Our Officers and Board
Lillian Weigert - President
Member Since 2014
My husband, Joe Ambash, and I discovered CRT via the internet when we moved to Charlestown. We attended services and were warmly greeted by so many interesting and kind congregants that immediately, we felt at home. We very much appreciate our wonderful rabbi and our Shabbat and holiday services, especially the music. Joe and I enjoy schmoozing over CRT potluck dinners and Onegs and feel fortunate to have found community and friendships here.
I am a retired litigator. I attended Vassar College, graduated from Yale College, and received my law degree from the University of Virginia. I also attended the University of Paris Law School. Some of my governance experience includes chairing the board of a 350-bed hospital, as well as an economic development board. I recently served as president of our 200-unit condominium. I continue my membership in my New York hometown temple, where I served throughout my life, as president of the youth group and then of the sisterhood, chair of various committees and a board member.
Today, I volunteer at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and tend my community garden. Joe and I travel and particularly enjoy spending time with our children and grandchildren. As President, I look forward to contributing to our vibrant CRT family.
My husband, Joe Ambash, and I discovered CRT via the internet when we moved to Charlestown. We attended services and were warmly greeted by so many interesting and kind congregants that immediately, we felt at home. We very much appreciate our wonderful rabbi and our Shabbat and holiday services, especially the music. Joe and I enjoy schmoozing over CRT potluck dinners and Onegs and feel fortunate to have found community and friendships here.
I am a retired litigator. I attended Vassar College, graduated from Yale College, and received my law degree from the University of Virginia. I also attended the University of Paris Law School. Some of my governance experience includes chairing the board of a 350-bed hospital, as well as an economic development board. I recently served as president of our 200-unit condominium. I continue my membership in my New York hometown temple, where I served throughout my life, as president of the youth group and then of the sisterhood, chair of various committees and a board member.
Today, I volunteer at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and tend my community garden. Joe and I travel and particularly enjoy spending time with our children and grandchildren. As President, I look forward to contributing to our vibrant CRT family.
Martin Arick - Vice President
Member Since 2008
Raised in St. Louis, I grew up attending a Conservative Jewish Synagogue and was Bar Mitzvahed. Chemistry was my major at Brandeis University followed by earning a Ph.D. in chemistry from Washington University. Several postdoc positions followed (including two years in the Netherlands) with more and more of an interest in Computer Science. The interest turned into a career working with computers and computer software. More than forty years and several retirements later, computers are now a pastime and not a job.
As for interests Classical music has always been a consuming interest – including going to concerts both in Boston and in many of the cities that I have traveled to including Sydney, Montreal, Leipzig, Berlin, London and others. I started Clarinet at age ten and have continued to play to this day .. specializing in Classical Chamber Music. Travel is another interest; I visited Australia/New Zealand and Japan in the last two years before the pandemic curtailed overseas travel.
Following the recommendation by a friend I attended a Friday night service at CRT and fell in love with the community spirit and have connected with a number of members of the CRT community and look forward to seeing those friends face-to-face. After more than ten years being part of Central Reform Temple, first as a member, then as the organizer of the High Holy Days Ushers and Greeters for more than five years, I joined the Board to serve the CRT Community that I love. I also serve as Co-Chair of the Welcoming Committee.
Raised in St. Louis, I grew up attending a Conservative Jewish Synagogue and was Bar Mitzvahed. Chemistry was my major at Brandeis University followed by earning a Ph.D. in chemistry from Washington University. Several postdoc positions followed (including two years in the Netherlands) with more and more of an interest in Computer Science. The interest turned into a career working with computers and computer software. More than forty years and several retirements later, computers are now a pastime and not a job.
As for interests Classical music has always been a consuming interest – including going to concerts both in Boston and in many of the cities that I have traveled to including Sydney, Montreal, Leipzig, Berlin, London and others. I started Clarinet at age ten and have continued to play to this day .. specializing in Classical Chamber Music. Travel is another interest; I visited Australia/New Zealand and Japan in the last two years before the pandemic curtailed overseas travel.
