Our Staff

Margo Pernick is Executive Director of The Jewish Fund in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.  With assets of over $64 million and an annual grantmaking budget of approximately $3 million, Ms. Pernick works in partnership with a 36 member board of directors to set the direction and grantmaking strategy for supporting non-profit organizations in the health and human service fields in the metropolitan Detroit area.

Prior to beginning her service with The Jewish Fund in 2008, Ms. Pernick was a program officer at the Kresge Foundation in Troy, Michigan, serving on the health and human service teams for three years.  In the sixteen years prior to her Kresge employment, Ms. Pernick worked for the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit. There she developed and managed programs in the areas of early childhood education, special needs inclusion, cultural arts and Jewish education, marketing and fundraising.  She served for ten years as the assistant executive director for the JCC during that time period.

Earlier in her professional career, Ms. Pernick held positions in child welfare agencies in Detroit in the areas of foster care, adoption and child abuse prevention.  She also served as program director for Hillel at The University of Michigan. She earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan and Bachelor of Social Work degree from Wayne State University.

Ms. Pernick serves as a trustee of the Council of Michigan Foundations.  Her prior board membership includes the Detroit College Promise, Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit and Temple Kol Ami.  She is married and the mother of three daughters and is proud to be a Detroiter.

Laura Charnas is the Coordinator of The The Jewish Fund Teen Board. The Teen Board is an initiative, seeking to develop teens as “philanthropists” and engage them in hands-on grant-making which supports the mission of The Jewish Fund.

Ms. Charnas has been in the field of education for the past 20 years. She has previously taught Religious School and Secular Studies in the Detroit area. She has experience working with elementary through college aged students. 

Ms. Charnas holds a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and Education and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University. She and her husband Craig are the proud parents of two daughters.

Kristin Moskovitz joined The Jewish Fund as Grants Management Coordinator in September 2017. Ms. Moskovitz is the primary point of contact for applicants and grantees in the grant request and management process and is happy to assist with any questions or concerns.

Prior to joining The Jewish Fund staff, Ms. Moskovitz spent 15 years at the College for Creative Studies, serving as Director of Financial Aid for 13 years. Previous to CCS, Ms. Moskovitz worked as an Administrative Assistant for the Michigan Political Leadership Program in Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy & Social Research.

Ms. Moskovitz holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Relations from Michigan State University. She and her husband Avi have two daughters.

Rabbi Ari Witkin is the Director of Leadership Development at the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit. A graduate of Goucher College, Ari also holds a Masters in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, and rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where he was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. Raised in Minneapolis, he has lived and worked in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Uganda, and Jerusalem.

At Federation Ari combines his love of Jewish tradition and community. He is passionate about building diverse leadership pipelines that represent the full spectrum of Jewish life. The great joy of his job is supporting Metro Detroiters leadership in the work of building and strengthening our community. In addition to his role at Federation, he currently serves as the part-time rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Bay City. He and his wife Liz Traison live in Huntington Woods with their sons Hadar and Raviv and three backyard chickens.