Meet Manashe Khaimov

Manashe was born in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a city along the Silk Road, where his ancestors had lived for over 2,000 years, which makes his Jewish identity simultaneously Bukharian, Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-speaking. As a little boy in Samarkand, Manashe learned from his parents and great grandparents the importance of “acts of Chesed,” or giving back to the Jewish community.

Manashe’s Hillel journey began at Baruch College, where he served as the president of the Hillel. He focused his time on building cross campus community by organizing multi-campus, city wide educational and social justice events. “This Hillel experience immediately exposed me to the diversity of the Jewish community, and I was amazed by the many facets of Jewish life represented on CUNY campuses.”

For the past six years Manashe worked for Jewish Child Care Associations’ Bukharian Teen Lounge in various roles, beginning with an entry level marketing and engagement internship. In his last role, as the director of the program, he oversaw all the operations of the program as well as developed and ran leadership training seminars for the next generation of Jewish leaders.

Now, as the director of community engagement and development at Queens College Hillel, Manashe focuses on building meaningful relationships with students, community members, and individuals, working to introduce Bukharian, Mizrahi and Sephardic communities to the work that Queens College Hillel does, as well as the work that Hillel International does around the world. 

“Meeting various people and lay-leaders who care about their communities and the people around them made me believe that creating meaningful experiences does not go in vain, and that enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel can happen organically.”

A former recipient of New York Jewish Week‘s “36 Under 36” award, Manashe is an alumnus of the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship for International Jewish Leaders.