Following the recommendation by a friend I attended a Friday night service at CRT and fell in love with the community spirit and have connected with a number of members of the CRT community and look forward to seeing those friends face-to-face. After more than ten years being part of Central Reform Temple, first as a member, then as the organizer of the High Holy Days Ushers and Greeters for more than five years, I joined the Board to serve the CRT Community that I love. I also serve as Co-Chair of the Welcoming Committee.
Hal Berman - Treasurer
Member Since 2009
Hal was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and migrated to Boston after earning a BS in Mathematics and an MS In Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Most of his positions in Boston were in Computers or Networking.
While working at multiple computer companies, he earned an MBA. Later in life, he then turned to medical science and went back to school to work in Cath Labs and Electrophysiology Labs. He spends his time now reviewing medical research protocols, he is a BBO hearing officer for the Massachusetts State Supreme Court and runs a bridge group
Hal was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and migrated to Boston after earning a BS in Mathematics and an MS In Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Most of his positions in Boston were in Computers or Networking.
While working at multiple computer companies, he earned an MBA. Later in life, he then turned to medical science and went back to school to work in Cath Labs and Electrophysiology Labs. He spends his time now reviewing medical research protocols, he is a BBO hearing officer for the Massachusetts State Supreme Court and runs a bridge group
Robert Frank - Clerk
Member Since 2008
I fell in love with CRT (then Boston Jewish Spirit) from the first time my wife (Jennifer Coplon) and I first visited it while searching for a spiritual center for our lives. We loved that it was integrated with Emmanuel Church and that its leadership and members crossed the gender and religious spectrum, consistent with our South End community, and that most of the members were in “non-traditional relationships.” The CRT spirit of inclusivity, and of reaching out, keeps me actively engaged in the temple.
Much of my working time now is as a member of the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, where I take courses and occasionally teach. I am also an active board member of the Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center in Dorchester, which focuses on tennis and life skills for neighborhood kids.
My last professional position was as Director of Communication and Technology at the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston, an organization active in reforming urban schools and promoting social justice in education. I also taught summer courses at the Teacher Education Institute of the University of the Middle East and North Africa, in a program that promotes tolerance and understanding among high school teachers from that volatile part of the world. As a member of the Board of Visitors of Hearth, a Boston organization that provides housing for formerly homeless elders, I chaired the Human Rights Committee and served on the Friends of Hearth. And as a board member of ACT-Roxbury, I served as an editor of the youth edition of the Roxbury Literary Annual, a competitive annual compilation of poems and stories by students in Boston’s high schools. Prior to that, I taught English and technology at Weston High School, where I was the girls varsity tennis coach for a number of years, as well as advisor to the literary magazine.
After graduating from Amherst College, I attended MIT on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in economics, followed by a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to Brandeis, where I earned a master’s degree in English. While a graduate student, I taught and counseled in Brandeis’ Upward Bound, a college-bound program focused on disadvantaged Boston high school students. As a high school teacher, I continued my work with challenged learners, and in 2004 delivered a paper, “Cain in the Classroom,” at the 12th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, held in Havana, showing that low expectations lead to low perceptions of student work. I subsequently presented that paper in Accra, Ghana, at the Achimota School.
Although my own family is racially diverse and we count single-gender couples among us, I remain humbled at how much I am still learning about the implications of our diverse community. What better place to promote such growth than at a temple in a church?
I fell in love with CRT (then Boston Jewish Spirit) from the first time my wife (Jennifer Coplon) and I first visited it while searching for a spiritual center for our lives. We loved that it was integrated with Emmanuel Church and that its leadership and members crossed the gender and religious spectrum, consistent with our South End community, and that most of the members were in “non-traditional relationships.” The CRT spirit of inclusivity, and of reaching out, keeps me actively engaged in the temple.
Much of my working time now is as a member of the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, where I take courses and occasionally teach. I am also an active board member of the Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center in Dorchester, which focuses on tennis and life skills for neighborhood kids.
