Board of Trustees
Events @ PSJC
Welcome to the PSJC Events Page! Here you can find a listing of all of the classes, religious services, social and special events that are coming up at PSJC.
Events @ PSJC
Welcome to the PSJC Events Page! Here you can find a listing of all of the classes, religious services, social and special events that are coming up at PSJC.
PSJC affirms its solidarity with Medinat Israel and its people. We pray for the well-being of those defending it and those who have been taken hostage. We are committed to helping ensure a secure and peaceful future for Israel and its neighbors.
Board of Trustees
Officers
Liz Wollman
Co-President
Liz Wollman and her family have been members of PSJC since 2003, and remain very happy to be part of such a vibrant and warm community. Liz has been involved with the PSJC Hevra Kadisha since shortly after its inception and its co-chair for the past decade. She has more recently gotten involved in Rodfei Tzedek and has rejoined the board after a previous stint in the Before Times. In her other life, she is a professor of music at Baruch College, CUNY, a mom to Pip and Paulina, and a wife to Andrew, all of whom show up at PSJC from time to time.
Martha Harrison
Co-President
I have found a Jewish home at PSJC since 2000, along with my husband Eric Fieldman, and our young-adult daughters, Zoe and Laila, who became bat mitzvah under Rabbi Carrie Carter’s guiding hand. We value the joy in Jewish learning and culture at PSJC, along with the sense of community among its members, and Rabbi Carter’s amazing spirit and dedication. Our family was honored to host a series of five wonderful Israeli “shinshinit” who shared their culture and boundless energy with PSJC and Jewish communities throughout Brooklyn. My professional background is in public health, adult learning, and content development. My career includes professional development and training in the fields of healthcare and education, as well as work in the human services sector. Currently, I create curricula for workplace seminars and manager training on well-being, mental health, and leadership skills. I am excited to be part of the PSJC Board and serve this vital community.
Stephen Gandel
Vice President
Steve and his wife, Jill, joined Park Slope Jewish Center when they moved to the neighborhood in 2005. They loved the warmth of the synagogue and the services from day one, and it has been their spiritual home since. They have had many simchas at PSJC, including two baby namings and two bat mitzvahs of Leigh and Caroline. Jill serves on PSJC's membership committee, and is a former member of the Hebrew school committee. Professionally, Steve is an award-winning financial journalist. He has worked at Time, Bloomberg, CBS News, and the New York Times. He is currently the US banking correspondent at the Financial Times. Stephen just completed a term as a trustee on the PSJC Board, where he has mostly recently taken on the task of recruiting and coordinating Shabbat greeters. (Greeting is great! Sign up!) He is honored to help to continue to make PSJC as special for other families as it has been for his own and assume greater responsibility on the Executive Committee.
Mona Schnitzler
Treasurer
My husband, Jonathan Hurwitz, and I have a long history at PSJC. We joined soon after we moved to Brooklyn in 1984. Our sons, Ben and Daniel, celebrated their bar mitzvahs here. I served as Financial Secretary the year Rabbi Carie was hired. I’ve also been on the Hebrew School Board and the Fundraising Committee. Professionally, I was an accountant and financial reporting director for 25 years. I changed careers 12 years ago and currently work as a writing tutor at The City College of New York’s Writing Center and Skadden Arps pre-law honors program.
Abby Ingber
Recording Secretary
My husband, Jeffrey Easton, and I joined PSJC more than 20 years ago when our daughters, Alex and Rachel (now 26 and 23), were very young, and we were looking for an egalitarian Jewish community that also reflected the tradition, warmth and Jewish spirit I was raised with. As background, I attended modern orthodox Jewish day schools and summer camps through high school, and my Jewish home life was filled with singing and spirituality -- with my father serving as a part-
time volunteer high holidays cantor and my mother working as a Jewish early childhood educator. As an adult, PSJC has been essential in helping me continue to lead an active and meaningful Jewish life. My children had wonderful Bat Mitzvahs at PSJC, and more recently I have become more active in PSJC and the wider Brooklyn Jewish community, singing in and designing/maintaining the website for Shir Chadash - the Brooklyn Jewish Community Chorus, writing for and performing in the PSJC Purimspiel, recording videos for high holiday services, serving on the Hannah Senesh Alumni Parent Steering Committee, and, in this pandemic year of mourning for my mom, regularly attending and actively participating in PSJC Wednesday morning minyan and Shabbat services (while sampling the services of six other congregations – wandering, but always coming home to PSJC!). Professionally, I have been a financial services lawyer for over 30 years, currently serving as Executive Director and Assistant General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase and Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of the Six Circles mutual funds. I look forward to the opportunity to serve on the PSJC Board and contribute to this wonderful community.
