Jackie Loren
Jackie came to Judaism as a young adult and formally converted in 2000. She and her husband, Adam, have three daughters: Rachel, Emma and Sasha. Jackie and her family have been members of TST since 2016 and a member of the TST choir since 2018. The entire Loren family were drawn to TST because of the passion of the clergy, the dedication of the educators, and the welcoming spirit of the community.
Amy O'Donnell
Tom Feldman
Tom, his wife Maura, and their two boys have been members of Shir Tikva for ten years. Both boys were fortunate enough to go through the temple’s religious school, to become B Mitzvah at Shir Tikva, and to continue to be a part of the temple youth community. Tom has spent the last 25 years in the energy industry, as an entrepreneur in the clean energy sector, as a developer of hydropower projects around the county, and as a consultant helping utilities and large commercial and industrial energy consumers with issues related to finance, energy regulation, and technology commercialization.
Jennifer Rosenbaum
Jennifer Rosenbaum works in the financial industry at FL Putnam Investment Management. With almost thirty years of wealth management experience, she advises high net worth individuals and multi generational families on significant decisions in the management and stewardship of their wealth. Jennifer is currently a Director of the Board of JVS, where she chairs both the Resource Development and Event committees. She is a member of the Program Committee for the Wayland Public School Foundation and an active member of the Boston Estate Planning Council. She previously served on the Corporate Advisory Council at Cradles to Crayons, ran a financial literacy cohort with the Citizens School, led the Future Leaders Group at JNF, served on the Family Education Committee at BETC and many volunteer and committee activities within the community. Jennifer lives in Wayland with her son, Ethan, her significant other, Barry, and his children, Rachel and Josh.
Brian Phair
Brian (he/him) is the Director of Donor Relations at the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. He’s spent his entire career in the non-profit or higher education world including past work at Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Brandeis University, and 18Doors (formerly InterfaithFamily). Brian is a proud UConn alum, avid sports fan and Lego fanatic. He lives in Natick with his wife Sarah and two daughters Mira and Elana.
Roy Lurie
TST has been a key part of Roy’s family life for many years. He has had many roles on the board over the last 10 years and is currently focused on governance, leadership, and strategy development. Roy holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and has worked at MathWorks as the head of MATLAB engineering for almost three decades. Originally from South Africa, Roy now lives in Natick with his wife, Mary Beth Rettger, and their two children. Their children have grown up in the TST community and their family has built strong relationships there. As an interfaith family, Roy appreciates the welcoming community they have found at TST. In his spare time, Roy kayaks, reads science fiction, flies drones, and creates things using 3D printers.
Jon Schwartz
Jon is the head of software and internal support at Level99 in Natick. Since the time he learned to read, he was obsessed with finding ways to accomplish his goals using technology and software. Professionally, he has run the IT gambit from running server rooms to writing large data migrations to making sure all the in game RFID tags boop properly when players start the game. Jon was formerly the CIT director at Camp Kingswood in Bridgton, ME (formerly part of JCC GB) where he taught leadership and empathy to the counselors in training under him. He holds bachelors degrees in Computer Science and Psychology from Bridgewater State University (formerly Bridgewater State College). He lives in Natick with his wife, Jenn, and his two daughters, Sydney and Leah. In his spare time, Jon likes to build things, cook, camp, and talk about 80s and 90s sci-fi.
Risa Burgess
Risa, and her family, have been members of TST since 2013. Growing up, Tikkun Olam was an important value instilled in her by her parents. She has volunteered with many community-based organizations focused on education and youth empowerment including as a board member, soccer coach, mentor, and chair for fundraising events. Risa is also a communications and strategy advisor to several foundations. Her professional career spans more than 20 years of experience across corporate communications, employee engagement, public relations and internal communications. As a consultant, she partners with companies to help employees navigate and adopt enterprise change through meaningful communications and with a focus on an organization’s business goals.
Ginny MacDowell
Ginny has been a member of TST since the very beginning, as she and her family are founding members. She is well-established in the Boston Jewish community- serving in most Jewish organizations in the Greater Boston area. She is married to Roy and has 5 children, 13 grandchildren, and two adorable dogs. Ginny looks forward to continuing her role as the Development Trustee and the privilege of supporting the TST community through philanthropy.
Sasha Tulgan
Sasha has been a member of TST since she moved to Wayland two years. She grew up in Weston, attended (along with sister Rachel) West Area nursery school (earlier iteration of the TST Early Learning Center) and sang in the TST choir in high school. A lawyer with a background in commercial litigation, Sasha now works at Harvard Law School. She and her husband Adam have two sons, Ben and Sid, both of whom attended the Early Learning Center after moving from Rochester, New York. Sasha is an avid skier and fan of acappella and karaoke.
Meiko Bauchman
Meiko (she/her), along with her husband Andrew, their two children Sadie (12) & Sam (10), and 2 dogs moved to Weston from San Jose, California in the Fall of 2020. Having never been to Boston, and knowing hardly anyone, Meiko started looking for a warm, welcoming community for her family in the only place she knew to find it – a synagogue. Temple Shir Tikva was recommended by a friend and member, and it was the perfect fit for the Bauchman family. Though everything was virtual that first year, the warmth and sense of community was certainly apparent.
