Our Board

CO-PRESIDENT

Autumn Leonard (she/they) inherited a love of equality from her parents who braved laws against interracial marriage and got legally hitched in 1960. Her love of storytelling began when she was eight years old and accidentally stumbled into a stage debut at the Edinburgh Fringe. That combination of justice and story has infused her work ever since. 

Autumn has been leading racial and social justice workshops since 2001. A mother of two, she believes avidly in the importance of play in education, that liberation begins in our bodies, and that you're never too young or too old to start talking and taking action about race! You can find Autumn infusing playfulness into her anti-oppression curriculum with Liberation Spaces, doing handstands whenever she needs a new perspective on a problem or leading workshops for parents and kids about race, using yoga and mindfulness via BodyGetFree.

A former chair of the Race Task Force at Kolot Chayeinu and previous Kolot K'tanim early childhood teacher, Autumn is an inaugural member of the Jewish Women of Color Resilience Circle, an Elder member of the Jew of Color Caucus at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and a founding member of the Black Jewish Liberation Collective. 

Autumn is a RYT 500 yoga teacher who graduated with a BA in Theater Studies at Yale and holds an MFA in Film from UT Austin. Autumn is an equity trainer and facilitator with Body Get Free, the founder of Angry Momma Yoga and currently works as the Lead Organizer at the Black Jewish Liberation Collective. 

CO-PRESIDENT

Laura Wernick (they/them) has been a member of Kolot since 2012, and an occasional visitor at Kolot since the late 1990s. They are thrilled to be a part of a community where they can bring together their traditions, politics, and spirituality, and where their multiracial, multi-faith family is affirmed and embraced. They are a member of the White Anti-Racist Affinity group, and their son attends the Children’s Learning Program. Laura is an associate professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service and life-long organizer and activist. They have been active in Jews for Racial and Economic Justice for 30 years, where they have engaged in leadership roles in many campaigns, including the New York Caring Majority. Laura sits on the national steering committee of Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network, has engaged in Palestine solidarity activism since the late 1980s, and has worked as an organizer of LGBTQ+ youth. Laura is dedicated to supporting Kolot in becoming an anti-racist congregation.

Contact CoPresident1@kolotchayeinu.org.

VICE PRESIDENT

Adam Conner-Sax (he/him) has, along with his family, been a member of Kolot since 2012, when he and his wife, Pauline David-Sax (a High Holy Days regular from way back) were married by Cantor Lisa. Being a Kolotnik is Adam’s first experience belonging to a synagogue, and it has been warm, challenging, and wonderful. He was a Torah Study regular for his first couple of years at Kolot and still misses those amazing discussions!

Adam has also co-chaired the Membership Engagement Committee and, more recently, been an enthusiastic member of the Dues Task Force. Adam and Pauline’s younger daughter Sadie has been going to CLP since she was a Torah Tot and will begin Kitah Hay in Fall 2025. Adam trained as a physicist, worked in finance for several years, and has for the past few years worked as a data scientist, both on statistical methods and improving the data landscape around state legislative races. Adam is particularly interested in helping Democratic donors find out-of-state state legislative races where their support would be most useful.

Contact VicePresident@kolotchayeinu.org.

TREASURER

Peter Rich and his family have been members of Kolot since 2011. He is a founding partner at a CPA firm formed in 2005. His work there includes numerous clients in the nonprofit world. These clients run the gamut from arts organizations to social justice entities. He previously worked for an international aid NGO and for various CPA firms. 

He grew up in a traditional suburban Reform synagogue and is so happy to have found Kolot with its social justice orientation. His wife, Allegra Fishel, is a civil rights attorney, and his daughter attended CLP through her B-Mitzvah, where they were pleased that she received a strong foundation in both observance and social justice.

Contact Treasurer@kolotchayeinu.org.

