Board Members
President Rob Rosenberg along with his wife Laurie Breen, and their two children, Harry (6) and Emma (8)—have been members of Beth Chai since 2006. A native New Yorker, Robert moved to the Silver Spring area to continue his postcollege pursuit of Laurie, who is a native Marylander. Laurie, an artist, is a vegetarian. Robert, addicted to take-out Chinese food (especially spare ribs, the true N.Y. Jewish cuisine), will never be able to equal his wife’s dietary restrictions. When not handling Beth Chai responsibilities, Rob is the Chief Financial Officer of NTELX, Inc. a technology company recognized by Inc. magazine as one of the 5,000 fastest growing companies in the US. In 2011, Mr. Rosenberg was selected as a finalist for the NVTC CFO of the year (emerging growth company). Robert also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Takoma Park Cooperative School, one of the leading early childhood cooperative programs in Montgomery County. Robert graduated from Brown University (A.B. Political Science 1994, AB Organizational Behavior and Management (i.e. Business) 1994).
Vice-President Keith Parsky along his wife Michelle and sons Jacob (14), Alexander (12), and Torres (8) have been members of Beth Chai since 2008. Jake was Bar Mitzvah in April, 2010 and Alex is now working with Rabbi Blecher in preparation for his big day on May 26, 2012 at Beth Chai. Keith has been a member of the board for 3 years. He has a long affiliation with the theater and is Vice President of the Adventure Theatre Board as well as on the Board of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs. He managed and produced T.V. Marti; a daily television news show beamed into Cuba and was a nightly prime time anchor for Guam's leading news organization. He served as Press Secretary for a U.S. Congressman, as a spokesperson for the Interior Department, and is now the Division Chief of the Individual Indian Money Program.
Past President Marji Ross has been a member of Beth Chai for 10 years. This is her fourth year on the board. Marji is a Massachusetts native who lives in McLean with her husband Chuck and youngest daughter, Becky (14). Marji’s two older daughters, Sarah (21) and Trina (19) are in college. 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 Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and the National Conservative Campaign Fund.
Treasurer Noah Dropkin has been a member of Beth Chai for most of the past 22 years. Originally from Chicago, Noah moved to Washington, DC to attend graduate school at The George Washington University, where he met his wife Lisa. Noah is an Account Manager for TEOCO, a solutions provider to major communications companies. He lives in Arlington, VA with his wife and two daughters, Lily (8) and Tate (6).
Secretary Sara Duke is now in her fourth year on the board of Beth Chai, having joined the congregation in 2006. A native of New York state, she has lived in the Washington area since 1991, working at the Library of Congress. She is one of the curators of Popular and Applied Graphic Art in the Prints & Photographs Division, where she is in charge of cartoon drawings and historical prints. Sara lives in Takoma Park with her husband, Matthew Schneer, who oversees the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Act on the state level for the U.S. Department of Education, and their two children Sylvia (12) and Sasha (Alexander) (10). Sara spends her limited free time reading comic books, studying languages and volunteering on behalf of children with chromosome disorders and mental retardation.
Communications Chair Julia Dubner has been a member of Beth Chai since 2009. This is her first year on the board. Julia grew up in Montgomery County, returned briefly after college, then lived in California and New Jersey. She and her husband Peter Megginson came back to Maryland in 1999 in the hopes of landing lots of free babysitting from their parents. They have been mildly successful in this regard. Julia works in marketing and Peter is an elementary school teacher. They live in Rockville with their two children, Benjamin (12) and Rebecca (7).
Liturgy Chair Deborah Signer Balaschak, her husband Mark, and sons David (16) and Matthew (14), have been members of Beth Chai since 2002. Both David and Matthew worked with Rabbi Blecher for their bar mitzvahs at Beth Chai. Deborah has been a member of the board for about 6 years, serving as co-president and president, and most recently has been involved in updates to the Beth Chai liturgy. A former New Yorker, Deborah she lives with her family in Bethesda and works as a policy analyst for the federal government on child welfare and other social services issues. She has a PhD and MA from Columbia and BA from C.C.N.Y., all in English literature. She loves mysteries and good fiction, pre-20th century music of all kinds, and movies.
Music Chair Howie Feinstein in his fifth year as a board member, 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. Howie has published Developing Issues in the Legal Status of Women, a book on his Southern experiences is being published, and he is currently finishing a novel. 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 six years ago.
