Board Executive Committee

  • Sara Moore Litt

    Sara Moore Litt

    Co-chair

    A former New Yorker, Sara was a corporate lawyer at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, executive vice president and associate general counsel of the Courtroom Television Network, and executive director of The Interfaith Center of New York. She has been a consultant for ABC News, the Markle Foundation, and the Yale Law School. She has served as the president and board chair of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan, a board and executive committee member of American Jewish World Service, a board member of Bend the Arc and the Northwest Immigration Rights Project in Seattle and a member of the Pacific Northwest Leadership Council and the International Council of the New Israel Fund. Sara now splits her time between Miami and Maine with her husband Andy. They have two grown children and a springer spaniel.

  • Rabbi William Plevan

    Co-chair

    Rabbi William (Bill) Plevan holds a doctorate in Religion from Princeton University where he wrote a dissertation on the German-Jewish philosopher Martin Buber. He has taught Jewish philosophy, theology and ethics at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Gratz College, Hebrew Union College, and in a variety of adult educational settings. Bill has served as President of Matan, an organization devoted to promoting special needs Jewish education. He grew up in New York City and lives on the Upper West Side with his wife and son.

  • Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel

    Vice chair

    Senior Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel has been with Temple Micah since 1983 and has woven his open-minded, creative approach to Judaism into the culture and worship at Micah. He feels his primary role as rabbi is grappling with the challenge of “translating” the inherited Jewish past into a theology and practice that speaks to today. A graduate of Brown University, Rabbi Zemel received his rabbinic ordination from the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1979. Over the years, he has been involved in numerous community and Jewish organizations but derives greatest satisfaction from being a founder of Micah House, a group home for formerly homeless women in recovery from addiction. His 20-year involvement with Synagogue 2000 was instrumental in shaping his vision of synagogue life and the role of rabbi. Rabbi Zemel has written many articles and essays on a wide variety of Jewish topics; he contributed an essay to each volume of the Prayers of Awe series, a multi-volume commentary on the High Holy Day liturgy edited by Rabbi Larry A. Hoffman. Rabbi Zemel published A Time to Speak, a book of his sermons and writings, in 2019. Rabbi Zemel is blessed with a loving family that is the center of his life. When not at Micah, he is either with family, visiting Israel, reading, studying, thinking, or dreaming of his beloved Chicago White Sox playing in the World Series.

  • Rabbi Claudia Kreiman

    Secretary

    Rabbi Claudia Kreiman is the Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth Zion (TBZ) in Brookline, MA. She grew up in Santiago, Chile and lived in Argentina. Rav Claudia moved to Israel in 1996, and received rabbinic ordination from Shechter Institute of Jewish Studies in 2002. She was the first Rabbi of Noam, the youth movement of the Masorti Movement in Israel. Rav Claudia moved to the US in 2004 and became the director of the Jewish Studies program at the Jewish Community Day School in Watertown. She has been part of TBZ since 2007 and is deeply invested in growing the social justice involvement at TBZ , and engaging community members in meaningful experiences of prayer. Rabbi Kreiman is the co-chair of the New England Jstreet Rabbinic Cabinet, she is one of the chaplains of the Fire Department in Brookline and is a former board member of Boston’s JCRC. Rav Claudia is married to Rabbi Ebn Leader. They have two daughters, Alma and Ariel.

  • Eric Sloan

    Treasurer

    Eric Sloan is a partner with the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He received his B.A., with honors in English Literature, from Northwestern University, his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and his LL.M. (Taxation) with distinction from the Georgetown University Law Center. His clients include private equity and hedge funds and private and publicly traded corporations. He is a long-time member and former Treasurer of Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn. His wife, Dominique Bravo, a lawyer, is the Associate Executive Director of the Center on Race, Law and Justice at Fordham Law School in New York City. They have three children and live in Brooklyn.

