLeaf, a program of the American Forestry Association that helps to preserve and restore trees in order to improve the environment. This position led to his appointment as delegate of the International Arid Lands Consortium, an organization that promotes research and training to assist in the management, development and restoration of the arid and semiarid regions of North America, the Middle East and elsewhere.