PDF version
Our Directors have energy and passion, speak the language of congregational life, and love congregations. They are wary of complacency and maintain a healthy, skeptical, and reflective attitude about Synagogue 3000's work. They bring extensive experience and expertise in governing successful nonprofit organizations.
Laurence Smith, chair
Laurence Smith has been in the financial services industry since 1985, and is currently a partner at Sixpoint Partners, a FINRA registered broker/dealer. Before joining Sixpoint, he was the Managing Director responsible for structured equity solutions for all of HSBC’s corporate clients throughout the Americas. Prior to HSBC, Mr. Smith worked with Bank One, Bear Stearns and with a subsidiary of Lazard, and also spent nine years overseas with Bankers Trust with assignments in Asia and Europe. Mr. Smith is a graduate of Yale University.
Larry was involved in Jewish outreach in Chicago through Stepping Stones at North Shore Congregation Israel. He has two daughters, age 19 and 16, and is a member of Westchester Reform Temple.
Terry Rosenberg, vice chair
Terry Rosenberg holds several volunteer positions within the Boston Jewish community and nationally. From 1998 through 2004 she served as Vice-President of Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, Massachusetts. During this time she expanded the temple's adult learning programs through the development of a women's Torah study group and the implementation of Me'ah, a 2-year foundational course in Judaism sponsored by Boston's Commission on Jewish Continuity and Hebrew College. In 1999 she joined the Commission on Jewish Continuity as co-chair of the Me'ah steering committee, and currently serves as the Commission's co-chair. She is also on the Executive Board of Combined Jewish Philanthropies and on the Board of Hebrew College.
Nationally Ms. Rosenberg serves on the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, where she chairs the Partnership subcommittee for the strategic planning initiative. She was the first chair of Synagogue 3000's governance board.
In her professional life, Ms. Rosenberg is an organizational consultant where she designs and leads programs in communication and leadership development. She holds a masters degree from New York University.
Lori Berman
Lori Berman started her career as a lawyer at a mid-size firm in Washington, D.C. She soon moved to an in-house counsel position for Interim Services (now Spherion), a staffing company.
Simultaneous to this new endeavor, Lori began teaching Human Resources, Management, and Leadership as an Adjunct Professor at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and then at other MBA programs. After the arrival of her children, she took her teaching and facilitation skills to the corporate environment.
Lori believes strongly in community. Wherever she has lived, she has been involved and given back. She serves on the boards of the Aspen Jewish Congregation and the Aspen Educational Foundation, and remains connected with the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Disorders. Lori is fortunate enough to live in Aspen, Colorado with her husband and 3 children.
Larry Cooley
Larry Cooley is past President of Temple Micah in Washington, DC and President of Management Systems International, an international development consulting firm he founded in 1981. A specialist in the fields of strategic management and organizational development, he has served as advisor to cabinet and sub-cabinet officials in a variety of Federal Agencies and more than a dozen foreign countries. He currently oversees a 4 year project helping to rebuild public administration in Iraq’s civilian ministries. Elected in 2008 as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, Larry previously served for 15 years as Chairperson of the Development Management Network of the American Society of Public Administration and received that organization’s National Award for Training Excellence. Before founding MSI, Larry worked at the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, and as Peace Corps Volunteer. He has worked in 49 countries and holds an MA in Economics from Columbia University, an MPA in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a M. Phil. in Management from the Cranfield School of Management in the UK.
Rabbi Rachel Cowan
Rabbi Rachel Cowan currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality - with a major focus on clergy renewal for rabbis, cantors and Jewish educators. Prior to this job, she served as the Director of the Jewish Life and Values Program of the Nathan Cummings Foundation for 14 years. She was ordained at HUC-JIR in 1989. She and her late husband Paul Cowan wrote Mixed Blessings: Marriage between Christians and Jews. She lives in Manhattan and is a passionate grandmother of Jacob Pablo and Tessa Margalit.
Cantor Sharona Feller
Sharona is the cantor emerita of Temple Chai in Phoenix, Arizona. Before beginning her twenty-two year tenure at Temple Chai, she served for five years at Temple Jeremiah in Northfield, Illinois.