My last professional position was as Director of Communication and Technology at the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston, an organization active in reforming urban schools and promoting social justice in education. I also taught summer courses at the Teacher Education Institute of the University of the Middle East and North Africa, in a program that promotes tolerance and understanding among high school teachers from that volatile part of the world. As a member of the Board of Visitors of Hearth, a Boston organization that provides housing for formerly homeless elders, I chaired the Human Rights Committee and served on the Friends of Hearth. And as a board member of ACT-Roxbury, I served as an editor of the youth edition of the Roxbury Literary Annual, a competitive annual compilation of poems and stories by students in Boston’s high schools. Prior to that, I taught English and technology at Weston High School, where I was the girls varsity tennis coach for a number of years, as well as advisor to the literary magazine.
After graduating from Amherst College, I attended MIT on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in economics, followed by a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to Brandeis, where I earned a master’s degree in English. While a graduate student, I taught and counseled in Brandeis’ Upward Bound, a college-bound program focused on disadvantaged Boston high school students. As a high school teacher, I continued my work with challenged learners, and in 2004 delivered a paper, “Cain in the Classroom,” at the 12th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, held in Havana, showing that low expectations lead to low perceptions of student work. I subsequently presented that paper in Accra, Ghana, at the Achimota School.
Although my own family is racially diverse and we count single-gender couples among us, I remain humbled at how much I am still learning about the implications of our diverse community. What better place to promote such growth than at a temple in a church?
Board of Directors
Gail A. Carpenter
Member Since 2004
In 2004, my husband, Steve Grossberg, and I had the great good fortune of happening upon a front-page article in The Boston Courant, Back Bay Gets Jewish Services, featuring an interview with founding Rabbis Devon Lerner and Howard Berman, about High Holy Day services to be held at the Unitarian Church on Arlington Street. We attended and never looked back. In the early days of Boston Jewish Spirit, we enjoyed the friendship and dedication of clergy and lay leaders from Emmanuel Church, as we all sought to discover who we could become as we grew toward the Emmanuel Center covenant community and the CRT congregation.
I had grown up in the Episcopal Church, and converted to Judaism in 1990. For some years, we were a four-generation CRT family, including Steve’s mother, Elsie, our daughter, Deb, and her children, Noah and Zoe. Deb had been one of the first children to attend day care at the then-new JCC in Newton, and, in 1986, one of the first Kindergarteners to start the then-tiny Rashi School. We seem to enjoy Jewish start-ups.
My professional life has focused on the interdisciplinary development of brain models and their technological applications. This field, another tiny enterprise in the 1970s, has blossomed into now ubiquitous Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as scientific fields such as Systems Neuroscience. My neural modeling work began with my PhD thesis, Traveling wave solutions of nerve impulse equations, at the University of Wisconsin Department of Mathematics. In Boston since 1974, I have taught in Math Departments at MIT (where Steve and I met: Building 2! Who knew?); Northeastern; and Boston University, where I am now Professor Emerita of Mathematics and Statistics. Recent research includes development of models of how humans and machines can learn from experience in individual contexts, without feedback from a teacher and without degrading reliable knowledge
As a woman in a profession that is still overwhelmingly male, I have always had a special interest in working with, supporting, and mentoring young women and families. I have organized numerous conferences and symposia for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Neural Network Society (INNS), and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). At Boston University, I was a founding member of the Center for Adaptive Systems and the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS), and founder and director of the CNS Technology Lab. I am a Fellow of INNS and IEEE, and am the only woman ever to have received the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award.
In 2004, my husband, Steve Grossberg, and I had the great good fortune of happening upon a front-page article in The Boston Courant, Back Bay Gets Jewish Services, featuring an interview with founding Rabbis Devon Lerner and Howard Berman, about High Holy Day services to be held at the Unitarian Church on Arlington Street. We attended and never looked back. In the early days of Boston Jewish Spirit, we enjoyed the friendship and dedication of clergy and lay leaders from Emmanuel Church, as we all sought to discover who we could become as we grew toward the Emmanuel Center covenant community and the CRT congregation.
