Board Members

President Andrew Strongin is in his second year on the board, having served as Program co-chair last year. An arbitrator and mediator of labor disputes, he is an active member of the National Academy of Arbitrators. He also handles land-use and zoning matters in Montgomery County. Raised in the Maryland suburbs, Andrew was Bar Mitzvah and confirmed at D.C.’s Temple Sinai, where his mother was president. He lives in Takoma Park with his wife, Tracey Goldman, an elementary school teacher, and their children, Emma (11) and Sam (8). Andrew also sits on the board of the Hope for Henry Foundation and coaches in the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Babe Ruth Baseball League.

Vice-President David Elfin is in his second go-round on the board in seven years of Beth Chai membership; he previously served as chair of Publicity. David covers the Washington Redskins and the National Football League for The Washington Times and recently finished a two-year term as president of the Pro Football Writers of America. Raised in Washington, David was Bar Mitzvah and confirmed at Adas Israel but is much happier at Beth Chai. He lives in Bethesda with his wife, Loretta Garcia, a lawyer; their daughters, Julie (13) and Amy (11); and rescue spaniel Sparky (4). Julie celebrated her Bat Mitzvah in April 2007.
 
Treasurer Pat Lovenhart, who joined the board last year, is a marketing professional and focus group moderator. The owner of Lovenhart Research & Consulting, she just concluded a term as president of the American Marketing Association’s D.C. Chapter and has been an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins and American universities. Raised in Akron, Ohio, Pat joined Beth Chai four years ago with her husband, Cal George, who is national director of the Community HealthCorps, an AmeriCorps program. Pat designs and creates jewelry for Loven.ART and recently started a blog, amplifiernetwork.com, focused on marketing and media for high-tech entrepreneurs.
 
Secretary/Past President Deborah Signer Balaschak has spent a year each as president, co-president, and Program co-chair in her five years at Beth Chai. A native New Yorker, she currently makes her living as a senior analyst at the Government Accountability Office, where she has led studies about children in foster care, worker protection, and health care issues. In previous lives she was an editor and a college English instructor. Deborah and husband Mark, who also works for the government, live in Bethesda with their two sons, David (12) and Matt (10); hamster #2; and, perhaps in the next year, a dog. David started the Mitzvah class in fall 2007.
 
Community Building Chair Shannon Rudisill returns to the board after a four-year absence; she previously served as the Social Action co-chair. Since she and husband Jeffrey Gerber, an IT professional, became Beth Chai members in 2001, they’ve been joined by two sons: Alex (4 1⁄2), who’s in BC’s preschool, and Wesley (1), who soaks up attention while at Adult Ed with Mom and Dad. A native of Charlotte, N.C., Shannon has lived in the D.C. area for a decade, working until February for the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services. Now a stay-at-home mom, she volunteers with the Falls Church Moms’ Club and Annandale United Methodist Church Weekday Preschool.
 
Family School Chair Susan Stewart, a Beth Chai member since 2000, taught the Sunday School’s 6th-grade class for one year and its preschool for six years. In her professional life, she works for American University supervising student teachers who are becoming certified in elementary, middle, or high school education. Susan, who grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia, has three children: Lauren (14), Jessica (12), and Katie (9). She volunteers in her local elementary school’s art-appreciation program and chairs its Book Fair, as well as administering the McLean Youth Basketball program for the developmental girls' league. Susan’s hobbies include reading, tennis, and travel.
 
Fundraising Chair Ron Leve joined Beth Chai three years ago and almost immediately took charge of fundraising; he is in his second year on the board. An L.A. native, Ron came to this area fresh out of college and not intending to stay. In 2004, he moved from Columbia, Md., to the District upon retirement from a career at the National Security Agency. Besides his work at Beth Chai, Ron is an active member or officer of every one of the civic organizations in the Dupont Circle area, where he resides. He also partakes of D.C.’s amazing wealth of cultural activities, from music to art to local history, and has become a collector of contemporary fine crafts.
 
Liturgy Chair Robert Weinstein is in his second year on the board and his fourth year of membership at Beth Chai. A residential architect, Rob lives in Chevy Chase with his wife, Lynn, a university librarian, and their son, Ben (9). Rob’s interests and hobbies run toward what might be broadly designated as “the arts.” He grew up in Far Rockaway in the Borough of Queens in the City of New York.
 
Membership Co-Chair Reed Dewey, in his third year of Beth Chai membership and his first year on its board, lives in Chevy Chase with his wife, Betsy Reinstein-Dewey, a life coach, and their son, Gabe (7). A native of Massachusetts, Reed has spent his adult life in the Washington metropolitan area, where he has worked for numerous local and national nonprofits and currently directs Montgomery County's volunteer programs. He loves tennis and is getting back into singing and playing the guitar – especially with groups.
 
Music Chair Marjory Grant Ross, a seven-year member of Beth Chai and first-time member of the board, is a Massachusetts native who lives in McLean with her three daughters, Sarah (17), Trina (15), and Becky (10). A former writer and editor, Marji has served since 2003 as president and publisher of Regnery Publishing, the nation’s leading publisher of conservative political and current-affairs books. Marji is also on the board of the Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute, the National Conservative Campaign Fund, and the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth College Alumni Assn. A veteran of formal voice training and many singing groups and musicals, she frequently picks up her guitar to help lead BC’s morning assembly.
 
Program Co-Chair Mike Wexler, who served as the congregation’s vice-president last year, continues on the board in his new capacity. He and his wife, Ela Koniuszkow, a State Department budget analyst, have been Beth Chai members for three years. Born in Lithuania, Mike grew up in Israel and first came to the U.S. and the D.C. area 30 years ago to study at George Washington University, from which he holds a degree in electrical engineering. He is currently involved in the design and development of communications systems. Mike, who has two grown children, spends his spare time walking the family dog and helping Ela in the garden.  
 
Social Action Chair Howard Feinstein, in his second year as a board member and Social Action chair, currently works as a musician, performing and recording rhythm and blues. Howie spent many years as a lawyer in the South, litigating and prosecuting civil rights cases, including cross-burnings and other matters involving racial violence. He has taught law and government at several universities, has published Developing Issues in the Legal Status of Women, and recently finished writing a book on his Southern experiences. Howie, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, and his wife Karen, a social worker and director of a D.C. family services program, joined Beth Chai three years ago.
 
Communications Chair Julie Vigdor, in her third year as a member of Beth Chai, has edited and distributed the congregation’s weekly email bulletin for the past year; she is new to the board. Raised in Miami, Fla., Julie now lives in the District with her husband, Billy, a lawyer, and their two children, Kyla (9) and Michael (8). Julie left a career as a computer systems developer in 1995 to explore other interests and raise a family. She has held a variety of volunteer positions ranging from recording books for the blind, to cataloging part of the physical anthropology collection at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, to teaching illiterate adults to read.