Rabbi Carole Balin, Board Chair

Rabbi Carole Balin is a Professor Emerita of History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York. Carole curated the national traveling exhibit “Bat Mitzvah Comes of Age” and wrote and narrated the animated short, “The Click Moment: Jewish Feminism 101.” She appears on PBS’ regularly-aired The Jewish People: A Story of Survival, blogs for the Huffington Post, and lectures at synagogues and universities throughout the world. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wellesley College, Carole is an ordained rabbi and earned a PhD in history at Columbia University. She has honed her spiritual practice in the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s two-year program for clergy. She made her “Broadway debut” on West 4th Street in a student production of The Vagina Monologues and lives in New York City with her husband, Michael Gertzman, and three children.

Barbara B. Dobkin, Founding Chair

Barbara Dobkin, former chair of the AJWS board of trustees and chair of the executive committee, is a funder, activist and leader in the social justice arena. With a particular focus on the advancement of women in all sectors of society, she is a preeminent and visionary creator of programs that serve women and girls and that encourage women of means to play a significant role as independent philanthropists. She was the co-founder of Mayan, the Jewish Women’s Project of the JCC in Manhattan, the founding chair of the Jewish Women’s Archive, the founding chair of the Hadassah Foundation and a founding board member of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community. Barbara has served on the boards of the New Israel Fund, Lilith Magazine, the Women Donors Network, the Jewish Funders Network, the Women’s Funding Network, and American Friends of the Israel Women’s Network, among others. Presently, she chairs the board of the Dafna Israeli Fund in Israel. She has been recognized for her philanthropic work by several organizations including the Council on Foundations and the New York Women’s Foundation. In 2000, the Jewish Funders Network awarded her the Sidney Shapiro Tzedakah Award for her creative and innovative grant making.

See also:
JWA Founding Chair Barbara Dobkin Receives LEAD Award, April 28, 2010
Paean to a Troublemaker: Barbara Dobkin by Letty Cottin Pogrebin
About Barbara B. Dobkin, So Laugh a Little Honoree
A Few Words about Barbara Dobkin by Nicki Newman Tanner
A Letter about Barbara Dobkin from Gail T. Reimer

Aliza Abusch-Magder

Aliza Abusch-Magder (she/they) is a rising senior at Columbia University studying English and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, who just returned from a semester abroad in Berlin. She was a member of the Rising Voices Fellowship in 2016-17. They served on the inaugural jGirls editorial board, where they led the art department for three years. In addition to being a barista and babysitter, Aliza is spending her summer working on a personal research project about the connection between Judaism and the advent of modern sexuality. Throughout college, they have taught Hebrew school at Park Avenue Synagogue, held leadership positions at Columbia’s Jewish food coop, and shared her work in several campus publications. Post-grad, Aliza plans to continue her work in special education and hopes to reside in Jerusalem.

Michelle Azar Aaron

Michelle Azar Aaron holds a BFA in Drama and an MA in Drama Therapy, both from NYU. She grew up in Chicago, singing with Placido Domingo, and has earned awards and praise for her work throughout the country. She now lives in Los Angeles, working in TV and Film, as well as on stage, as she is currently on tour in the solo play by Rupert Holmes, ALL THINGS EQUAL, the life and trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She is a certified yoga teacher, and mother of two amazing women, Adina and Sela. She is also the committed rebbetzin of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, where her husband Jonathan Aaron is the Senior Rabbi. There she volunteers, leading yoga, dance, and the Sunday lunch drive, as well as many of the Bilkur Cholim programs and sisterhood events, chants Torah, and subs for the cantor when needed. Michelle’s writings can be found on her yoga blog, as well as in the Jewish Journal and in Kveller. She has written and continues to perform her solo show, FROM BAGHDAD TO BROOKLYN, a piece about finding peace within the separate parts of her upbringing as a Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jew.

Rachel Barenbaum

Rachel Barenbaum is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Atomic Anna and A Bend in the Stars. Atomic Anna was long-listed for the Massachusetts Book Award, nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award, named an Honor Book by the Association of Jewish Libraries for their 2022 Fiction Award, and received a starred review from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. A BEND IN THE STARS was named a New York Times Summer Reading Selection and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Rachel is the founder and host of the radio show, Check This Out, a literary show focused on emerging and diverse writers that airs on New Hampshire’s NPR. Her written work has appeared in the LA Review of Books, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. She has been a scholar in residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis and her work has been supported by residencies at Ucross and Norton Island. She is an elected member of Brookline's Town Meeting.

Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum

Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum is the Rabbi of Congregational Learning and Programming at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA. She was ordained by Hebrew College in Newton, MA, where she also received a Master’s of Jewish Education. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Rabbi Berenbaum previously served as senior rabbi and education director at Congregation Shir Hadash, in Milwaukee, WI, and at Temple Har Zion in Mt. Holly, NJ. She served on Governor Phil Murphy’s Interfaith Clergy Council in New Jersey and was invited to participate in a clergy blessing of Boston’s acting mayor, Kim Janey. In her multifaceted career, she has had a front seat at the intersection of race, gender and religion. She teaches, “None of us can control what happens in the world, but we each have the power to control how we respond. We need to access our spiritual core and fearlessly acknowledge our dark places, both as individuals and a society, in order to shift what we see going on around us. The shadows serve to remind us that there is also light." 

Dorrit Corwin

Dorrit Corwin is a New York-based writer and a recent graduate of Brown University (2024), where she double concentrated in Literary Arts and Modern Culture and Media. She graduated with honors in Creative Writing, received the 2024 Celia and Carl Michaelson Essay Prize in Judaic Studies, and became fluent in Spanish while studying Spanish literature at the University of Barcelona during her semester abroad. Dorrit is also an alumna of Marlborough School in Los Angeles (2019), the Rising Voices Fellowship (2018), and Diller Teen Fellows (2018). She has produced three independent short films and interned in film and television development at Amblin, Lynda Obst Productions, and The Gotham Group. Dorrit’s writing has appeared in Insider, the Jewish Journal, The College Hill Independent, and the Jewish Women’s Archive. In her free time she enjoys singing, traveling, attending concerts, and baking challah.

Emily Dubinsky, Treasurer

Emily Dubinsky is the Boston studio manager and senior bespoke designer for Frank Darling, a female-founded custom jewelry design firm based in NYC. Before she was recruited by Frank Darling to open and manage their first satellite studio, Emily ran her own custom jewelry design firm. She returned to the world of jewelry after serving as a Private Wealth Advisor in the Investment Management Division of Goldman Sachs where she advised clients on asset allocation, portfolio management, and philanthropy. Prior to that, Emily spent five years with the Gemological Institute of America, where she served as Senior Manager of the Colored Stones Identification Group in their New York and Bangkok laboratories. In this role, she oversaw client services and research projects for colored gemstones. Emily holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a Master’s Degree in Geological & Environmental Sciences from Stanford University, and a BA in Geology summa cum laude from Amherst College.

Karla Goldman

Karla Goldman is the Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work and Professor of Judaic Studies and Director of the Jewish Communal Leadership Program at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism (Harvard, 2000).  She served as Historian in Residence for the Jewish Women’s Archive from 2000-2008 where she spearheaded projects like This Week in History and JWA's celebration of the 350th anniversary of American Jewish community. Prior to her work at JWA, Karla taught American Jewish history at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati where she was the first female member of the tenure-track faculty.  Her research focuses on how American Jewish experience has reflected the social, gender, class, racial, and political identities available to Jews within broader American contexts like cities, social movements, and universities.

Abby Greensfelder

Abby Greensfelder is the founder and CEO of Everywoman Studios, a full-service media company with a mission to tell female-focused, female-driven stories creating positive cultural impact. The company’s first feature documentary, LFG, chronicles the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s fight for equal pay. In 2020, Greensfelder launched “Propelle” – an accelerator program for female creators which seeks to open doors for up-and-coming female creators who might not otherwise get the opportunity to share their important stories. She is also the co-founder of Half Yard Productions, an award-winning production company specializing in non-fiction series and documentaries, including the global hit franchise Say Yes to the Dress (TLC), How the States Got Their Shapes (History) and The Last Alaskans (Discovery). Prior to starting Half Yard, Greensfelder was senior vice president of programming and development for Discovery Channel. While at Discovery, she was named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Next Generation: 35 under 35’.