Programs Chair Ken Jacobson is in the fourth year of his second stint on Beth Chai’s board. A lifelong journalist, he had the loftier title of “investigator” during four years on the staff of the House Science & Technology Committee. But since being expelled from that job in November 2010 by the American electorate, he has gone back to his roots. Most of Ken’s journalistic work has been as a business and economics reporter and editor, but he also devoted a number of years to researching and writing a book on Jewish identity. Despite a lifelong interest in Judaism, he shied away from Jewish congregations before finding Beth Chai about ten years ago. He considers his membership a gift from his wife, former Beth Chai Co-President Mary Ellen Petrisko, with whom he lives in Silver Spring.
Webmaster Daniel Korn is entering his seventh year as a member at Beth Chai, and his fourth as a board member. In his day job, Daniel implements corporate learning strategies for a multi-national software company, specializing in technology-based solutions. He lives in Potomac with his children Zachary (14, a recent Beth Chai Bar Mitzvah) and Rebecca (11). Daniel is a native of Philadelphia, grew up in South Florida, came to school in DC, and stayed. He plays poker (well) and tennis (poorly), reads a lot of science fiction/fantasy books, and spends way too much of his disposable income on fine dining and single malt scotch.
Membership Chair Michele McNally along with her husband Russell Sturm, and their three children, Justin (17), Tevah (15), and Eli (almost 12), have been members of Beth Chai since 1998, and have attended Beth Chai’s High Holiday services since their early dating years some 20 years ago. Michele is starting her second 2-year term as Beth Chai's membership chair, as she can't imagine where else she could have been as involved with her childrens' religious education as the non-Jewish member of the family, as well as working with such terrific group as the Beth Chai Board, and meeting such interesting people who are interested in Beth Chai. She was also a teacher in Beth Chai’s K/1 class for five years from 2001-2006. A native of Minnesota, she’s lived in the Washington area for over 25 years, where she’s a full-time parent, having stepped away from the seething world of for-profit managed care organizations when her oldest child was a year old. She enjoys managing her sons’ soccer teams; volunteering with a local senior social services organization; reading; and most of all, spending time with her lively family.
Social Action Co-Chair Alexa Claybon is beginning her third year as a member of Beth Chai, and her first year as a member of the board. Alexa and her husband, Marc, have two children in the Sunday School (Hazel, 8 and Edith, 6). The Claybons live in Bethesda in the Burning Tree Elementary School district. Alexa was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, and transplanted herself to the East coast after college for law school and city life. Alexa works in Tysons Corner as a tax director at PwC, and is involved in Burning Tree PTA and leads a Daisy/Brownie Girl Scout troop. Alexa is anticipating a busy year for the Social Action Committee and welcomes suggestions from members on how we can build on Beth Chai’s strong tradition of community involvement.
Social Action Co-Chair Suzanne Oliwa along with her husband Michael Oliwa and their kids, Derek (11) and Katelyn (6) became part of the Beth Chai community in 2009. They were inspired to join Beth Chai after attending the Bar Mitzvah of their nephew/cousin, Zach Wolpoff. Suzanne is very excited to be co-chair of the social action committee with Alexa Claybon.
RRUUC Event Coordinator Mark Israel has been a member of Beth Chai for around 25 years. His son Andrei was one of Rabbi Blecher's earliest bar mitzvahs. Mark was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his family were members of the Isaac Meyer Wise Congregation - Rabbi Wise founded the Reform movement. Mark went to Oberlin College in Ohio, and was admitted to Hebrew Union College. He then went into social action, first as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, then to law school at Columbia thence into civil rights. Mark was the first professional employed by a former Confederate state to work for the civil rights of African Americans, as director of the Tennessee Commission on Human Rights in 1964 and 65. He continued his career as the Assistant Director of the Jewish Community Council in Boston, back to civil rights in Washington at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and the War on Poverty at the Office of Economic Opportunity running a program to get more food to the poor. Then for over 30 years Mark was a public-sector lobbyist representing cities and other public bodies, connected to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Mark is now a full time organic farmer.
Pastoral Care Chair Abby Morris and her husband Walt with their children Ryan (12) and Joshua (6) are entering their third year at Beth Chai. Abby and Walt have been in the Washington, DC area since 1993 but both grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Abby went to Cornell University in upstate New York for her undergraduate degree only to decide later that she wanted to pursue her MD. After completing all of the science courses she should have taken at Cornell at Johns Hopkins, Abby studied medicine at Georgetown University. She studied internal medicine at Georgetown University Hospital and completed her residency in Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Since that time, Abby has been Medical Director at Threshold Services which is a non profit that serves the chronically mentally ill in Montgomery County. She also has a small private practice in Kensington. Walt is the Director of Publishing for a non-profit in Bethesda. If she had free time, Abby would pursue photography, bicycling and theater. Abby is grateful to Beth Chai for providing a loving, learning community for her family which inspires pride in being Jewish with an open mind.