  • Rabbi Lester Bronstein

    Immediate Past Co-Chair

    Lester Bronstein has served as rabbi of Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains, New York since 1989. He has served in leadership roles with the Westchester Board of Rabbis, the White Plains Religious Leaders Association, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, the UJA-Federation of New York, the JFNA Rabbinic Cabinet, the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, and the New York Board of Rabbis. He attends the Hartman Institute, Hazon bike rides, and Institute for Jewish Spirituality retreats. For twenty years he sang and recorded with Beged Kefet, a tzedakah-based music group. He studies Torah every Wednesday with his White Plains rabbi chevra, hoping to gain strength for the ongoing work of advocating for human rights and dignity.

Board of Directors

  • Rabbi Laura J. Abrasley

    Rabbi Laura  J. Abrasley joined the Temple Shalom clergy team in July 2015. She grew up in Houston and graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in psychology. Her path to becoming a rabbi began with many summers spent as a camper and then counselor at the URJ Greene Family Camp in Texas. After college, Rabbi Abrasley worked in education and technology sectors in Boston, most recently serving as Youth Educator at Temple Israel.

    In 2007, Rabbi Abrasley began her rabbinic studies in Jerusalem and continued at the HUC-JIR campus in Los Angeles.  She served as a student rabbi  and intern at several congregations in California as well as Boston.  With a strong commitment to Jewish learning, she earned an additional Masters in Jewish Education and was an education intern at Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles. Upon ordination in 2013, Rabbi Abrasley served as the Director of Lifelong Learning at Congregation Beth Or in Philadelphia.

    Rabbi Abrasley is committed to inspiring and implementing active, engaged opportunities for connection and community. She believes deeply in partnering together to pursue the work of tikkun olam, repairing the world and providing rich moments for Talmud Torah, the pursuit of lifelong Jewish learning.

    She and her wife, Julie Childers, have a teenage son, Noah. They are thrilled to be in Boston where wearing Red Sox hats is the norm!

  • Rachel Bearman

    Rachel Bearman

    Originally from Massachusetts, Rachel moved to the Chapel Hill, NC area in 1995. Having just completed a master’s degree in International Service and finding herself in North Carolina, she decided to pursue other passions as a professional and volunteer in non-profit leadership, specializing in strategic planning, community organizing, advocacy, and development.  After working in the nonprofit world as a professional and volunteer for over 20 years, Rachel had the incredible opportunity to lead Meals on Wheels Orange County, NC, as Executive Director.  Since moving to NC, Rachel has been an active volunteer in various organizations focused on food insecurity, women’s rights, voting rights and election monitoring, as well as Jewish and interfaith peace and justice organizations centered on Israel and Palestine. When not busy at work or volunteering, Rachel can often be found either out on a run, planning her next travel adventure, or wandering through independent bookstores contemplating what to add to the growing stack on her bedside table. She is the parent of three almost fully grown humans and currently resides in rural Orange County with her spouse, one remaining high schooler, two dogs, and numerous chickens.

  • Rabbi Kenneth Chasen

    Kenneth Chasen is Senior Rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles. In addition to his activism in support of immigrant rights, affordable housing and environmental sustainability, he has assumed a prominent role in promoting Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. Rabbi Chasen is the co-author of two books which guide Jewish families in the creation of meaningful Jewish rituals in the home. In addition, he serves on the adjunct faculty of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and he is a nationally recognized composer whose original liturgical and educational works are regularly heard in synagogues, religious schools, Jewish camps and sanctuaries across North America and in Israel. Rabbi Chasen is married to Allison Lee, the Managing Director of PEN America in Los Angeles, and they are the proud parents of Micah, Ben, and Eliana.

