Yossi Gestetner, a public relations activist who promotes a positive image of Haredi Jews to the secular public, has announced that his nonprofit has closed. For now.

In a wide-ranging podcast interview with Hasidic singer Shmueli Ungar last month, Gestetner explained why he had shuttered his Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, or OJPAC, and how he was pivoting to work as a “business consultant.” 

Although OJPAC has not issued any public statements since December 2022, Gestetner had made no official announcement about its closure until now. “What happened in the last year and change is that at this point, we don't have money for operations,” Gestetner said, speaking on ShmueliCast, Ungar's Youtube channel.

Veering frequently between English and Yiddish, between bitter and playful, and between speaking about himself in the first and third person, Gestetner reflected on his career. When prompted by the host to reflect on any mistakes he has made, he noted, “One of the mistakes I made with OJPAC, I focused on the cause, not on the organization” and the administrative work necessary to support it.

For example, in 2022, when the New York Times published reports critical of the education in Hasidic boys’ yeshivas, Gestetner sprang into action to refute the views that Haredi Jews were poorly educated or reliant on government support. But, he says, he didn’t necessarily think in the long term.

“I didn't spend the energy right then to line up enough donors and say look, we need to have a certain amount of money because these things” — secular media reports viewed as portraying the community negatively — “will happen over and over,” Gestetner told Ungar.

He shared his disappointment that people in the community he was championing were, at times, so critical, and expressed surprise at how hard it was to fundraise for a cause he believes in so deeply. “I don't have to go and sit by another person and explain to that person why the Jewish people need it,” he said. “You're not doing me a personal favor when you give me the opportunity to take my time and my connections with media and government and my hours that God gifted me and sweat for you.”

The activist, who has also led the public relations company Axle PR, was once lauded for his political know-how by longtime political strategist Michael Caputo, who called him “one of the smartest public relations guys in New York City.” Gestetner reportedly helped Caputo avert a PR nightmare after his client was invited to be interviewed for “Yerushalayim TV” — a front for comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s production company.

Growing up in New York, Gestetner studied in Hasidic yeshivas. In between semesters, he studied English, thanks in part to an aunt who brought him English-language books from the Satmar girls’ school she taught at, he told Ungar. Perhaps more importantly, Gestetner said, “my mother always spoke English at home.”

After graduating from yeshiva, Gestetner passed his high school equivalency exam and enrolled at Touro University, where he said he earned a degree in business administration and marketing. By then in his 20s, he was already publishing opinion pieces in local newspapers.

In 2013, he founded OJPAC along with fellow activists Aron Spielman and Mayer Berger. The organization published reports and social media content attesting to Haredi communities’ financial wellbeing and other positive qualities to combat what they viewed as negative media reports and discriminatory legislation. Gestetner himself was often quoted in secular media outlets. He told Ungar that sometimes, when he felt he needed to combat “hate” against the community, “I sat for 12 hours by the computer” at a time. Looking back he lamented that it wasn’t a healthy way of working, and wished he could have delegated such tasks to others.

In recent years, Gestetner has become one of the public faces of New York’s Haredi communities. Shortly before the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he organized a meeting of Haredi media leaders with then-candidate Donald Trump. Later, in 2019, he became a spokesperson for the community after a brutal machete attack killed a Haredi rabbi and wounded four others at a Hanukkah party in Monsey. Before the 2022 Times report, Gestetner had been a key advocate arguing against state interference in private Haredi education, and in the wake of the report, he made more media appearances to defend the yeshivas.

Gestetner appeared on the podcast to discuss his new work as a business consultant, a move which he hopes will be a more rewarding path both personally and financially. Among his current clients in the Haredi community is the Monsey Fire District, according to documents obtained by Shtetl. Still, he expressed hope that OJPAC could become active again — if he can concentrate on the work of PR and doesn’t have to actively solicit contributions.

“If there are businesspeople and philanthropists who feel that we need this cause and they believe that OJPAC is the right brand, and they feel that Yossi Gestetner can be a good executive director, then send me an email,” he said, referring to himself once again in the third person, before sharing his work email address.