Diana Rachnaev Named Executive Director of Queens Jewish Community Council

For Queens’ Bukharian Jewish community, the appointment of Diana Rachnaev as Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Community Council is more than a personnel change. It is a milestone, the Bukharian Jewish Link reported in August.

A daughter of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Rachnaev brings more than two decades of experience in human services, mental-health advocacy, government relations, and community outreach. She spent 12 years at Ohel, later served as community outreach coordinator for Assembly Member Nily Rozic, and in 2019 co-founded Yesodot with her siblings Daniel and Ilana to lower barriers around mental health, domestic violence, and special-needs support in immigrant communities.

Her civic résumé includes expanding the Kosher Summer Free Meals Program, helping organize a COVID-19 antibody-testing initiative at the Bukharian Jewish Community Center with state senators, and appointment by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards to Community Board 6, where she co-chairs the Aging/Health/Recovery Services Committee. In 2024 she was elected a Judicial Convention Delegate and named to the New York Jewish Week’s “36 to Watch.”

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as Executive Director of QJCC,” Rachnaev said, according to the Link. QJCC president Hon. Barry Grodenchik cited her nonprofit leadership and deep knowledge of Queens.

Rachnaev previously served on QJCC’s board. The organization is moving operations from its longtime home at Ezra Academy in Forest Hills to 69-69 Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills—a permanent site celebrated with a ribbon-cutting in 2023—after more than two decades of seeking a dedicated home.

When QJCC was founded in 1968, today’s large Bukharian community in Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens Hills, and surrounding neighborhoods had yet to take shape. Today, a daughter of that community leads the borough-wide Jewish social-service institution.

Sources: Bukharian Jewish Link. Image: Wasted Time R / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.