SECRETARY

Yonii Bock was raised in Brooklyn and has lived in CT, MD, and AL, as well as in Windham, ME, where they currently reside with their 5-year-old son Oliver. Yonii has been a member of Kolot since 1994, when, at the age of four, they and their mother became two of Kolot’s very early “Shabbat regulars.” They began talking about becoming Bat Mitzvah at the age of 6. Over time, Yonii has established meaningful multi-generational relationships and deep friendships with members of the community, clergy, Board members, and staff. They have been an active participant in the Member Engagement Committee and the Race Working Group. They were instrumental in the start of the Knitting Circle, seeing it as an opportunity for members to connect, regardless of the fact that they themself cannot knit a stitch! As a young single parent and “Lash Artist” raised in our community, they have always brought their diversity of opinion, along with their extraordinary gift of laughter, to our table, reaching and enriching us.

Contact Secretary@kolotchayeinu.org

Bela August Walker (they/them) has been part of the Kolot community for the past two
decades, making it official in 2022, drawn in by the commitment to social justice and antiracist
practice. Growing up queer and in an interracial family, navigating Jewish identity in spaces that
often felt unwelcoming, Kolot was the first congregation that felt like home.

A member of the New York State Bar, Bela is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Rutgers-Newark, where they teach Property and Family Law, and is currently pursuing a PhD in sociology at CUNY. Their scholarly work centers on race, family law, and structural inequality. They are an artist and tinkerer in whatever time is left over.

Bela is eager to bring their experience in law, advocacy, and racial justice to help Kolot continue to grow as an anti-racist congregation and a true home for all who seek it. They live in Brooklyn with their wife Jennifer and their two children, Flynn and Rock, both on the b’nei mitzvah path at Kolot (one celebrated in 5785, with the other in preparation for 5787).

Ty Citerman has been a member of the Kolot community in various capacities for 25 years, and a member along with his family (two daughters Carla and Zora, and wife Megan) for about 15. He is a Brooklyn-based guitarist and composer who writes, performs, and teaches music across the spectrum of jazz, rock, and contemporary classical music.

Ty has been leading Jewish music in synagogues for 20 years. He is a founding member of the irreverent chamber jazz quartet Gutbucket; leads the radical Jewish quartet Bop Kabbalah; and writes chamber music that’s been performed by JACK Quartet, Anti-Social Music, Sara Schoenbeck, and Bearthoven. In his secular music life, he has played with the American Composers Orchestra, John Zorn, Ethel, Glenn Branca, Kaoru Watanabe, Frank London, Rhys Chatham, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Brian Chase, and many others. His music appears on Cuneiform Records, Tzadik Records, Cantaloupe Music, Enja, Knitting Factory, NRW, and Gut Records.

Émilia Decaudin (they/she) first joined Kolot in November of 2023 after making the decision to double-down on Jewish community in the wake of the turmoil of Israel's war on Gaza. She is a longtime activist for housing and for trans rights, has worked to elect countless progressives in New York State, and is a proud member of JFREJ (Jews for Racial & Economic Justice).

Émilia is a systems thinker and a people person; she thrives in situations where she can lend a helping hand by connecting the big picture with individual experience. She applies these principles both in her activist life, as well as at her day job as a data engineer.

Émilia is the daughter of French immigrants and speaks French fluentishly. She lives in Long Island City with her wife Siobhán and her devious cat Morrígan.

Noa Gottlieb is a freelance journalist with nearly two decades of experience in digital media whose work has appeared in New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Guardian, WIRED, The Verge, Vox, and many other outlets. She was a co-founder of Out of the Binders, a non-profit devoted to advancing the career of women and gender variant writers, and an original member of Gotham Roller Derby.

At the age of 13, she wrote the award-winning play Bring Back My Bonny to Me, a story of queer identity and the generational trauma found in families of Holocaust survivors. In her spare time, she serves as a volunteer rape crisis/domestic violence counselor and mentor at the Crime Victims Treatment Center.

Jackie (she/they) grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii and moved to New York City in 2010 to complete her degree at Fordham University where she wrote her thesis on addressing sexual violence within Jesuit Catholic higher education institutions. They were a librarian at the New York Public Library where they created and implemented the first "Stop Domestic Violence" lesson plan for the We Are New York ESOL class curriculum across all branches. Jackie currently works as a paralegal with experience in myriad arenas from corporate law to human rights. 

