Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

In no particular order:

- I'm a "dyed in the wool" Reconstructionist; my family joined JRC (Evanston, IL) when I was about 5 years old.

- Because I grew up in a Reconstructionist synagogue, I didn't have an easy answer for where to go to summer camp. After years attending, and then working in, the Reform movement's youth and camping system, my dream came true and I jumped on board here at JRF.

- I remember when it wasn't called JRF, but FRCH. (FRCH had such a nice ring to it!)

- I am finishing my fifth year at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (just down the road) and am looking forward to entering my final year of studies there. Assuming all goes well, I will graduate June 1, 2008.

- Between now and then, I am getting married. I met my fiancee, Jeanne, at - of all places! - Camp JRF.

- My wedding is the weekend of the November JRF board meeting. Needless to say, I won't be at the meeting.

- I love movies, working with teens (and people of other ages too!), being challenged, laughing with friends, and those moments in life when everything just "clicks."

I'm sure there is more, but this is a start. Let's have a conversation - we'll both learn more that way....

Hey folks!

I love gardening, cooking, eating, singing, hanging out with friends, growing herbs, hiking, great music and my three wonderful cats. I am happy to be here with you. My formal work story is below. Looking forward to our retreat together.

Nancy Epstein has worked with communities for 28 years. Originally trained as a community health educator, Ms. Epstein has held positions in policy and legislation, advocacy, community organizing, nonprofit management, and program development. She is President of N. Epstein and Associates, LLC, a consulting firm that provides services to professional associations, not-for-profit organizations, and national foundations. Prior to coming to Philadelphia, Ms. Epstein was based in Washington, D.C. where she provided consultation services to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, its community-based grantees across the country and to state legislators and their staffs in many states. She previously served as a legislative committee director in the Texas Senate and worked extensively with elected officials, constituents, community-based organization (CBO) executives, and business and faith leaders.
Her areas of expertise are community organizing, community assessment, program planning and development, coalition building, community engagement and outreach strategies, leadership development, advocacy, and program sustainability. She has a special interest in applying these to organizational settings and has spent the last five years formally studying systems-centered approaches to working with organizations. She is formally trained as a mediator of interpersonal disputes and complex policy disputes.

Ms. Epstein is a a rabbi and has worked as a chaplain in both hospital and long term care settings and will also receive a certificate of geriatric chaplaincy at the time of her RRC graduation.

Ms. Epstein currently serves as Associate Professor of Community Health at the Drexel University School of Public Health (DUSoPH), where she teaches courses in community assessment and community organizing, program planning and evaluation, and faith, religion, and health. She advises and mentors graduate students and is involved in community service projects. She was awarded one of two DUSOPH teaching awards on May 16, 2006. She is a board member of the Philadelphia Arts and Spirituality Center.

Ms. Epstein lived in Israel for several years where she studied at HUC-JIR and worked for the National Federation of Temple Youth and for the Office of Prime Minister of Israel. From 1987-1991, she served as director of the Texas-Israel Exchange, which received national recognition from the U.S. Congress and served as the model for twenty additional state exchanges with Israel. In that role she dealt directly with the Israeli Minister of Agriculture and top officials at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.

I was raised in Pittsburgh, PA, where I convinced my family to become members of Reconstructionist Congregation Dor Hadash in high school (the location of her first date!). I grew up choosing to go to religious school but hating it, trying to figure out why being Jewish was so important to my family and yet the clearest expression of it seemed to be activism in the Democratic party. My grandmother read Kaplan as it was published and founded a religious school, but took me to services with her and refused to join in the prayers about God lest her atheistic self be thought a hypocrite.
I graduated from Vassar College in 1994 with a BA in Sociology and emphases in Religion and Women's Studies. All my classes were cross-listed in two of the three topics. On the Jewish side, I met countless Jews with negative Jewish identities for the first time and found that I could help them untangle the pain and internalized anti-Semitism in them and loved doing it. I also met Rabbi Shirley Idelson, who became a powerful role model for me. I worked at a men’s maximum security prison for four years and found that I also loved interfaith work that combined religion and sociology.
I went straight from Vassar to RRC, from which I graduated in 2000. My primary concentration was Education. While I was in Rabbinical School, my family became so determined to understand what I was doing with my life that they have now served their congregation as: President (Mom), Vice President (Dad), Adult Ed (Both), Social Events (Aunt), Treasurer (Uncle), and Social Action Chairs (Dad AND Mom).
I have been the Education Director of Mishkan Shalom’s Congregational School since 1999. Prior to that, I was the founding Education Director of Reconstructionist Congregation Kehilat HaNahar in New Hope, PA, as well as a teacher at Mishkan and other local congregations. I am the author of Aytz Hayim We, a series of text study curriculum for adults published by the Reconstructionist Press. I worked for and with the Education Department of the Jewish Reconstruction Federation, the National Education Commission, and the National Education Committee through their most recent incarnation.
I met my partner, Ezra, my sophomore year at Vassar, and we just celebrated the 14th anniversary of our first date and this summer is the 10th anniversary of our marriage. He is a freelance graphic designer and sound engineer and it would be awesome if you would all let me know if you hear of work if either field for him at any point. Ezra’s grandmother grew up spending Shabbat at Mordecai Kaplan’s home and then tworked as a secretary and translated the Hebrew in the original haggadah for him (I’m the only person I know who managed to find a third generation Reconstructionist to marry!) We have a wonderful 28 month old daughter Zoe and live in Glenside...AMAZINGLY close to the JRF offices!