  • Dr. Marc Dollinger

    Marc Dollinger

    Dr. Marc Dollinger holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University. He has served as research fellow at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion as well as the Andrew W. Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow and Lecturer in the Humanities at Bryn Mawr College, where he coordinated the program in Jewish Studies. Professor Dollinger is author of four scholarly books in American Jewish history, most recently Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing The Alliance in the 1960s. He has published entries in the Encyclopedia Judaica, the Encyclopedia of Antisemitism, and the Encyclopedia of African American Education. His next project, A Tale of Two Campuses: Antisemitism From The Left and the Right traces his experiences as an identified Jewish (and Zionist) professor in the current political climate. Dr. Dollinger is a past president of both the Jewish Community High School of the Bay and Brandeis Hillel Day School. Dr. Dollinger serves on the boards of the Jewish Community Federation and URJ Camp Newman. He sat on the California advisory committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, was named Volunteer of the Year by the SF Jewish Community Federation, and was awarded the San Francisco JCRC’s Courageous Leader award. Professor Dollinger has spoken about his research on CNN’s Don Lemon tonight as well as the CNN-podcast “Silence Is Not An Option,” the NFL Network, ESPN, and Germany’s National Public Radio. Just for fun, Dr. Dollinger helped actress Helen Hunt learn about her Jewish roots on the prime-time NBC show, “Who Do You Think You Are?”

  • Rachel Faulkner

    Rachel is a community organizer, coach, social justice advocate, and anti-racist educator. She has done this work through roles at City Year, Match Education, the Community Builders, and Citizens of The World Elementary School, and currently serves as the Director of Community Investments at the Safety Respect Equity Network. Additionally, Rachel served as the National Organizer for #JWOCMarching, is an alum of Bend the Arc's Selah program, the Schusterman Foundation's REALITY trip, and is an organizer with Black Lives Matter DC's Cop Watch. Ultimately, Rachel is passionate about ensuring that the voices of Jewish Women of Color are centered in Judaism and in the greater world. But when she's not busy doing that, she spends time with her daughter Ori Justice taking long walks around the nation's capital.

  • Hadar Harris

    Hadar Harris

    Hadar Harris is an award winning human rights attorney and institution builder whose work focuses on civic enfranchisement, gender equality, freedom of expression and association, protecting closing civil society space and domestic implementation of international norms. She spent fifteen years in academia, building centers and organizations impacting a range of issues. She has worked as a consultant to major human rights organizations and international organizations. She sits on a number of nonprofit boards of directors, has been engaged in philanthropic grant making, and is an active volunteer.

  • Rabbi Nancy Kasten

    Rabbi Nancy Kasten is a Reform rabbi, a community educator, volunteer, and activist, as well as a certified Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher. Since moving to Dallas in 1990, Nancy has led, taught, consulted, and organized in Jewish, interfaith, and secular settings locally, nationally, and internationally. She chose her title of Chief Relationship Officer when she joined Faith Commons because she has the most fun when making connections with and among others. Nancy currently serves on the Board of the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at UTD and the U.S. Advisory Committee for Polyphony, a Nazareth-based organization that connects Arab and Jewish communities in Israel through music. She is a member of Reform Judaism’s Commission on Social Action and serves on several national and state-based committees and core teams within the Reform Movement.  Reinforced and informed by her participation in the 2020 OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship, Nancy strives to provide thought leadership in influential forums through her words as well as her deeds.  Nancy is married to Rabbi David Stern, and they have three adult children.