Jenny Peters
Financial Secretary
I stumbled into Park Slope Jewish Center twenty years ago while shul- and soul-searching with my then-fiancé, David Pollack. For him, PSJC provided a familiar reminder of all he had grown up with, and for me, having plenty of Jewish cultural knowledge but no formal education, it offered a welcoming and accessible entry point for all kinds of learning and observance. We have since marked nearly every life-cycle event in this wonderful community: we were married by Rabbi Carie in the sanctuary; we announced the names of our now teenage kids, Lailah and Judah, at Shabbat morning services; we have leaned on the congregation for support during shiva minyanim; and we have danced joyfully at family B’nai Mitzvah celebrations – including my own, as an adult. I am grateful now for the opportunity to return to the Executive Board and re-engage with the community after what feels like a very long
Covid absence. At my day job, I oversee finance and operations at the Cricket Island Foundation, which supports youth-led social justice activism. Prior to my tenure there, I worked in both the philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors on anti-poverty and youth leadership programs. Personally, causes related to food justice and sustainability are close to my heart. My B.A. is from Barnard College, and my graduate studies were in not-for-profit management at NYU. And for fun (!) I enjoy roller derby and getting up to the mountains with David, the two kids, and two dogs to hike and ski...
Trustees
Erik Lieber
Trustee
I have been involved with PSJC since the early 2000s, after stints as a youth director at Temple Shalom of Flatbush and East Midwood Jewish Center in the 80s and 90s. Interestingly enough, I first came to PSJC as a pest control expert. Since I was familiar with the synagogue, when it came time to send my kids to Hebrew school, PSJC was the natural place to go. All three of my kids attended Hebrew school at PSJC and all became bar/bat mitzvah under Rabbi Carter’s guidance. I have been an active leyner and leader of services for many years. I’ve also been an active participant in the annual Purim Spiel both as a performer as well as a writer. PSJC has been my Jewish home away from home. Professionally, I worked in the New York City public school system for 25 years, and currently work part-time for the Jewish Community Project (JCP) Downtown.
Roberta Moskowitz
Trustee
My husband Marty and I live in Windsor Terrace with our thirteen-year-old rescue dog, Sadie. We have been members of PSJC for over twenty-five years. The warmth, inclusivity, humane spirit and heartfelt davening were just some of the qualities that drew us to PSJC. I believe those qualities of PSJC had a profoundly wonderful influence on the values of our twenty-five-year-old son Jonathan, who grew up attending PSJC. Jon’s Bar Mitzvah fell on the tenth anniversary weekend of 9/11. Under the direction of Rabbi Carie, this occasion was appropriately joyous & respectfully solemn. Professionally, I taught first grade, early childhood science & third grade for over 30 years. My teaching years were incredibly gratifying. I currently work part-time as a homework teacher at P.S.154’s after-school program. My PSJC pre-retirement volunteer experiences include CHIPS’ Francis Residency, being part of the team organizing the Purim carnival in the early 2000s, organizing childcare during Kol Nidre service, working on the food and beverages at the annual auction, and volunteering at Masbia. As a retiree, I wanted to give back. Through Engage Brooklyn, in which I was an active member of the Leadership Committee, I volunteered at organizations offering food & support to those in need. I have been serving on the PAI Steering Committee since its inception in 2017. In addition to working with the group to plan various activities, my pet project has been “PSJC PAI PB&J Sandwiches and Hardboiled Eggs for CHIPS “. Since October 2021, we have donated over 3,000 PB&J sandwiches and over 2,000 hardboiled eggs to CHiPS, as well as toiletries and other much-needed food items. This past MLK Day Sunday, I had the opportunity to organize the PB&J sandwich making. Working with PSJCers, as well as Brooklyn Millennium high school students, was so much fun and so productive! I look forward to the opportunity to sit on the PSJC board and continue to give back to this wonderful community.
Lucy Snyder
Trustee
I have always thought of PSJC as my home. I was born into and grew up in this community, when my parents started bringing me here as a baby. I started Hebrew School in Kitah Aleph, had my own posse of next-generation PSJC kids seeking me out at Shabbat services by Kitah Vav, and was regularly being recruited to leyn Torah by Kitah Chet. I continued to be of service to the PSJC community by providing babysitting services during auction nights, and by calling community members during the isolating pandemic. As soon as I had the opportunity, I became a madricha for the Hebrew school and have continued teaching there for the past twelve years. Being a madricha was my first teaching position before I even realized I wanted to pursue a career in education. I am currently the Curriculum Coordinator of Mathematics at the Yeshivah of Flatbush. I now live in Kensington with my two adopted cats, April and Wednesday.