I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. This is my story...

My parents were ready to join a synagogue when I was 6 years old. They knew it was time for me to begin Sunday school; however, the congregation they had been loosely affiliated with when they got married, Bnai Amoona near Washington University, was a real schlep... and my grandfather had suffered a stroke on the bimah in 1965, while chanting the Haftorah on Yom Kippur for the downstairs minyan. Between the two, my family just wasn't comfortable their anymore. So, my parents took me to Sunday school at a new congregation (leaning more traditional than conservative), it was located in a renovated house nearby -- and I hated it.

So after three weeks of crying in class, then being sent to join my father at minyan, my father said to me: "I'm willing to be fair about this. You're old enough to know you need to go to Sunday school, you tell me where you want to go instead..." So, he stared at me in shook when I told him where I wanted to go to Sunday school instead... "What did you say?" I told him where my friends were going, he called one of the parents and that led to our joining an Orthodox synagogue. My father became president within ten years and I became very involved in their youth group, NCSY. Inevitably, I told my folks I wanted to go to Yeshiva High School (I was 15). I became one of the first students and graduates of that school in St. Louis, which will shortly celebrate it's thirtieth anniversary.

This is basically the pattern of my life. My parents grew used to me making the Jewish decisions for myself... I only applied to one college. They wanted me to go to Missou. ("Everyone goes there, Barry, there are lots of Jewish kids, and it'll only cost us $2,000 a semester.") I went to Yeshiva University and continued my Jewish studies there. (They griped about the cost until my sister went to college in D.C. -- YU was cheap in comparison.)

After five years in college, including two years of study in Jerusalem -- which my folks feared meant I'd never come back and finish college -- I took a job with NCSY as the assistant director for my home region, based in St. Louis. After a year of living at home and running youth programs, Shabbatonim and conventions for kids 10 to 18, NCSY decided to cut back funding to the Midwest... I learned of this about ten days before the Summer Convention, which I was running... The word got out fast that at the end of June, I was out. My parents didn't want to say I told you so. They always felt that taking the job with the youth group would be a career dead end... So, naturally a few days later I got a late night call asking me if I'd like interview to be the Executive Director of a Jewish Federation. "Federation directors can make a very good living..." I asked who is this? "Emily's dad. I'm the president-elect of the Jewish Federation of Peoria, Illinois." The Federation had been looking for a director for over a year for their community of 2,000 -- and the youth director at the NCSY affiliated synagogue recommended me... So I moved to "Green Acres," I mean, Peoria and learned the basics of fundraising, community organization in a two Jewish congregation town -- and was soon encouraged to get my Master's in Social Work, using my position as my field work. That led to me moving to New York three years later to continue my master's and my next Federation job, which included running the annual UJA Dinner at Bet Am Shalom (where I first learned about Reconstructionism), and ran the Leadership Development Institute, their then new training program for 15 Young couples with leadership potential, and major events like Super Sunday.

From there I would move up the Federation ladder across the country, assistant director in Toledo, annual and planned director in Dayton (where I got married) and St. Paul (where my daughter Sarah was born). Ultimately we moved to this area for my job at JPS, before coming to JRF.

So that's how I began my Jewish journey which has become my career over the last twenty years and led me here...

So, you all know I nurse my coffee all day long and you know I have a Ridgeback - Roxy. Roxy loves the office and would like you all to know that should you mis-place any food, she will be happy to find it.

What you might not know is that I also have a cat, who refuses to come to the office, two terrific kids who are grown up (one the same age as and friend of Rachel Robbins since they were very young) and one fabulous husband (I guess that's the standard number.)