I had grown up in the Episcopal Church, and converted to Judaism in 1990. For some years, we were a four-generation CRT family, including Steve’s mother, Elsie, our daughter, Deb, and her children, Noah and Zoe. Deb had been one of the first children to attend day care at the then-new JCC in Newton, and, in 1986, one of the first Kindergarteners to start the then-tiny Rashi School. We seem to enjoy Jewish start-ups.
My professional life has focused on the interdisciplinary development of brain models and their technological applications. This field, another tiny enterprise in the 1970s, has blossomed into now ubiquitous Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as scientific fields such as Systems Neuroscience. My neural modeling work began with my PhD thesis, Traveling wave solutions of nerve impulse equations, at the University of Wisconsin Department of Mathematics. In Boston since 1974, I have taught in Math Departments at MIT (where Steve and I met: Building 2! Who knew?); Northeastern; and Boston University, where I am now Professor Emerita of Mathematics and Statistics. Recent research includes development of models of how humans and machines can learn from experience in individual contexts, without feedback from a teacher and without degrading reliable knowledge
As a woman in a profession that is still overwhelmingly male, I have always had a special interest in working with, supporting, and mentoring young women and families. I have organized numerous conferences and symposia for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Neural Network Society (INNS), and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). At Boston University, I was a founding member of the Center for Adaptive Systems and the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS), and founder and director of the CNS Technology Lab. I am a Fellow of INNS and IEEE, and am the only woman ever to have received the IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award.
Diane Stern
Member since 2014
My wife, Teresa Nelson, and I found CRT while strolling on Newbury Street. We had recently moved into the city from the suburbs. Given my love for church ornamentation and my Jewish identity, I was convinced that God had me look up at the right moment. We attended services feeling the warmth, kindness, and diverse interests of the CRT community. With Teresa’s support (she does not identify as Jewish), I saw this as a spiritual home for us. I had the amazing experience of being bat Mitzvah’ed
with a group of fellow congregants. I have done various service projects involving the movie committee, Rabbi Shire’s installation, and other events.
I grew up in Marblehead where I went to religious school through high school, sang in the choir, and was confirmed. About 20 years later, Teresa and I, with our 11 year old son, Dylan, moved back to Marblehead from the Midwest. Due to Dylan going to Hillel for school, we rejoined my childhood Temple. We became visible in the Temple as protection for Dylan to minimize any potential homophobia. I became a board member and chaired the social action committee.
Teresa and I love traveling, the arts, and walking adventures. I also enjoy playing golf. After years working as an occupational therapist, I am now working for our family business, Diversity North Group, providing consulting to companies and nonprofits to build commitment and behavior for around diversity, equity, and inclusion. I appreciate this opportunity for service on the CRT board.
My wife, Teresa Nelson, and I found CRT while strolling on Newbury Street. We had recently moved into the city from the suburbs. Given my love for church ornamentation and my Jewish identity, I was convinced that God had me look up at the right moment. We attended services feeling the warmth, kindness, and diverse interests of the CRT community. With Teresa’s support (she does not identify as Jewish), I saw this as a spiritual home for us. I had the amazing experience of being bat Mitzvah’ed
with a group of fellow congregants. I have done various service projects involving the movie committee, Rabbi Shire’s installation, and other events.
I grew up in Marblehead where I went to religious school through high school, sang in the choir, and was confirmed. About 20 years later, Teresa and I, with our 11 year old son, Dylan, moved back to Marblehead from the Midwest. Due to Dylan going to Hillel for school, we rejoined my childhood Temple. We became visible in the Temple as protection for Dylan to minimize any potential homophobia. I became a board member and chaired the social action committee.