Greg Selig
Trustee
My wife, Sarah, and I, came to PSJC in 2014, as many Park Slope families do, seeking a path for our children’s Jewish education and finding a home for our spiritual life. Having grown up in what I refer to as a South Texas shtetl, where the synagogue was created to be the center of life for a mostly Ashkenazi immigrant community, PSJC feels very familiar. Both of our children continue to learn at PSJC (even beyond my son’s Bar Mitzvah), and we are so happy to grow our Jewish lives here. I work from home as a video editor with many broadcast television (and now streaming) credits. I enjoy using my skills, experiences, and capabilities to contribute to a better community for everyone.
Josh Rosenblum
Trustee
My wife, Michele Siegel, and I have been part of the PSJC community for more than 15 years. When each of us independently moved to Prospect Heights, we looked for a Jewish home that maintained the traditions we were raised with while embracing equality, diversity, and generosity. We've found that in PSJC, during Shabbat, Festivals, membership social events, and opportunities for Tikkun Olam and social involvement. Our son, Benjamin, now nine years old, has been part of the PSJC community since his bris. Tot Shabbat, Simchat Torah, High Holidays, and Hebrew School have all helped him develop his sense of Jewish identity. We're also grateful the shul provides opportunities for him to initiate and participate in community service. I grew up in the Conservative tradition near Los Angeles, was involved in Jewish leadership in high school and college, and studied Jewish History and Philosophy as an undergraduate and in graduate classes at JTS. I currently work as a software engineer.
Sarah Chinn
Trustee
I’ve been a member of PSJC, along with my partner Kris Franklin, since the early 1990s. Our twins, Gabriel and Lia, were born into this community and were b'nai mitzvah in 2015. I’ve been involved in the shul in a variety of ways: I served on the board once before in the mid-2000s and coordinated the late lamented annual Getaway. I was the editor of the weekly newsletter (before it went electronic!), and I’ve led several PAI Shared Wisdom sessions. In my everyday life, I’m a professor in the English department at Hunter College, CUNY, and we live in Clinton Hill with two cats and a substantial Pez collection.
Faye Penn
Trustee
Faye Penn is an executive coach with three decades of leadership in areas including media, tech, government and economic development. Her expertise spans communications, strategy, and public engagement, as well as product / program design and launches.
Most recently, as Executive Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, she led the City's effort to expand priority industries in NYC, including life sciences, technology, and the green economy. Concurrently, she served as "New York City's Official Career Guru" as Executive Director of Women.NYC, an initiative to advance gender equity in the innovation economy. Prior to NYCEDC, Faye worked in media, in positions at A&E Television and InStyle magazine. Faye has also served in top newsroom leadership roles at New York Magazine, the New York Post and the New York Observer. Along the way, she founded Brokelyn, a buzzy grassroots media enterprise she sold in 2016. She lives in Ditmas Park with Joel, Zeke, Sami and Ezra and also serves on the board of the Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville, NY.
Carrie Sadovnik
Trustee
I have been attending services at PSJC since 2000, after moving from Seattle with my then-boyfriend (now husband) Nir Sadovnik. I sought a Jewish home, having begun the conversion process in 1991 and converting conservative in 1995. PSJC was welcoming, diverse, and quirky. Check. Its ruach-filled services moved me spiritually. Check. Rabbi Carter's dvar torahs are intellectual with social justice, literary, and historical lenses. Check! From the yard to the social hall and our chevruta, PSJC is where I have found dear friends. Jackpot! PSJC has given us so much, and I am honored to be able to give back to the congregation by serving on the Board. I joined the PSJC COVID-19 Advisory Committee in 2020 and have intermittently volunteered with the Hebrew School, various committees, and programming over the years. This will be my first time serving on the Board. Professionally, I am the Director of Environmental Health and Safety and the Campus Sustainability Chair at CUNY Brooklyn College. I oversee related programs and advise leadership on emerging issues, most recently coordinating the COVID-19 response and reopening plans. Nir and I live with our two teens and dog in Kensington.
Randi Rosenstein Vacca
Trustee
My husband, Peter, and I were introduced to PSJC in 2019 when our daughter was five years old, and we were looking to begin her Jewish education. From the outset, we were impressed by PSJC's inclusive and welcoming philosophy. Our daughter is currently attending PSJC's Hebrew School, and she's looking forward to the day when her little brother will join. Prior to embarking on my legal career, which has included serving as Director of Legal Services for a non-profit organization and as an adjunct professor, I was an elementary school teacher. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to join the board and play a role in supporting this community.