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.
Board of Trustees
Officers
Trustees
Rachel Levine
Co-President
I live in Ditmas Park with my husband, Andrew Ceresney, and our two children, Ethan (20) and Jonah (17). We have been members of PSJC for over 20 years. Ethan is currently a junior at Tulane University, and Jonah is completing his senior year at Abraham Heschel High School. Celebrating our sons' bar mitzvahs at PSJC has been one of the high points of being part of the PSJC community. Currently, I am the Chief Operating Officer/Deputy Executive Director for Nazareth Housing, a not-for-profit that focuses on housing, homelessness prevention, and financial mobility for underserved New Yorkers. I have served on the PSCJ executive committee previously and am currently a trustee. I look forward to using my professional skills to support Rabbi Carter, the staff, and the incredible PSJC community.
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.
Liz Wollman
Vice 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.
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...
Lise Engber
Trustee
I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and spent my early to mid twenties in Seattle where I met my husband, Ben. I headed back east in my late twenties to finish up college in Boston where I eventually married Ben, birthed my twins (Miriam and Lily), then moved to NYC. We joined PSJC when our twins entered 1st grade and have been members for the past 9 years, with our youngest, Shoshanna, currently in Hebrew School. After getting a Landscape Design certificate from NYBG in 2018 I started my own landscape design/build company and have been happily improving green space in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, NJ, and the Catskills.
Stephen Gandel
Trustee
My wife Jill and I joined Park Slope Jewish Center when we moved to the neighborhood in 2005. We loved the warmth of the synagogue and the services from day one, and it has been our spiritual home since. We have had many mitzvahs at PSJC, including two baby namings, of Leigh and Caroline, one bat mitzvah, and another one in the next year. My family and I are enthusiastic Family Torah groupies, as well as runners-up in this past year's Rabbi Carrie Carter trivia contest. My wife also serves on the board of the Hebrew school. Professionally, I am an editor at the New York Times, and you can often find me on the weekend, when not attending services, coaching either flag football or softball in the park. I am honored to help to continue to make PSJC as special for other families as it has been for ours.
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.
Sara 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.
Jeremy Lechtzin
Trustee
I grew up in the Detroit area and moved to NYC after college, living in Brooklyn since the late ‘90s. My wife Amy Klein and I joined PSJC in 2011, with our three kids in various stages as current or graduated Hebrew School / Gesher students, and past and future b’nai mitzvah. A few years after we joined PSJC, we moved to Spain for two years – our son turned 13 while abroad and got to have bar mitzvah ceremonies both at Madrid’s Masorti congregation and PSJC on our return! I wear two hats professionally, as an urban historian, and a technology lawyer. I’m currently writing a book about the buildings, geography, and real estate development of 19th-century Brooklyn. When not writing, I advise several software start-ups as general counsel. I also serve as a Vice President on the board of the non-profit Brooklyn Heights Association and chair its Landmarks Preservation committee.
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 Vacca-Rosenstein
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.