My life began in Brooklyn, NY but I grew up in Long Island (Nancy Post and I went to the same High School.) Before I was married I lived in upstate New York, New Mexico, the outer-reaches of Long Island, and then Manhattan. I moved to Philadelphia 25 years ago to marry my husband. (Was I smart, or what?)

Since I have shared my work background with all of you, I will not repeat any of it here. But, I must tell you that I am so glad to have found a home in the Reconstructionist movement!

I was born in the Chicago suburbs in 1971. My mother (Minna, a Psychologist) is a child of Holocaust survivors who had both lost their previous spouses and children in the camps. So on my mother's side I am first generation American born. My father (Jeff, a Pharmacist) was the child of pogrom survivors from Poland and Russia, so I am second generation American on my Father's side. We lived in the Chicago area (with my older brother Mike) until 1986 when we moved to Scranton so mother could be the Asst. Director of the Scranton JCC.

I graduated from Abington Heights High School (Go Comets!) in 1990, and proceeded to Drexel University to pursue a Degree in Hospitality Management and Business Administration. At the time I had dreams of opening my own restaurant. By my Junior Year I had spent every summer that I could remember at JCC Day Camps and Resident Camps, and had spent 3 summers as a Day Camp Counselor at the Scranton JCC Day Camp in Daleville. At this time I decided I wanted to try being an overnight camp counselor an proceeded to the camp I grew up at, Camp CHI of the Chicago JCCs. I spent 2 summers as a counselor and loved it so much I decided I wanted to make a career out of camp. I spent the next 2 years after I graduated from Drexel working part-time with Camp CHI as a retreat coordinator for the Pearlstein Resort & Conference Center attached to Camp CHI and my summers as a Unit Head for the kids camp. I also was a manager at a Blockbuster Video during the off-season to help pay the bills.

I then got my big break and was hired by the Minneapolis JCC to be the Youth Director and the Assistant Day Camp Director. After only 1 year I was promoted to be the Family Services Director and the Director of the Day Camp and remained there for the next 4 years. I also had begun work on my Master's Degree at the University of Minnesota. In 2002, after have finished my course work at U of MN and wanting to expand my horizons I moved to Milwaukee to be the Director of Youth and Children Services and the Assistant Director of Camp Interlaken JCC, the Overnight Camp of the Milwaukee JCC. I spent the next 5 years in Milwaukee and met my Beautiful wife, Francie. I then realized that I would never have time to finish my Master's at the Milwaukee JCC and feeling like I had progressed as far as I could there I left to focused on my thesis. I completed my master's in December of 2005 and my wife and I discovered the imminent arrival of my daughter Judy. I began working at LensCrafters as a manager and optician to pay the bills will I proceeded to look for a good opportunity back into the camping field. That led us to Camp JRF and I am very happy to be part of the team.

The oldest of three daughters, I was raised in Huntington, Long Island (and attended the same high school as JRF NY-NJ Regional Director, Melanie Schneider!). My family were founding members of a Reconstructionist congregation--Kehillath Shalom in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. In school I was intensely involved in music--playing violin in the orchestra, clarinet and oboe in the school band, and singing with the choir. In college at SUNY @ Stonybrook, though I continued studying voice, I majored in psychology and religious studies.

I then moved to NYC, where I did graduate work (MA in Applied Psychology and training at a psychoanalytic institute), and went on to have a diverse professional life. JRF staff might find it interesting to learn that I have worked in gourmet food retail, sung back-up on recordings with several groups, have been a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and couples counselor, freelance writer and editor, and in 1995 launched an editing and communications consultancy, Editorial Solutions. After working for myself for so many years, and ready to express my commitment to my Judaism professionally, I joined the JRF staff as Communications Director in February 2006.

I live in Wynnewood, PA, and have been married for 13 years to Alan Tuttle (a social worker/family therapist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia); we have two sons--Adam (12, preparing for Bar Mitzvah) and Jeremy (9, preparing to join the Phildelphia '76ers). We adopted two kittens this year, Gingie and Cole (as cute as they are, I do not consider myself a "cat person"). Both Adam and Jeremy attended Camp JRF last summer and they can't wait to return. We are active members at our synagogue--Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia.

As many of you do know, cooking and food are passions of mine, and in my "spare time" I write a monthly food column, The Kosher Table, for a progressive online Jewish paper, The Philadelphia Jewish Voice. You are invited to visit the link (The Kosher Table link is on the left near the bottom of the sidebar) at www.pjvoice.com.