At Temple Chai, Sharona was instrumental in helping grow the congregation from two-hundred families to over thirteen hundred. She pioneered Bat Chai, women's programming for the congregational community. For the past 18 years, women of all ages have connected through retreats, study, services, women's seders and holiday celebrations.Sharona has also been a creative partner in Temple Chai's nationally recognized Shalom Center for Comfort and Healing.
Over the past six years, Sharona and her husband Daniel have split their time between Phoenix and Bellingham, Washington. While in Bellingham, Sharona serves as cantor for the High Holydays and Shabbatot at Congregation Beth Israel.
In addition to her pulpit duties, Sharona has been active in the greater Phoenix Jewish community. She has served on the executive board of the Women's Philanthropy Division of the Jewish Federation and a founding member of the B'nai Tzedek Youth Philanthropy Board. Sharona helped establish the Anne Frank Award, a scholarship honoring Jewish teens for their work in the community. Sharona currently serves on the board of the Jewish National Fund.
A graduate of UCLA, she received her cantorial training at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. Sharona is the mother of Rachel, Avi and Jonathan.
Bill Firestone
Bill is President of Capital Recovery Group, LLC, a firm that conducts Industrial Auctions throughout North America and Europe. Bill has conducted numerous charity auctions pro bono and has raised over $2,000,000.00 through the sale of goods and services going directly to medical research and community outreach.
In addition to serving on the Board of the Springfield Jewish Community Center, Bill has been involved with the Springfield Jewish Federation Young Leadership, committees for synagogues, is a member of Temple Beth El and was co-honoree with his wife Susan at Heritage Academy, a local Jewish Day School.
Having grown up in a vibrant but declining Jewish community, Bill's goal has always been to help preserve and nourish the spirit of Jewish community and to make a difference in Jewish life for generations to come. Bill received a degree in Business Administration at UMass. He resides in Longmeadow, MA with his wife Susan and their twin college-bound daughters Rachel and Andrea.
Don Friend
Don Friend is a licensed attorney involved in the real estate investment and management business in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his BA from University of California at Davis, and his JD from Hastings College of the Law. He has been active in synagogue life in San Francisco at Congregations Sherith Israel, Beth Shalom and Temple Emanuel.
Don became interested in synagogue transformation when his oldest son began preparation for his Bar Mitzvah. To insure that there would be participation at the ceremony, he sent out a tape of the T'fila melodies to the invitees. He chaired the Temple Emanuel "Synagogue 2000" team that was part of the 2nd National Cohort and continues to be involved in making and keeping the synagogue the spiritual center of people's lives. He has volunteered as a song leader for both all three synagogue religious schools and currently helps leads services in the Martin Meyer Minyan (contemporary style service) at Temple Emanuel.
Don presently serves on the boards of the Jewish Community Center, AIPAC and Jewish Home. He is the former chair of the Jewish Family Education Project at the Bureau of Jewish Education and has emphasized outreach to families to become involved in Jewish ritual together. He is a graduate of the Wexner Heritage Foundation Leadership Seminar Program (1996-1998). He has extensive fundraising experience having chaired the Jewish Community Federation and AIPAC Annual Campaigns. He is married to Janie and has three children, Benjamin (21), Jason (18) and Lauren (15).
David Gottlieb
David Gottlieb is an affordable housing developer, nonprofit executive and volunteer, and Jewish seeker. Born and raised in Chicago, he received his B.A. from Amherst College and his MFA from the University of North Carolina, and is currently working toward his M.A. in Divinity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. David has worked in diverse careers, including theatre, historic preservation, community advocacy and public relations. For the past 14 years, he has served as senior vice president of Banner Property Management, and in 2001 he co-founded and became executive director of Full Circle Communities, a philanthropic nonprofit developer and manager of affordable housing.
David has written fiction, plays and numerous magazine articles for Zeek, the New Vilna Review, and Symposia, the graduate journal of the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, among others. He has contributed an essay to "The Still Small Voice: Reflections on being a Jewish Man," an anthology of Jewish men's voices (URJ Press, 2007). David is co-author, with Rabbi Akiva Tatz, of Letters to a Buddhist Jew (Targum Press, 2004). The book is a record of David's correspondence with Tatz, a London-based Orthodox rabbi, about his own journey into Buddhism, and the larger question of why Jews are drawn to Eastern meditative traditions.