Rebecca Kobrin

Rebecca Kobrin is the Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University and the Associate Director of Columbia's Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. Her areas of expertise include East European and American Jewish History, specializing in modern Jewish migration. She received her BA (1994) from Yale University and her PhD (2002) from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to coming to Columbia, she held Post-Doctoral Fellowships at Yale University (2002-2004) and New York University (2004-2006). Her first book Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora (Indiana University Press, 2010), was a National Jewish Book Award finalist that focused on migrant Jews’ relationship to their former homes in Eastern Europe and to other Jewish immigrant outposts around the world. She is the editor of Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter with American Capitalism (Rutgers University Press, 2012), and is co-editor with Adam Teller of Purchasing Power: The Economics of Jewish History (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015). In 2015, she was awarded Columbia University’s Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award for her passion in the classroom and inspirational use of service learning in the classroom. She lives in New York City, with her three children.

Rachel Kranson

Rachel Kranson is Director of Jewish Studies and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, specializing in the history of American Jews and the history of gender and sexuality. She is the author of Ambivalent Embrace: Jewish Upward Mobility in Postwar America (University of North Carolina Press, 2017, honorable mention for best first book award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society) and a co-editor of A Jewish Feminine Mystique?: Jewish Women in Postwar America (Rutgers University Press, 2010, Finalist for a National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies). She is working on her current manuscript, tentatively titled “Religious Misconceptions: American Jews and the Politics of Abortion,” a project that has been supported by both the Frankel Center at the University of Michigan and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University. Her writing as appeared in academic and public-facing venues including The Washington Post, American Jewish History, the Journal of Jewish Identities, the T&T Clark Reader in Abortion and Religion, AJS Perspectives, In Geveb: a Journal of Yiddish Studies, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Tikkun, and Lilith. Kranson has been involved in the Jewish Women’s Archive for many years, serving on both the academic advisory council and the editorial board of the Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. She also had the honor of updating Dr. Paula Hyman’s crucial overview of American Jewish Feminism for the encyclopedia. Rachel Kranson lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her spouse and two children.

Lisa Mednick Owen

Lisa Mednick Owen is, and has been, involved in initiating, leading and participating in several community based, educational and social justice organizations. She currently sits on the Board of Trustees of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in NYC and the Advisory Board of the Citizens Committee for Children. Lisa is also a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she gives in-person and virtual tours to school groups. Lisa started her legal career practicing corporate law at the firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, and then spent nine years as in-house counsel at Dow Jones & Company, Inc. She currently works as the Director of External Relations for LV Adhesive, a conversion services and specialty paper products supplier to the graphics arts industry. Originally from Los Angeles, Lisa received her B.A. in Political Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and her J.D. from George Washington University, and has also earned two professional certificates from the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies—one in Arts Administration and the other in Fundraising & Development. She lives with her husband, Steve Owen, in New York City and has two grown sons.

Sarah Richmond

Sarah Richmond lives in Chestnut Hill, MA and is a partner at the Boston law firm Gesmer Updegrove. She focuses on corporate and transactional work and serves on the firm's Executive Committee. Sarah is the winner of the 2023 Circle of Excellence Growth Award from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP). Sarah is a graduate of CJP's Acharai Leadership Program and served as a Board Member and the VP of Leadership for CJP’s Women’s Philanthropy. Sarah has served on the Temple Emanuel (Newton, MA) Board of Trustees and its Nominating and Governance Committee. Sarah has two grown children, Abby (a proud alum of JWA's Rising Voices Fellowship) and Eli. Sarah is a graduate of Harvard Law School (cum laude), Columbia University (BA in Mathematics, magna cum laude) and Phillips Exeter Academy.

Emily Rosenberg

Emily Rosenberg is a lesbian activist with a strong Jewish identity who lives in Oakland, California. She is a past President of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and has served on the boards of the Women Donors Network, Zero Population Growth, Horizons LGBT Community Foundation, and local and regional non-profits. Emily did some of the early interviews for the San Francisco Holocaust Oral History Project and more recently has worked through JFCS to help resettle a family of nine from Afghanistan. Emily created projects including the Community Chicken Soupers, which delivered Jewish holiday food to shut-ins; PAWS, which cared for pets of early AIDS patients; and Team Schleppers, which organized for Obama. She has created several dog park initiatives and was one of the early leaders in an informal Lesbian philanthropy community. She has done decades of grassroots organizing and volunteering for Democrats. Emily has a lifetime involvement with Jewish family history and was first drawn to JWA almost 20 years ago because of the storytelling mission..

