Board of Directors
Judith Dack
Bio ---
Judith Dack, MA is a longtime leader and community builder in the Jewish Renewal movement. Currently she serves at Minyan Oneg Shabbat, a joyously musical Jewish Renewal “Zoom-a-gogue” davenen community, exclusively online. For many years she served on the ALEPH Board of Directors and various ALEPH Advisory Committees. As of July 2022 Judith has re-joined the ALEPH Board of Directors for a 3 year term. She currently serves on the Naropa University Board of Trustees as well. You may remember her from long ago as The Elat Chayyim summer yoga teacher and stand up fun-raiser. She has served on the faculty of Kol
Zimra, the ALEPH Kallah, OHALAH, and various other renewal communities.
Judith received her masters in transpersonal counseling psychology with a concentration in art therapy from Naropa University in 2014. She completed the first cohorts of both the Davvenen’ Leadership Training Institute (DLTI) and Kol Zimra: Chant Leader’s Training. Judith was initiated as an Eshet Hazon, into the lineage of Jewish Renewal
Women of Vision and given the name: Ezrat Olamay Aleph, “Woman Who
Holds Up the Worlds.” In 2018, she was honored by becoming the
inaugural recipient of the Reb Zalman Distinguished Service Award. Many profound experiences over these 25 years in the Jewish Renewal
community have fueled her deep commitment to “give back” and serve the flourishing of this very special path of Judaism.
When not on an adventure in her camper van, Judith resides mostly in
Boulder, CO. She has two daughters, one on each coast and one
granddaughter.
Rosalie Eisen
Bio ---
A Southern Jew, Rosalie (aka Raziel) Eisen, M. ED. has been involved in Jewish Renewal since the mid 1970’s, when she met Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z’l and early renewal rabbis, ritual creators, and artists, while living in Eugene, Oregon.
Rosalie received a “Certificate of Empowerment” as a Reverend, Master of Blessings, Jewish Relationship Counselor and Convener of Congregations from Reb Zalman in 2001. She was also honored at the 2005 Kallah as an Eshet Hazon, for her vision in co-founding and directing Basherte, an international network focusing on Jewish relationships. This is Rosalie’s second time serving on the ALEPH Board.
Professionally, Rosalie has held positions as a life coach, financial consultant, and non-profit director. She currently serves as Senior Philanthropic Officer for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation/PJ Library. For the past 16 years, Rosalie has had the great honor of helping grow PJ Library and its impact globally. From one community and 200 children, PJ Library now reaches more than 680,000 children and their families each month in 7 languages, and 40 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Israel (inclusive of Israeli Arabs), Ukraine, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Brazil, Singapore, and more.
Rosalie has worked widely with Jewish organizations and their professional and lay leaders, foundations, and philanthropists across the U.S. Her expertise is in building donor relations and community collaboration.
Rosalie resides in Amherst, MA, and is blessed with five sweet grandsons. The outdoors is her sanctuary in all seasons. Farm to table and reading are passions, as is travel to unique places.
Rabbi Joshua Jeffreys
Bio ---
From my childhood in New Jersey, Jewish tradition has formed the foundation of my relationship to the world. My love for Judaism was fostered by my community, my teachers, and my family – most especially my parents. By my Bar Mitzvah, I began sharing a dream of becoming a rabbi. Ever since, I have served the Jewish community in some professional or volunteer capacity.
In 2013, I earned my degree in Jewish Studies from Rutgers University and moved to Richmond, VA. Before joining the University of Richmond in 2015 (where I earned an MBA in 2019), I worked with Jewish organizations as an educator, community builder, and prayer leader. But my life changed in 2016 when I became the part-time interim Jewish Life Advisor for UR.
For two years in the role, I helped the Jewish community and campus overall navigate the 2016 election, the hatred and heartache of the Unite the Right rally nearby in Charlottesville, and – shortly after becoming the Jewish Chaplain and Director of Religious Life in 2018 – the devastation of the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting. I sensed a renewed longing to be a rabbi, recognizing we needed holistic spiritual leadership to help heal a deeply fractured society. After a chance encounter with ALEPH and Jewish Renewal, I am blessed to continue my work with the expanded mind-, skill-, and heart-set of a Renewal Rabbi.
Rabbi Alan Levin
Treasurer
Bio ---
Since retiring from full-time corporate life, Alan has served on the Boards of Directors of various public companies and is active in executive coaching. He has an avid interest in adventure travel, tennis, the performing arts, Jewish life, and community service. He is Treasurer of the Board of Directors of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
Alan earned a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Princeton University and a master’s degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He and his spouse John live in New York City.
