* Efraim Karsh was appointed director of the Middle East Forum on June 7. Daniel Pipes, the forum’s founder and director from the start, assumed the new position of president, a full-time job.
* James Besser, long-time Washington correspondent for the New York Jewish Week, will retire on June 21.
* The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg will be moving his blog over to Tablet Magazine. He will remain a national correspondent at The Atlantic.
* Jerusalem Post editor David Horovitz is stepping down. He will be replaced by the paper’s managing editor, Steve Linde.
* Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block became director of leadership initiatives and rabbi-in-residence at the Jewish Funds for Justice’s Washington D.C. office. In Boston, Elana Kogan was appointed JSFJ’s director of organizing.
* Sharon Temkin Portnoy joined the Forward Association, publisher of the Forward, as director of development. Portnoy joins the Forward from Hadassah.
* Michael Jankelowitz, the longtime spokesman in Israel for the Jewish Agency for Israel, is retiring July 1.
* Some new jobs at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which is undergoing a staff reorganization: Jerry Herman will be the organization’s first chief operating officer. Other new positions include a chief kehilla officer (Kathy Elias), who will oversee the relationship between staff and the individual congregations; a chief learning officer, who will oversee Conservative Jewish education; a chief resource development and marketing officer (Barry Mael); and a chief outreach officer (Richard Moline), who will focus on younger Jews, particularly those in member congregations and minyans.
