Uri has served as Executive Director of the Slifka Center since 2018. He has overseen a significant increase in student engagement with Jewish life on campus, a major renovation of its 19,000 square foot building, a strengthening of organizational, staff, student, and community culture, a branding and communications overhaul, and more. In addition to running the day-to-day of the Center, he is also a key resource to the Yale administration and the community more broadly in combatting and educating about antisemitism and to proactively increase Jewish belonging at Yale. In December 2024, Hillel International awarded Uri the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence Award – its highest individual award – for remarkable passion and outstanding devotion to the Jewish campus community. Slifka has also won other movement-wide awards under Uri’s leadership, including the 2019 Campus Partnership Award and the 2024 Innovation Award in Dynamic Jewish Education.

Prior to coming to Yale, Uri served as the Executive Director of Queens College Hillel in the City University of New York. Highlights of that work include supporting the campus’ historic Bukharian and Orthodox communities while making Hillel a welcoming place for all students; completing a major renovation of the Hillel space, tripling the operating budget and quadrupling the size of the staff, and helping to restart the Hillel at City College. During his tenure, Queens College Hillel won Hillel International’s Outstanding Campus Award in 2016.

Prior to his most recent work as a Hillel Director, Uri held leadership positions with major fundraising responsibility at Schechter Manhattan and Hillel International, among others.

Uri has been studying, practicing, and teaching leadership for the last 30 years, and has spent the last 20+ years working for the Jewish community.

Outside his time at Slifka Center, Uri is an Eagle Scout and active Scout leader in his son’s Troop, is involved in his local synagogue, loves camping and the outdoors, and is a big Mets fan.