This will be the second time Meiko has been honored to serve on a temple board, having been the board representative for the Early Childhood Center at Temple Shir Hadash in Los Gatos, CA.
Since moving to Weston, Meiko has stayed busy taking care of 9 pets (2 senior rescue dogs, 2 rescue rabbits, a gecko, and 4 ducks), walking the trails in Weston, knitting, baking, gardening, and staying involved in social justice causes. She is also a brand advocate for a clean beauty company.
Cici Leffell
Cici (she/her) and her husband Josh joined TST when, shortly after relocating from California, their children began attending the Early Learning Center. The wonderful people they’ve met there immediately made them feel at home in their new town. Her son Zev completed his final year of preschool in the Eagle Room before heading off to kindergarten, and daughters Noemi and Margo are currently enrolled. Cici has a PhD in medieval Iberian literature from Stanford University, where she taught Spanish and Catalan language classes for several years before moving with her family to Wayland in 2022. When she isn’t wrangling toddlers, Cici enjoys cooking and spending time outdoors in all of New England’s seasons.
Jill Abend
Jill has been a member of the Temple Shir Tikva community since 1993 when joining as a young family. She has a financial background working in the leasing and mortgage industries. Jill has been active in many aspects of the temple participating in a variety of committees. Recently, her focus at TST has been adult engagement, including Sisterhood, Reyim, and now ACE (Adult Community Engagement). TST has been a big part of her life and she considers it her second family. The most important aspect is the sense of community and the long-lasting friendships.
Jonathan Zarkower
A member of Temple Shir Tikva since 1997, Jonathan Zarkower is a first-time board member, but has been recognizable to many as a prayer and song leader and a member of the TST Players. Jonathan also taught music in our religious school for 15 years, co-directed our youth choir, Shir Yeladim, and has served as bandleader and participant for many Purim spiels. By day, Jonathan is a senior product marketing manager for ThousandEyes/Cisco Systems.
Jonathan has two beautiful daughters, Rebecca and Samantha, and lives in Framingham with his wife Rhonda and their dog, Mojo. Jonathan is excited for the opportunity to collaborate with our clergy, spiritual lay leaders, other board members and congregants on making Shir Tikva’s worship services and other spiritual activities accessible, inclusive, meaningful and thoroughly joyful for our entire community.
Michael J. Wadness
Michael Wadness joined TST back in 2013 after his family was invited to a Friday night Shabbat service and has never looked back. Michael is exceptionally proud of the social justice work that TST has done from the simple food drives all the way up to the complex work for the homeless and its partnership with our neighbors at the Islamic Center. As trustee for Social Justice and Community Connections, Michael looks forward to TST taking Tikuun Olam (repairing the world) to its most literal meaning in its work with the environment and the numourous advocacy positions that include anti-racism, fighting voter suppression, and transgender rights.
Professionally, Michael Wadness has a doctorate in science education and teaches high school physics in Medford. Michael has been a national leader working as a fellow for QuarkNet bringing particle physics into classrooms across the world and a lead ambassador for StepUp Physics, a grant funded program which trains teachers to address the problem of under-representation of women in physics.
Bryan Kohl
Bryan has over 25 years of experience in organizational and business development working for tech startups and large corporations. His most proud accomplishment was helping stand up MindWise Innovations – a behavioral health care organization focused on suicide prevention. His family have been Shir Tikva members since 2018 and both of his children became B Mitzvahs at the temple. Bryan grew up Catholic, so finding a temple that embraced his family’s interfaith traditions was important to him. He is honored to serve the Board in this capacity.
Rachel Welt
Rachel has been in tech marketing for over a decade. She has expanded the capacity of multiple start-up marketing teams, focusing her efforts on product adoption and activation, brand advocacy and community building. Currently, Rachel is working as a product marketer at Customer.io, a customer engagement software platform. Rachel is a child of TST and has returned to put down her own family’s Jewish roots at Shir Tikva. She is excited to continue to build and cultivate Shir Tikva’s thriving community. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, gardening and adventuring with her husband Will and daughter Sophie.
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Jill Zukerman
Jill has over 20 years of experience in Human Resources, most recently as the Director of HR at an EdTech Company in MA. She has been involved with TST in some way for about 15 years now, as a Religious School teacher for nine years and also as a member. She lives in Wayland with her husband, an Israeli who hadn’t been a temple member for 30 years until he experienced the amazing community here at TST, and her two boys, 16 and 18. Her children have been active participants in the school programs, both as students and as madrichim
Bob Koster
Bob retired five years ago after spending forty years in the Energy Industry. He resides in Sudbury and has been a member of TST since 1996. This is his third stint on the Board having served in numerous positions since he first joined almost 25 years ago. When he’s not participating in temple activities, he can be found riding his bicycle, hiking, skiing, or trying to keep up with his two grandsons.