Terry Rosenberg

Terry Rosenberg has been a consultant and executive coach for senior executives and managers from major for-profit corporations, as well as non-profit Jewish organizations. Her particular area of focus is on leadership development, board governance, and transformational change. Long active as a volunteer in the Boston Jewish community, Terry has served on the boards of several local and national organizations, including Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, CJP, the JCC, Mayyim Hayyim, Hebrew College, Synagogue2000, and HUC-JIR’s Board of Governors. Since 2010 she has been actively engaged with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and is the immediate past chair of the board. In 2017, she was certified by HUC-JIR as a spiritual director. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Jewish Grandparents Network.

Lori Rotskoff

Lori Rotskoff (she/her) is a cultural historian, author, educator, and public speaker. She earned a Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale, where she studied twentieth-century U.S. history and especially the history of women, gender, feminism, and family life. For the past 25 years, her career has flourished in the realm of Continuing Education for adults. Previously an educator at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, she now offers classes at the 92NY, the Scarsdale Adult School, and in private groups. She is the author of Love on the Rocks: Men, Women, and Alcohol in Post-World War II America and co-edited the anthology  When We Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children’s Classic and the Difference It Made. Lori lives in Larchmont, New York with her husband, Michael Canter; together they are proud parents of two young adult sons. She is a former Board member of the Brooklyn-based non-profit Cool Culture and the women’s philanthropy collective Impact-100 Westchester. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of LEAP, which provides educational arts programs for students in NYC schools; and the Advisory Board of La Femme Theatre Productions, an inclusive theater company that explores varieties of the female experience onstage. 

Madisen Siegel

Madisen Siegel is a consulting analyst at Accenture. She is a 2017 graduate of Deerfield Academy and lived in Beijing studying Mandarin at Beijing Language & Culture University during her gap year. She graduated from Columbia University in 2022, with a double major in Applied Mathematics and East Asian Languages & Cultures. Madisen is a Glen Rock, NJ native, and currently resides in New York City. In her free time, she enjoys playing water polo in Brooklyn, going to shows & museums, and reading the latest fiction from Jewish women authors. Madisen was a member of the 2016-17 cohort of JWA’s Rising Voices Fellowship and has been serving on the JWA Board since 2020.

Anne Spar

Anne Spar spent her early career in a variety of marketing positions at New York Telephone, NYNEX, and Verizon. Her most recent position was the Chief Operating Officer for The Social Investment Consultancy, a consulting firm that specializes in corporate responsibility consulting. She is currently working on her first novel. Anne serves on the Board of The Alliance for Middle East Peace, the West Coast Advisory Committee of Sharsheret, and the Board of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, where she is also president of the Sisterhood. Anne graduated from Vassar with a degree in Philosophy in 1986, spent her junior year abroad at Hebrew University, and received her MBA from New York University in 1991. Anne and her family divide their time between Beverly Hills, California and Wellfleet, Massachusetts.

Na'amit Sturm Nagel

Na’amit Sturm Nagel is a doctoral candidate in the English department at UC Irvine. Her work examines the connections between Jewish American, African American and Asian American literature, with a specific focus on gender, generational trauma and temporality. Before beginning her doctorate, Na’amit taught English at Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles and was the associate director of The Shalhevet Institute, a center for Jewish ideas and learning in LA. In addition to her work at Shalhevet, Na’amit organized essay writing workshops for high school students, developed an author series and facilitated evening book clubs. Na’amit was privileged to receive the Covenant Foundation’s Pomegranate Prize in recognition of her leadership and contribution to the field of Jewish education and an award from the JEIC for creating a database of Jewish literature designed to help teachers build curriculum. She has published academic articles, op-eds and book reviews in Studies in American Jewish Literature, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Moment Magazine, The Forward, Lehrhaus, The Jewish Journal, and Kveller.

Mimi Zieman

Mimi Zieman (she/her) is a board-certified gynecologist, mother of three, women’s health advocate, and writer living in Atlanta. Her first play, The Post-Roe Monologues, is being developed in a NYC theater. Her forthcoming memoir, Tap Dancing on Everest, connects her childhood as the daughter of Jewish immigrants and a father who was the sole survivor of the Holocaust from his family, with being the doctor and only woman on a historic Everest climb in Tibet. Mimi spent her early career as an academic at Emory University School of Medicine. She was a founding member of the scientific Society of Family Planning, and a member of CDC committees that wrote guidelines on U.S. contraceptive care. She left the structured world of academia to work as an independent consultant and entrepreneur, founding her company, SageMed LLC. She is a passionate advocate for women’s rights and has testified before the Georgia Legislature several times against bills that have no basis in science. She writes a free newsletter combining medical news and inspiration from art and nature.