Our Board
EXECUTIVE COMMITEE
Cynthia Greenberg, Board President, is very honored to be in her second term as President of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives. She first connected to Kolot through her work at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and quickly fell in love with Kolot’s welcoming, menschlikh community. She works as an organizational development consultant in the non-profit sector and has over 15 years of professional and leadership experience in the progressive Jewish world. She has served on the Boards of a number of other organizations including Circus Amok, JFREJ, The Shalom Center and, currently, Jewish Voice for Peace. Originally from California, she has lived in Brooklyn for the last 13 years and currently resides in Prospect Lefferts.
Phyllis Arnold, Board Vice President, is a lawyer. She has practiced for most of her career in the public sector, having worked for the City and State of New York. She teaches at St. Johns University Law School, runs a small non-profit dedicated to helping cities and states adopt and enforce green building and energy codes, and once in a while does actual legal work. She spends the rest of the time with her partner of 30 years and their 2 kids. And, of course, Lucky, and Smudge.
Eric Sloan, Treasurer is a corporate tax lawyer by day and lives in Park Slope with his wife, Dominique Bravo, their son, Sacha and their two daughters, Nola and Zoe.
Seth Borgos, Secretary, has served on the Kolot Chayeinu board in several capacities and is currently the board Secretary. He has lived in Ditmas Park since 1993 with his wife Gwen Cyrkiel and two children, Irina and Sam, who became b’nai mitzvah at Kolot. For the past decade Seth has worked for the Center for Community Change, a national organization that supports grassroots organizing in low-income communities. Prior to that he was a program officer of the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program, a project manager for economic development programs in the Midwest, and research director for ACORN. He is the co-author of This Mighty Dream, a pictorial history of social change movements in the United States.
Melanie Holcomb, Exec. Comm. Member-At-Large is also a member of the Education Committee. Melanie discovered Kolot in the dark and confusing days after Sept. 11, 2001. So comforted was she by Kolot's Erev Rosh Hoshanah service that she and her family joined later that year. She is a curator of Medieval Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she has organized several installations of Hebrew manuscripts. She, her husband and three daughters (ages 9. 14. and 16) live in the North Slope. During those rare moments of quiet and relative solitude, she takes pleasure in domestic pursuits--gardening, baking bread, knitting--and yoga.
BOARD
Jenny Aisenberg begins her first term with the Kolot board in fall 2011/5772. Jenny is a full-time Jewish education professional, now in her third year as Knowledge Development Manager with the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA). As an undergrad at Smith College, she was an active leader in the Jewish community on campus, serving on the Hillel board all 4 years as well as running the college's student-operated Kosher Kitchen, & co-chairing the 2nd annual NUJLS conference for North American LGBT Jewish student leadership in 1999. She received the Gemillut Chassidim Community Service Award upon graduation in 2003. Among the hats she wears at Kolot, Jenny is a former teacher in the children's learning program & also helps manage LOCALLY GROWN, the 20's & 30's group. She looks forward to learning and serving with the Kolot board.
Andrea Arzt lives in Windsor Terrace with her husband Walter Tegtmeier and son Zachary. She is a clinical social worker who has worked for over 30 years with individuals with disabilities and their families through both her agency and private practice work. For the past 9 years she has directed the counseling and clinical programs at the New York City-Southern New York Chapter of the National MS Society. Andrea has truly enjoyed becoming part of the vibrant Kolot Chayeinu community, and is the chair of the Education Committee, and co-chair of the Sustainable Synagogue Business Models project. This is her first term on the board and she is excited to serve Kolot in this new way.
Sally Charnow has served on Kolot Chayeinu's Board of Directors for four years. She is on the Membership Committee and enjoys weekly shabbat services, learning to chant Torah, and creating Jewish ritual. An associate professor of modern European history at Hofstra University, her current research focuses on the "Jewish awakening" in 1920s Paris. Her daughter Hannah is an assistant teacher in Kolot's learning program!
Eddy Ehrlich has been a regular at Kolot Shabbat services with his family for a decade. He is a fervent believer in flexidoxic Jewish practice that is accessible to all comers. He enjoys active Jewish holiday rituals especially Purim for its celebration of irreverence. Eddy has strong connections to Israel, served in the IDF, and is an advocate for an equitable 2-state solution. At work he helps people with disabilities access technology through non-standard methods. He lives and bakes challah in Prospect Heights with Yvonne and his daughters Ora and Yona.
Ellen Gruber Garvey is a professor of English at New Jersey City University in Jersey City. She is the author of The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture (Oxford UP, 1996) and the forthcoming Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance. She chairs Kolot’s Membership and Welcoming Committee, loves the discussion at Torah study, and usually bicycles to Kolot.
Margie Finee is a proud Brooklyn-American living in Ditmas Park and a Kolot member since 1998. She serves on the membership committee and actually likes helping with Kolot’s fundraising. She is the director and principal consultant of The Linchpin Campaign (TLC) whose goal is to expand the resources available to community organizing and social change efforts in the United States and internationally through project development, capacity building, coaching and training. Marjorie consults regularly with national organizing and foundation collaboratives and is featured in many workshops and conferences on social justice philanthropy and fundraising. She serves on the board of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. She has spearheaded major donor campaigns for Kolot and delivered winning fundraising pitches for several organizations. Marjorie believes fundraisers are the unsung heroes of social justice organizations….and progressive shuls.
Margaret Goodwin is the Finance Committee Coordinator at Kolot Chayeinu and is in her second year serving on its Board. She is originally from New Orleans and lives in Park Slope with lovely wife and her beautiful kitchen. She enjoys yoga, meditation and biking to Mid-town Manhattan for work.
Lisa Jakobsberg has served on the board for Kolot Chayeinu since 2009. She is acting board liaison with the Communications Committee, was co-chair of the B'nai Mitzvah volunteer program and has volunteered at many Kolot functions. In her day job, Lisa is Vice President of Marketing and Business Partnerships at the Food Bank For New York City. Prior to working at the Food Bank she worked in public relations where she led campaigns for food companies and trade associations. Lisa is also the proud mother of two children who have had their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs at Kolot Chayeinu.
Liz Schalet has been representing employees for more than 20 years regarding their workplace harassment, wage, overtime, contract, discrimination and pay-equity legal claims. Liz has been an active member of Kolot Chayeinu for 18 years; she previously coordinated a toddler Shabbat program, helped out with the membership committee and was on the Kolot Board from 1995-1997. She and her life partner, Andrea were proud and joyous parents this year at the Bat Mitzvah of their daughter, Maya and are thrilled that Jonah is thriving as part of Kolot’s Children’s Learning Program. Liz enjoys XC ski trips, NYC theater outings and all kinds of art exhibits.
Robert Usdin joined Kolot in ’02 and is serving his 5th year on the Board. Living in Park Slope with his wife and two incredibly active daughters (Adelaide doing ice dancing / Izzy being a busy 7 year old), Bob spends his days running a scenic construction company in Long Island City. He tries to bring his business perspective to the challenges facing Kolot. Besides all of the spiritual and religious reasons to join Kolot, Bob can attest that it’s a great place to meet you future spouse. He re-met Ruth Cohen (a work colleague from 20 years before) at Yom Kippur services and was married a few years later by Rabbi Lippmann with Lisa B. Siegel chanting the blessing. Between family, friends, work, and Kolot, Bob tries to get in as much time cycling as he can.
