Our Senior Staff
Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEODaniel S. Mariaschin is the CEO of B’nai B’rith International. As the organization’s top executive officer, he directs and supervises B’nai B’rith programs, activities and staff around the world.
Mr. Mariaschin also serves as Director of B'nai B'rith's International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy. In this position, he is the spokesman for B'nai B'rith, interpreting its policies to a variety of audiences, including the U.S. Congress, world leaders, global diplomats and the media, with responsibility for coordinating the organization’s programs and policies on issues of concern to the Jewish community. In the United States and abroad, Mr. Mariaschin has met with scores of heads of state, prime ministers, foreign ministers, opposition leaders, religious leaders and influential members of the media, to advance human rights and to help protect the rights of Jewish communities worldwide as well as to promote better relations with the State of Israel. Mr. Mariaschin has served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the 2003 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference on anti-Semitism in Vienna and as a public advisor to the U.S. delegation at its 2004 conference in Berlin, the 2005 conference in Cordoba, Spain, the 2007 meeting in Bucharest, Romania and as a speaker at the 2018 meeting in Rome. He participated in negotiations that achieved the transfer of Torah scrolls from the Lithuanian government to Israel for use there and in diaspora Jewish communities. He was a member of the International Advisory Committee of CEANA, the Argentinean commission studying that country's relations with the Nazi regime, and served on the Commission on Property Restitution in Slovakia and as a member of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania. Since 2006, Mr. Mariaschin has led negotiations with countries on the restitution of Holocaust-era assets on behalf of the World Jewish Restitution Organization. Mr. Mariaschin was a member of the United States delegation to the 2000 Stockholm International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance, Education and Research; the B'nai B'rith delegation to the State Department’s 1998 Holocaust Assets Conference; and has initiated programs on Holocaust Education with the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science. In recognition of his work in Central and Eastern Europe, Mr. Mariaschin was awarded the Cultural Pluralism Award by the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. He has also been awarded state decorations from the presidents of Latvia and Lithuania, and the Golden Bough decoration from the Foreign Ministry of Bulgaria. In 2018, Mariaschin received the King Areus Award for leadership in cultural diplomacy from the Municipality of Sparta, the Greek-Israeli Cooperation Institute and B’nai B’rith’s Philon Lodge in Athens. The international Jewish periodical The Algemeiner selected him for inclusion on its “100 list” for his positive impact on Jewish life, in 2014. Mr. Mariaschin has spent nearly all of his professional life working on behalf of Jewish organizations, beginning in 1973 as Community Relations Associate with the Jewish Community Council of Boston. Two years later he was named director of the New England office of the American Zionist Federation and Zionist House in Boston. In 1977, Mr. Mariaschin joined the Anti‑Defamation League of B'nai B'rith as director of its Middle East Affairs Department. From 1979 to 1986, he served as assistant to ADL's national director, the late Nathan Perlmutter, and as director of its National Leadership division, responsible for ADL's nationwide program of leadership development. He then became director of the Political Affairs Department of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), where he supervised political action activities and grassroots organization programs. Prior to joining B'nai B'rith, Mr. Mariaschin served as director of communications and principal spokesman for former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig, Jr. during his 1988-89 presidential campaign. He also worked as a radio announcer and news commentator. Mr. Mariaschin has written numerous articles and reviews on anti-Semitism, foreign affairs and national security issues for such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, The Hill, FoxNews.com, The Jerusalem Post, JNS, The Times of Israel and The Algemeiner. He also appears as a foreign affairs analyst on television and radio programs. He has lectured on foreign and defense affairs at the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute, and the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and at other military installations around the country. Since 2017, Mr. Mariaschin has hosted the B’nai B’rith Podcast, featuring meaningful discussions on today’s most pressing topics, including tackling rising anti-Semitism, the state of Jewish communities, the dire shortage of housing for low-income seniors, author talks and even Jews in baseball. In 2020, programming expanded to include on-camera discussions and webinars. A noted lecturer who speaks nationally and internationally, Mr. Mariaschin delivered the distinguished Gandel Oration in Melbourne, Australia in 2016. In 2017, he addressed a special meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at Israel’s Knesset convened in honor of the centenary of the Balfour Declaration. Raised in Swanzey, New Hampshire, Mr. Mariaschin obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of New Hampshire and his master’s degree in Contemporary Jewish Studies from Brandeis University. He received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of New Hampshire and has also been honored with the American Jewish Communal Leadership Award from Brandeis University. Mark D. Olshan, Associate Executive Vice PresidentMark D. Olshan, Ph.D., is associate executive vice president of B'nai B'rith International and director of the BBI Center for Senior Services. As associate executive vice president, he manages daily administrative functions. As director of the Center for Senior Services, Olshan develops, manages, and executes B'nai B'rith's affordable housing programs.
Olshan has been with B'nai B'rith since 1983. He first served as the director of the Senior Citizens Housing program, which he helped to expand from 12 buildings to more than 40 properties, located in over 25 communities throughout the country. He holds a doctorate from the University of South Dakota, a master of arts degree from the University of California-Northridge, and a bachelor of arts degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Rhonda Love, Vice President, ProgrammingRhonda Love is program director of B'nai B'rith International and serves as staff liaison for the Center for Community Action and the Center for Jewish Identity. Love brings community service programming and Jewish identity activities to communities throughout the United States and the world.
She is responsible for the administration of the B'nai B'rith Disaster Relief Fund, which provides assistance to victims of natural and manmade disasters, and the Communities in Crisis project, which distributes medicines throughout Latin America. Love has worked for B'nai B'rith since 1977, serving in several capacities, including associate executive vice president of former District One, which provides programming to B'nai B'rith groups in New York and New England. Love received the B'nai B'rith Julius Bisno Award for Professional Excellence in 2002. She earned her undergraduate degree in political science from Queens College-C.U.N.Y. in 1977, and her master of arts degree in public administration from Baruch College. She works at the B'nai B'rith office in New York City. |
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