Teresa and I love traveling, the arts, and walking adventures. I also enjoy playing golf. After years working as an occupational therapist, I am now working for our family business, Diversity North Group, providing consulting to companies and nonprofits to build commitment and behavior for around diversity, equity, and inclusion. I appreciate this opportunity for service on the CRT board.
Debra Berlanstein
Member Since 2013
I discovered CRT in the midst of arguably the worst week in recent Boston history. I had just moved into a Back Bay apartment to be closer to my job at Tufts University Medical Campus when the Boston Marathon bombing occurred on April 15, 2013. Following the shutdown of the city and the arrest of the suspect, people poured out onto Newbury Street in solidarity that following weekend. Walking by Emmanuel Church I spotted a sign that advertised a healing service for something called Central Reform Temple. I was intrigued and decided to attend and see what it was all about. I found a group of like-minded welcoming individuals and was so moved by the service and the joyous march into the street joining several churches in the area. I immediately told my husband who was then still working in another city that this was a place we needed to check out further. Not long after, we became members. We have indeed found a wonderful community of fascinating people with amazing life stories and achievements. Our family had previously been long time members of a very large, established Conservative synagogue in Baltimore, Maryland where we never quite felt completely at home, despite having great respect for their clergy. CRT was, and continues to be a refreshing and much appreciated social and spiritual change.
I was raised near Newark, New Jersey in a Jewish family that leaned toward Orthodox. When I met my husband Bruce at a rather young age, I found myself far more comfortable at his family’s Conservative synagogue. I attended Vassar College and graduated from Brooklyn College with a major in both Sociology and English. I went on to earn a Master's degree in Library and Information Science at Long Island University. I recently retired from a long and wonderful career, first as a college reference librarian, and later as a medical librarian and medical library administrator. It was these last two positions, along with my husband’s medical career that originally brought us to Boston. We love living in New England and currently reside in Plymouth, Massachusetts. We attend CRT online but try to make the drive into Boston for in person services as often as possible. I was honored to serve on the search committee that resulted in hiring our wonderful Rabbi Michael Shire, and I am now excited to rejoin the Board of CRT.
My interests include reading, mostly mysteries, along with a particular devotion to British television police procedurals. I enjoy hiking, jogging, and biking with my husband in the Plymouth/Cape Cod area. We travel as often as possible to Los Angeles to visit with our daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren. Finally, I am a long time, avid fan of Bruce Springsteen and member of an active fan group. This is a natural reflection of growing up over many wonderful summers spent on the Jersey Shore.
I discovered CRT in the midst of arguably the worst week in recent Boston history. I had just moved into a Back Bay apartment to be closer to my job at Tufts University Medical Campus when the Boston Marathon bombing occurred on April 15, 2013. Following the shutdown of the city and the arrest of the suspect, people poured out onto Newbury Street in solidarity that following weekend. Walking by Emmanuel Church I spotted a sign that advertised a healing service for something called Central Reform Temple. I was intrigued and decided to attend and see what it was all about. I found a group of like-minded welcoming individuals and was so moved by the service and the joyous march into the street joining several churches in the area. I immediately told my husband who was then still working in another city that this was a place we needed to check out further. Not long after, we became members. We have indeed found a wonderful community of fascinating people with amazing life stories and achievements. Our family had previously been long time members of a very large, established Conservative synagogue in Baltimore, Maryland where we never quite felt completely at home, despite having great respect for their clergy. CRT was, and continues to be a refreshing and much appreciated social and spiritual change.
I was raised near Newark, New Jersey in a Jewish family that leaned toward Orthodox. When I met my husband Bruce at a rather young age, I found myself far more comfortable at his family’s Conservative synagogue. I attended Vassar College and graduated from Brooklyn College with a major in both Sociology and English. I went on to earn a Master's degree in Library and Information Science at Long Island University. I recently retired from a long and wonderful career, first as a college reference librarian, and later as a medical librarian and medical library administrator. It was these last two positions, along with my husband’s medical career that originally brought us to Boston. We love living in New England and currently reside in Plymouth, Massachusetts. We attend CRT online but try to make the drive into Boston for in person services as often as possible. I was honored to serve on the search committee that resulted in hiring our wonderful Rabbi Michael Shire, and I am now excited to rejoin the Board of CRT.
