Since 2008, Benjamin Shinewald has served as the National Executive Director and General Counsel for the Canadian Jewish Congress. For the previous three years, Benjamin served as a Senior Analyst in the Privy Council Office, where he advised two Prime Ministers and two Cabinets on economic policy. Prior to this, Benjamin practiced corporate and securities law at Torys LLP. His earlier employment experiences include serving as a law clerk to Chief Justice Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel; working for Hon. Martin Lee, chair of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong; serving in the Permanent Delegation of Canada to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris; and working for the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Club of the National Hockey League. Benjamin is a member in good standing of both the Law Society of Upper Canada and the New York State Bar Association.

In 2007, Benjamin was awarded an Action Canada Fellowship and named “one of Canada’s best and brightest emerging leaders.” In 2009, the European Union recognized him as a “young, promising leader” and selected him for the European Union Visitors Programme. In 2010, after only one year at Canadian Jewish Congress, Benjamin was awarded a Nahum Goldmann Fellowship in recognition of being a part of “a new generation of Jewish communal leadership.”

Benjamin earned a Juris Doctor in Law from the University of Toronto, where he also served as the president of the Students’ Law Society and was a fellow at Massey College; a Master’s in International Relations from the London School of Economics, where he was a Fellow at Goodenough College; and a B.A. (First Class Honours) from the University of Manitoba, where he also participated in a one-year exchange at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is fluent in English, French and Hebrew and has been published in leading newspapers including the Globe and Mail.

Benjamin is active in the community, serving on a variety of charitable boards. He lives with his wife and daughter in Toronto.