  • Rabbi Sandra Lawson

    Rabbi Sandra Lawson (she/her) works with senior staff, lay leaders, clergy, rabbinical students, and Reconstructionist communities to help Reconstructing Judaism realize its deeply held aspiration of becoming an anti-racist organization and movement. In her role, Lawson is developing a series of anti-racist policies and trainings for the organization and its affiliate members. She also serves as a mentor to rabbinical students. The 2018 Reconstructionist Rabbinical College graduate is one of the first African American, queer, female rabbis. The thought-leader has consciously sought to alter the perception of what a rabbi — and the rabbinate — looks like. Lawson is known for tackling difficult questions surrounding Jews and race in podcasts, essays, media appearances and speeches. A social media pioneer, Lawson models what it means to teach Torah in digital spaces. She has built a following of more than 50,000 people on FacebookTwitterSnapchatInstagram and TikTok. In 2020, the Forward named Lawson to its “Forward 50” proclaiming her a “truth teller”. Prior to joining Reconstructing Judaism, Lawson served as the Associate Chaplain for Jewish Life and the Senior Jewish Educator at Hillel at Elon University in North Carolina. She is also the founder of Kol Hapanim – All Faces – an inclusive, Jewish community that is relevant, accessible, and rooted in tradition, where all who come are welcomed and diversity is embraced. Lawson was born in St. Louis, Mo. and grew up in a military family. She graduated from Florida’s Saint Leo University magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. She also holds a Master of Arts degree in sociology from Clark Atlanta University. Lawson served in the U.S. Army as a Military Police person with a specialty in Military Police investigations. She specialized in cases involving child abuse and domestic violence. Upon leaving the military, she started a personal training business and later worked as an adjunct instructor of sociology at local community colleges. She has also served as the investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League’s Southeast Region, becoming the go-to person when law enforcement in the South needed information on hate groups. Lawson lives in North Carolina with her wife Susan and three “fur babies”: Izzy, Bridget and Simon.

  • Rabbi Esther L. Lederman

    Rabbi Esther L. Lederman serves as Director of Congregational Innovation & Leadership at the Union for Reform Judaism, a position she has held since 2015. Prior to that role, she was the Associate Rabbi at Temple Micah in Washington, DC.   She was ordained in May 2008 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.  She received her B.A. in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies from McGill University in 1996.  Rabbi Lederman sits on several boards in addition to T'ruah:  the Habonim Dror Foundation and Ameinu, as well as the board of the Federation of Greater Washington.  She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and two children.

  • Rabbi Michael Lezak

    Michael Lezak is the staff rabbi at the Glide Center for Social Justice in San Francisco. Previously, he served 14 years as rabbi of Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael, California, where he oversaw the congregation’s Chevra Kaddisha and New Jim Crow Working Group.  Rabbi Lezak is on the board of the Bay Area Organizing Committee.  He is married to Rabbi Noa Kushner and is the proud parent of three daughters.

  • Aliza Schwartz

    Aliza Schwartz (she/her) is a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, expecting to graduate in 2024. She is an incoming Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) in New York City.

    Before rabbinical school, Aliza was based in Boston. Her spiritual and political home in Boston is Kavod, a multi-ethnic, multi-racial community led by young Jews that lives out its values through vibrant Jewish ritual, transformative social justice organizing, and collective responsibility. Aliza served on Kavod's board for four years and as Board President for two. She worked for about 3.5 years at the New Israel Fund as Assistant Director for the New England Region. She has been a strategy coach and trainer for IfNotNow, mostly in the movement's early years. Aliza is an alumna of AmeriCorps and JOIN for Justice’s Jewish Organizing Fellowship, and Aliza served as Community Organizer at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters.

    Aliza has spent two years living in Israel/Palestine. The first was in 2011-2012, during which she most meaningfully worked with Sudanese and Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in South Tel Aviv. The second was this past year, during which she was studying, doing solidarity work - working especially with Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank - and serving as a T'ruah Israel Fellow.

  • Kelly Whitehead

    Kelly Whitehead (she/they) is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion ('24), where she received her MA in Hebrew Literature and her M.A. in Jewish Nonprofit Management. Kelly is the Rabbinic Intern on the URJ Youth Organizing Team, where they created and organized the Teen Jew of Color Fellowship. She participated in the Reform Movement's JewV'Nation Jews of Color Fellowship, where she learned to create and facilitate Anti-Racial Bias training for Jewish Professionals. Kelly was selected as one of The Jewish Week's 36 under 36 for 2021.

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