My interests include reading, mostly mysteries, along with a particular devotion to British television police procedurals. I enjoy hiking, jogging, and biking with my husband in the Plymouth/Cape Cod area. We travel as often as possible to Los Angeles to visit with our daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren. Finally, I am a long time, avid fan of Bruce Springsteen and member of an active fan group. This is a natural reflection of growing up over many wonderful summers spent on the Jersey Shore.
Richard A. Daynard - Past President
Member since 2010
After recovering from my shock at being asked to serve as President, I realized this was a unique opportunity to lead a really smart and energetic group of volunteers who were committed to taking CRT to its next level. Building on our foundation as a progressive Reform temple dedicated to distilling the universal truths of the Jewish tradition, we are seeking and finding innovative ways to make our services attractive and accessible to a broader membership.
I grew up in New York City, Jewish (along with all my friends and family, and most of my classmates), but atheist. My parents didn’t have any connection with organized religion, and I did not have a bar mitzvah.
I first became involved with a temple 25 years ago when our daughter was preparing for her bat mitzvah (all her friends were doing it!). Though Reform, the services involved a lot of Hebrew prayers which the other participants seemed to know. I did Torah study with the rabbi, and took several Me’ah classes, so I learned a lot of stuff about Judaism and Jewish tradition… but I was still an atheist. None of it moved me spiritually… except Yom Kippur.
When I came to CRT I appreciated the mostly English services and the emphasis on the universality of the Classical Reform interpretation of Judaism: thinking about the human condition, not just that of Jews. The focus is on the here-and-now, not the hereafter. As the Torah study made clear, one's obligations are not so much to God as to others, to repairing the world, and to oneself.
It’s the latter obligation, to oneself, that fascinated me. Not to accumulate wealth, or power, or prestige. But to work on ourselves, to make ourselves the best person you could possibly be. Again, Yom Kippur. Doing an inventory of our failings, where we came up short, and resolving to change our approach as necessary. This is necessary, not to make us right with God, but to right ourselves.
Northeastern University Distinguished Professor of Law and President, Public Health Advocacy Institute
Professor Daynard is at the forefront of an international movement to establish the legal responsibility of the tobacco industry for tobacco-induced death, disease and disability. He is president of the law school’s Public Health Advocacy Institute, chairs its Tobacco Products Liability Project and helped initiate its new Center for Public Health Litigation. Recently, he has worked with PHAI on issues involving obesity, gambling, opioids, gun control and e-cigarettes.
After recovering from my shock at being asked to serve as President, I realized this was a unique opportunity to lead a really smart and energetic group of volunteers who were committed to taking CRT to its next level. Building on our foundation as a progressive Reform temple dedicated to distilling the universal truths of the Jewish tradition, we are seeking and finding innovative ways to make our services attractive and accessible to a broader membership.
I grew up in New York City, Jewish (along with all my friends and family, and most of my classmates), but atheist. My parents didn’t have any connection with organized religion, and I did not have a bar mitzvah.
I first became involved with a temple 25 years ago when our daughter was preparing for her bat mitzvah (all her friends were doing it!). Though Reform, the services involved a lot of Hebrew prayers which the other participants seemed to know. I did Torah study with the rabbi, and took several Me’ah classes, so I learned a lot of stuff about Judaism and Jewish tradition… but I was still an atheist. None of it moved me spiritually… except Yom Kippur.
When I came to CRT I appreciated the mostly English services and the emphasis on the universality of the Classical Reform interpretation of Judaism: thinking about the human condition, not just that of Jews. The focus is on the here-and-now, not the hereafter. As the Torah study made clear, one's obligations are not so much to God as to others, to repairing the world, and to oneself.
