Elana Kahn
Executive Director, Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes, Department of Human Rights
2025
Elana G. Kahn is Executive Director of the Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes, which is housed within the Illinois Department of Human Rights. As part of a career dedicated to community building, interfaith and intergroup relations, and public communication, 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 Milwaukee’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and Editor of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
At the JCRC, she worked to build bridges and increase empathy across lines of difference. She cultivated new interfaith and intergroup alliances, including a Black-Jewish Alliance, Muslim-Jewish Partnership, Latino-Jewish Alliance, and a Presbyterian-Jewish Dialogue. She has served on a variety of interfaith boards and coalitions.
Awards include the 2021 Frank Zeidler Award from the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee; a Partners in Change Award from the League of United Latin American Citizens (2019); Tikkun Ha-Ir’s Uniting for Change Award (2017); and multiple awards for her writing.
She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Emerson College and a master’s degree from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership.
At the Summit
My network of professionals working on countering hate in all its forms grew exponentially after attending Eradicate Hate in 2021. The myriad voices represented at Eradicate Hate, from big tech companies to academic researchers to those with lived experience, reinforced to me the importance of cross-cutting and collaborative approaches to counter hate and its devastating impacts on society. I’ve been fortunate to sustain and build those networks with many of those I met at Eradicate Hate in 2021.