David serves as a co-president of the board of directors of the ARK, a Jewish social services agency in Chicago. He is also a board member of the Northbrook-based Torah Learning Center. David was one of 20 Chicago-area Jewish leaders chosen to participate in the 2006-08 cohort of the Wexner Heritage Program.
He lives in Northbrook, Illinois with his wife and son Gabriel, 14. Daughters Danielle and Rebecca Sassower, 23 and 20, have already flown the nest.
Forrest Krutter, secretary
Forrest Krutter is the Secretary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. In that capacity, Mr. Krutter is the in-house attorney for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Mr. Krutter's responsibilities include oversight of legal and claims operations of Berkshire Hathaway's largest insurance company subsidiary, National Indemnity Company.
Forrest Krutter served as President of the Jewish Federation of Omaha from 1999 until 2002. Over the past two decades Mr. Krutter has been active in a wide range of activities in the Omaha Jewish community, including the Friedel Jewish Academy, Beth El Synagogue (Omaha) and various committees and agencies of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Graetz College, the American Arbitration Association , the Nebraska Appleseed Foundations and he was a member of the Jewish Federations of North America's Young Leadership Cabinet.
Paulina Vazquez Morris
Paulina Vazquez Morris has a distinguished career in both public service and private industry. Most recently she sought election to the United States Congress in Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District. Prior to her campaign, Paulina served as the Deputy Director and General Counsel for the Arizona Department of Administration. She also served as an elected board member to the Maricopa County Special Health District. Paulina's public service career began as a legislative and legal intern in the United States House of Representatives and the Arizona State Senate. She also served as a legal extern to the Federal District Court of Arizona.
Ms. Morris earned both her Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She continued her education with distinction garnering Masters Degrees in Business and Health Administration at Arizona State University. Ms. Morris serves on numerous community and civic boards, and is active in the Republican party. She and her husband, Jason, raise their two sons in Phoenix. As a longtime member of Temple Emanuel in Tempe, Ms. Morris is currently serving on its Rabbinic Search Committee. She is also honored to be a participant in the Wexner Jewish Heritage fellowship program.
Melanie Sturm
Melanie Sturm is a private equity investor with a particular interest in telecommunications and healthcare. Her prior experience includes International Finance Corp (World Bank), Morgan Stanley and Drexel Burnham Lambert. Ms. Sturm is also active in the non-profit and philanthropic communities and is co-founding partner of the Jewish Venture Philanthropy Funds in both Washington, D.C. and Denver; President of the ML Sturm Foundation; and Chair of the Aspen Jewish Leadership Forum (formerly Leadership 2000)
Beryl Weiner, treasurer
Beryl received a Bachelor's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1965 and obtained his law degree from Loyola University of Los Angeles in 1969. In the area of litigation, Beryl is involved in complex business litigation as well as family law matters, at both the trial and appellate levels, and participates and conducts mediations and other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures. In the area of general business counseling, Beryl advises many of the firm's major clients on matters ranging from business organization to the specifics of various transactions. Beryl is also involved in the leasing, purchase and development of real property, in the area of health care law, in which he counsels both health care providers and entities which own and operate health care facilities, and in the areas of gaming and casino law, election law, governmental relations and licensing and regulation.
Bruce F. Whizin
Bruce F. Whizin, President of The Whizin Foundation, The Whizin Support Foundation, and Two Eagles Design, Inc., joined the Jewish Community Foundation Board of Trustees in 1994. Bruce has been a restaurateur, a real estate property manager, and a licensed psychotherapist/hypnotherapist and family counselor. Dedicated to the Jewish future, Bruce founded the Shirley and Arthur Whizin Center at the University of Judaism. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Directors and a past Vice-Chair of the University of Judaism. He is President of the Whizin foundation and was one of the original founders and funders of Synagogue 2000 and Synagogue 3000. Bruce serves on the International Board of Governors of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology as well as the National Board of Regents of the American Society for Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Southern California Chapter of the American Technion Society. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Camp Ramah in California. Bruce serves on the Board of Governors for the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Israel. He established the Shirley and Arthur Whizin Center for Biotechnology at the Technion in Israel. Bruce is Secretary of the Board of Directors of Beautiful City Corp., a commercial and residential real estate holding company. He holds a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and a master's degree in Education, Psychological Foundations, Counseling, and Guidance from the California State University at Northridge and a Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, California. Bruce has five children and seven grandchildren and lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