Hazzan Steve Margolin
Bio ---
Hazzan Steve Margolin serves as cantor of Congregation Beth Israel, in Chico, California, co-leading this Jewish community in rural Butte County since 2019. He is a proud alum of DLTI 9, and was ordained hazzan by Hazzan Jack Kessler z”l and the other cantors and rabbis of the Aleph Ordination Program in 2021. Steve received additional smicha as Ba’al T’filah v’Torah from Rabbi David Zaslow. Steve practiced trusts and estates law for more than forty years. During his Audubon period, Steve was president of Golden Gate Audubon Society, led birding trips to the Sacramento Valley, East Africa and Panamá, and served as a director of Audubon Canyon Ranch. Steve is a non-denominational spiritual care volunteer (chaplain) at Enloe Medical Center in Chico. He is the clarinetist in the Hemlock Street Klezmer Band, has played saxophone in the Oroville Community Concert Band for over twenty-five years, and was a founding member of the Chico-based Skyliners Big Band. Steve and his wife live on eleven acres of blue oak savanna in the lower foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada. Most mornings, Steve walks/davvens/birds along the gravel road from home out to the county road and back. With luck, on his walk he finds a Lewis’s woodpecker.
Rabbi Jeremy Parnes
Vice Chair
Bio ---
Rabbi Jeremy Parnes was born in London England in 1952 and has spent the last 43 years of his life in Canada and the last 35 years as a resident of Regina Saskatchewan. He has enjoyed three career choices. Originally, he specialized in community development and working primarily for a non-profit housing association in Inner-City London England. Subsequently, he has been involved in sales management and training in ethical sales. Twenty-three years ago he became the spiritual leader of the Beth Jacob Synagogue and in January 2012 received Smicha from ALEPH Ordination Program both as a Renewal Rabbi and Mashpia Ruchani and Spiritual Director. He is a member of the Regina Multi-faith Forum, and has been active on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and the Inner-City Community Partnership. He currently serves as chair of Regina Prison Chaplains Advisory Committee and has served as chair on a number of City of Regina committees relating to low cost and social housing and undertook a visioning and future development project on behalf of the residents of North Central Regina, an inner-city community in crisis. He also previously served as Chair of the Board of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. He and his life-partner Chris have a blended family of four wonderful children and seven beautiful grandchildren.
Rabbi Jeff Roth, D.Min., M.S.W.
Bio ---
Rabbi Jeff Roth, D.Min., M.S.W. is the founder and Director of The Awakened Heart Project for Contemplative Judaism. He has led over 200 meditation retreats over the last 20 years. He was the co-founder of Elat Chayyim, the Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center, where he served as Executive Director and Spiritual Director for 13 years. He is the author of Jewish Meditation Practices for Everyday Life. He is currently on the faculty of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training program. He was ordained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi as well as by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Rabbi Roth served for eight years as the Executive Director of B’nai Or which became P’nai Or before its transformation into ALEPH. He lives with his partner Rabbi Joanna Katz in the Hudson River Valley.
Charles Silverstein PhD - on leave
Bio ---
Charles Silverstein PhD is dedicated to pursuing his deep interest in personal transformation, alternative healing, depth psychology and the relationship between science and spirituality. He holds an MA degree in Conscious Evolution from The Graduate Institute, Bethany, CT, and a PhD in Transformative Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is a certified Nondual Kabbalistic Healer, a certified Sage-ing ® Mentor (Yerusha), has attended many Jewish silent retreats beginning at the old Elat Chayyim and most recently Ecstatic Meditation and SOULIFT with Rabbi Shefa Gold. He retired as Executive Vice President of The Graduate Institute (Bethany, CT), where he was also the Academic Director of the Master of Arts program in Consciousness Studies and Transpersonal Psychology. He also serves on the boards of Congregation P’nai Or of West Hartford as Treasurer, and is a member of the board and treasurer of the Society for Consciousness Studies. Charles’ first career was as an educator in the fields of science and math, and his second career was as an institutional fixed income portfolio manager, holding the Chartered Financial Analyst credential.
Hazzan Stephanie Weishaar
Chair
Bio ---
Hazzan Stephanie Weishaar has served as the Spiritual Leader of Kol Nefesh congregation in Columbia, Maryland, since 2014. Prior to her work in Jewish music, she earned a degree in international relations and spent many years in nonprofit development in Ukraine, Russia, and the US. Stephanie’s volunteer work has centered around interfaith collaboration, education, and the arts. After raising two wonderful children, she followed her dream to study in seminary and was ordained by ALEPH in 2021. Stephanie lives on a farm in Maryland with her husband and their two dogs.
