Born | Argentina; moved to the United States at age 12 |
Today | Dean, Maimonides Jewish Leadership Institute (from August 2026) |
Education | BA, Yeshiva University; PhD, New York University |
Expertise | Sociology of American Jews, Sephardic and Mizrahi communities, Jewish identity and leadership |
Speaks to | Educators, communal leaders, students, and general audiences |
Website | |
Dr. Mijal Bitton was born in Argentina to a family with roots in Syria and Morocco, and moved to the United States at age 12. She describes herself as a Latina Jew of Middle Eastern descent. She earned her BA at Yeshiva University and her doctorate at New York University, where her ethnographic research focused on the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn and how Sephardic Jews build community in America.
As a visiting researcher at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, she directed Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the United States: Identities, Experiences, and Communities, the first national study of its kind, commissioned by JIMENA and released in 2025. The study found that about one in ten American Jews identifies as Sephardic or Mizrahi and examined four communities: Syrian Jews in Brooklyn, Persian Jews in Los Angeles, Bukharian Jews in Queens, and Latin Sephardic Jews in South Florida.
She co-founded the Downtown Minyan in New York City in 2016 and serves as its Rosh Kehilla. She has been a scholar in residence at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, an inaugural Maimonides Fund Scholar in Residence, and a Sacks Scholar, and in August 2026 became Dean of the Maimonides Jewish Leadership Institute. She co-hosts the Wondering Jews podcast, writes the weekly Substack newsletter Committed, and was named to the New York Jewish Week's 36 Under 36 in 2018 and the Algemeiner's 2025 list of people positively influencing Jewish life.
A leading voice in contemporary Sephardic studies in America.
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History
Speaking Topics
What Dr. Bitton talks about
1. Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in America Today
Key findings from the first national study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the United States.
2. Why Data and Representation Matter
How better research helps schools and communities understand and serve every Jewish student.
3. Where Sephardic Jews Fit in Conversations About Diversity
How Sephardic and Mizrahi experiences complicate common categories of identity.
4. The Syrian Jewish Community of Brooklyn
What one close knit community teaches about Jewish life in America.
5. The State of American Jewry
Trends in Jewish identity, engagement, and community today.
Select Talks
Selected talks and appearances
2026 | JIMENA NYC convening: keynote (planned, November) |
2026 | JIMENA Sephardic Leaders Fellowship, New York cohort: Sephardic demographics today (online, February) |
2025 | Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, Minneapolis: keynote, Annual Event |
2025 | Congregation Beth Yeshurun, Houston: keynote, Yom Limmud 2025 (February); Beth David Synagogue, Toronto: Goldfarb and Scheim Lecture, Jewish Peoplehood Today (May) |
2024 | The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia: State of American Jewry (livestream) |
2024 | Unpacked: launched the Wondering Jews podcast as cohost with Noam Weissman (January) |
2023 | Jewish Funders Network, What Gives? podcast: Translating Sephardic and Mizrahi Stories in America (September) |
2021 to 2022 | Hunter College, CUNY: Robert Seltzer Lunch Lecture Series, What Can the New York Syrian Community Teach Us About Sephardim in America? |
2020 | NYU School of Law, Jewish Law Students Association: Lunch and Learn, Jewish Perspectives on Abortion (February) |
2017 | JOFA Conference: New Models of Women's Leadership in the Syrian Jewish Community (January) |
These are a selection of Dr. Bitton’s talks. Dr. Bitton has given many more, at universities, law schools, synagogues, museums, federations, and national conferences across the United States and Canada, plus her own podcast.
Publications and Media
Read, watch, and listen
Report
Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the United States: Identities, Experiences, and Communities
The first national study of Sephardic and Mizrahi American Jews, directed by Bitton at NYU Wagner and commissioned by JIMENA, 2025. Read about the study
Podcast
Who Are Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the United States?
Wondering Jews episode from Unpacked discussing the national study, 2025. Listen on Unpacked
Podcast
Mijal Bitton on What It Means to Be a Jew Today
Interview on AJC's People of the Pod, 2024. Listen on AJC
Article
JIMENA Shares Findings From First National Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi American Jews
eJewishPhilanthropy coverage of the study's release, 2025. Read on eJewishPhilanthropy
Affiliations
Organizations
- Maimonides Jewish Leadership Institute, Maimonides Fund
- The Downtown Minyan, New York City (co-founder)
- NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (visiting researcher)
- Shalom Hartman Institute of North America (former scholar in residence and research fellow)
- Rabbi Sacks Legacy (Sacks Scholar)
- Wexner Graduate Fellowship (alumna)
Book Dr. Bitton
Bring this speaker to your audience
To invite Dr. Mijal Bitton to your school, university, congregation, or organization, use the Book Speaker button above or email info@jimena.org.