David Cygielman is the Founder and CEO of Moishe House. Since creating Moishe House in 2006, David has pioneered the growth from one Moishe House to more than 35 Moishe Houses in 14 countries, serving more than 5,000 participants a month. Earlier this year, David was honored as a new member of the Santa Barbara Hall of Fame for his work in community leadership. In 1997, while still in high school, David created and ran, Feed the Need, a community based homeless feeding organization that was recognized by newspapers, radio programs as well as the nationally syndicated Roseanne talk show on CBS. For his work with Feed the Need, David received the Giant in the Community Award from the San Francisco Giants and Fox TV and was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Black Women's League of Oakland in 1999. While in college, David served as the President of Hillel and member of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity where he was honored with the Richard Levy Distinguished Student Award in Southern California and the Gittelson Medallion, the highest award for community excellence on the international level. During college, David also taught at Congregation Bnai Brith where he was nationally recognized by NATE as one of the top 13 teachers in the USA.
Following his graduation in 2003 from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he graduated with honors in Business/Economics, David continued his community involvement by sitting on the Board of Directors for the Santa Barbara Nonprofit Support Center, Hillel, Jewish Film World, Congregation Bnai Brith, the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara and the Professional Leaders Project. David is in the second year of his Avi Chai Fellowship and recently received the JCSA Young Leadership Award.
David has been a member of ROI since 2007. He was the Director of the Forest Foundation where he worked with young Jews between ages 16-30 who were interested in creating Jewish community and improving the social condition of the world.