Jackie joined Kolot in 2024 after searching for shul where she could feel supported in her conversion process. At Kolot, she loves attending Morning Blessings and Shabbos services, is a co-chair of the Israel/Palestine Taskforce, and is a member of the Rabbinic Welcome and Transition Team. As a hapa (a Hawaiian Pidgin term for “mixed-race”) person growing up in Hawaii surrounded by her Chinese family, Jackie gained a unique perspective on culture, diaspora, spirituality, and social justice that she is excited to share with the Kolot community. They are passionate about building intentional community, disability advocacy, and fighting for queer rights and racial justice. In her free time Jackie enjoys reading, making and collecting creepy art, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and spending time with her partners and cats.

Ayaz Muratoglu (they/he) has been a member of Kolot since they moved to Brooklyn in 2021. They currently work at Adalah Justice Project and are studying Istanbul's Karaite Jewish population. Ayaz is on the Shamas team, served on the Rabbinic Search Committee in 2024-25, and was B-Mitzvah'd at Kolot in 2023.

Claire Raizen (she/her) joined Kolot Chayeinu in 2019, following the spiritually transformative experience of witnessing her political values represented on the bimah during High Holy Day services. Claire is grateful to have a religious home at Kolot that complements her political home at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). A member of JVP for close to a decade, Claire has worked within the JVP NYC chapter to welcome new members, plan direct actions, and coordinate safety during protests.

Claire holds a Master of Social Work from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College and currently works with oncology patients in an acute care hospital. Professionally, Claire specializes in bereavement, palliative care, and caregiver support. Additionally, Claire is passionate about advocating for patients from under-resourced communities, including undocumented immigrants, to have equitable access to health care. As the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, principles of social justice are the guiding orientation she brings to all facets of her life. 

Dana J. Schneider has been engaged in building progressive Jewish communities since high school, and has been a part of our beloved Kolot community for over 20 years. She's grateful for a congregation that welcomes everyone to show up as their full selves, and has served Kolot in various capacities over the years: as a member of the fundraising committee, as a High Holy Day coordinator, and as a consultant. As a parent in an interfaith and mixed-race marriage, Dana is especially grateful that Kolot is a place for Jewish families of all kinds. Her professional work for the last several decades has been in nonprofit fundraising, event planning, and organizational development (in the Jewish, arts and culture, and social change sectors), and she is excited to be part of leading Kolot into our next chapter as co-chair of the fundraising committee, with all the challenges and opportunities of this time. Born and bred in Brooklyn, Dana lives with her wife Kathleen and their kids Esperanza and Isidor in Downtown Brooklyn.

Amy Steingart became a Kolot member in 2009 and was excited to find a place where all varieties of Jewish experience are embraced and welcomed. She is full-time retired. Her career was primarily in technology as a tech writer, trainer, and software support person; she moved into human resources work, including benefits support and retirement counseling. Amy is a poet. She is a Shabbat regular and an occasional drash-er; she was a Shamas for many years. She goes to Kolot Morning Blessings regularly and has found a deeper spiritual connection and an incredibly caring community there. "I grew up with a minimal sense of being culturally Jewish and no religious practice at all. I didn’t know that spirituality could be part of my life, and what that would feel like. Kolot has met me where I am every step of the way — from struggling to read transliterations, to Friday night children’s services, to wearing a tallis for the first time, becoming a Bat Mitzvah as an adult, and davening every morning. I am grateful to have found a Jewish community that embodies inclusivity, creativity, deep learning, social justice, and caring fellowship."

Before becoming more involved over the past few years, Louis Turgel (he/him) had been hanging out on the Kolot periphery for nearly a decade. He’s served on the erstwhile Space Committee and volunteered with Gemilut. He currently co-chairs the Book Club with his dear friend Susan and loves discussing literature and life with the other members.

When he’s not parenting his three amazing children or lawyering for New York City, he enjoys playing just about anything, especially if it’s outside and, ideally, with a ball. He firmly believes that community is the antidote to our current social ailments and is deeply honored to be considered for a leadership role in this sacred community.