CHARRY SERVICE: HAZAK SHABBAT

Please join us for HAZAK Shabbat on Saturday, May 21, in the Charry Sanctuary. Our speaker will be Al Schmidt, President and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, a major Philadelphia nonprofit that works to improve government and elections.

Al Schmidt joined the Committee of Seventy as President & CEO in January 2022 after serving ten years as City Commissioner of Philadelphia. The Committee of Seventy is a nonprofit and nonpartisan good government organization focused on strengthening democracy and combating political corruption. As City Commissioner, Al was one of three members on the bipartisan Board of Elections where he served as Vice Chairman. Since first being elected in November 2011, Al worked to modernize election operations, improve efficiency, and bring greater integrity to the election process.  Al is an advocate of open data initiatives and releasing previously unavailable election data to the public. He has also produced a number of election-related reports, including investigations that have exposed vulnerabilities in the election process and voting irregularities.

Al is a former senior analyst at the non-partisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and served as a policy analyst for the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Al holds a Ph.D. in history from Brandeis University and a B.A. in history from Allegheny College.