Bet Tzedek announced Friday that attorney Diego Cartagena was named president and CEO of the Los Angeles-based poverty law and advocacy organization.
Cartagena, whose appointment concludes a four-month nationwide search, will be the eighth person — and the first person of color — to oversee the organization in its 46-year history, according to the Bet Tzedek Board of Directors.
Cartagena has been with Bet Tzedek since 2012, initially serving as director of Pro Bono Programs and then as vice president, Legal Programs. The UCLA School of Law graduate has dedicated his legal career to public interest law, including an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at the Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice and leadership of the pro bono programs at The Alliance for Children’s Rights.
“We conducted a nationwide search that reached over 800 individuals to discover something that will come as no surprise to anyone who knows Diego: the best, next leader for Bet Tzedek was already an integral part of our organization,” said attorney Meryl Chae, chair of Bet Tzedek’s Board of Directors.
“A tireless force for good in our city and our world, Diego will be a terrific new leader for Bet Tzedek,” Chae said. “He brings a true passion to help those who need it most — and the skills required to get things done.”
Cartagena will manage Bet Tzedek’s 90-person staff and guide the work of the organization’s 1,600 volunteers and pro bono attorneys, who contribute 60,000 hours each year to Bet Tzedek clients.
“As an immigrant myself, I could not be prouder to lead an organization which is founded upon the Jewish value of welcoming the stranger and providing for the poor,” he said. “To me, Bet Tzedek’s core principle `Justice, justice you shall pursue’ means that the work of justice is not just the work of judges or lawyers: it is all of our collective responsibilities. It means standing with and working among the communities we serve, from Holocaust survivors whose dignity, health and well-being we help preserve to the abused abandoned and neglected immigrant children whose future we help to build.”
Cartagena said he was “deeply humbled to be trusted with this important role during a moment at which so much is at stake. Our city, our state, our country and our world face major challenges that have rarely been seen before. Working to tackle them as the head of an organization committed to forging the right path and firmly rooted in the Jewish culture, history and tradition of doing so is both an energizing challenge and a tremendous honor.”
Cartagena succeeds Jessie Kornberg, who will become the next president and CEO of the Skirball Cultural Center in July.
Bet Tzedek dates back to 1974, when a small group of lawyers, rabbis and community activists came together to assist aging, low-income residents who were being displaced from their homes as their neighborhoods gentrified. The group individually contributed $5 per month to rent a small storefront where, one night a week, they offered free legal assistance to the community.