It’s the latter obligation, to oneself, that fascinated me. Not to accumulate wealth, or power, or prestige. But to work on ourselves, to make ourselves the best person you could possibly be. Again, Yom Kippur. Doing an inventory of our failings, where we came up short, and resolving to change our approach as necessary. This is necessary, not to make us right with God, but to right ourselves.
Northeastern University Distinguished Professor of Law and President, Public Health Advocacy Institute
Professor Daynard is at the forefront of an international movement to establish the legal responsibility of the tobacco industry for tobacco-induced death, disease and disability. He is president of the law school’s Public Health Advocacy Institute, chairs its Tobacco Products Liability Project and helped initiate its new Center for Public Health Litigation. Recently, he has worked with PHAI on issues involving obesity, gambling, opioids, gun control and e-cigarettes.
Jill S. Silverstein, Ed.D. - Past President
Member Since 2005
My husband David and I discovered CRT after seeing the sign on the door. We had recently moved into the city, so were delighted to find this new Reform synagogue. Being a small community, it was easy to get involved. Any of you who know me know that I jumped in…and am “all in all the time”. I have done everything - from moving furniture to Shabbat set up/clean up, baking challah for kiddush to hemming Torah mantles, writing the newsletter to giving sermons, and everything in between. Oh yes – I also did two tours of duty as CRT’s president. Professionally I was a corporate educator (for decades!) The last few years, I have worked part-time with both for- and not for profit organizations. In my free time, my favorite thing is spending time with David doing anything. After that, I love travel, music, swimming, dogs, reading, and entertaining friends and family. CRT is our community, our spiritual home, a place of friendship and laughter and abundant love. What a joy to be part of the family.
Jill Silverstein has served as president of the congregation in multiple instances throughout our history.
My husband David and I discovered CRT after seeing the sign on the door. We had recently moved into the city, so were delighted to find this new Reform synagogue. Being a small community, it was easy to get involved. Any of you who know me know that I jumped in…and am “all in all the time”. I have done everything - from moving furniture to Shabbat set up/clean up, baking challah for kiddush to hemming Torah mantles, writing the newsletter to giving sermons, and everything in between. Oh yes – I also did two tours of duty as CRT’s president. Professionally I was a corporate educator (for decades!) The last few years, I have worked part-time with both for- and not for profit organizations. In my free time, my favorite thing is spending time with David doing anything. After that, I love travel, music, swimming, dogs, reading, and entertaining friends and family. CRT is our community, our spiritual home, a place of friendship and laughter and abundant love. What a joy to be part of the family.
Jill Silverstein has served as president of the congregation in multiple instances throughout our history.
Daniel Lissner - Past President
Member Since 2004
I was a founding member of Central Reform Temple and served as its first full-term President. As a Jewish person in an interfaith relationship, I hoped that we would create a community where my wife Adrienne and I both would feel supported, and that our practice of Judaism would illuminate the common themes of our respective faith traditions. CRT has been our religious home for nearly 20 years. I served on the CRT Board for many years, as well as on the Board of Emmanuel Center, our programmatic collaboration with Emmanuel Church. After taking a hiatus while our children were young, I am happy to return to service at CRT with a focus on how we support families in making Judaism part of their lives.
A native of Richmond, Virginia who was raised in a Conservative Jewish congregation, I have lived in Boston since 2004. I am a graduate of the University of Texas and the University of Virginia School of Law, and I have a solo law practice serving as a general counsel to early stage and emerging growth companies. We live in Charlestown. Our days are filled with school and sports-related commitments of our kids, cooking, gardening, exercise, yoga, and walks with our mini Labradoodle Charlie.
Dan Lissner was our first full-term board president and is a founding member of the congregation.
I was a founding member of Central Reform Temple and served as its first full-term President. As a Jewish person in an interfaith relationship, I hoped that we would create a community where my wife Adrienne and I both would feel supported, and that our practice of Judaism would illuminate the common themes of our respective faith traditions. CRT has been our religious home for nearly 20 years. I served on the CRT Board for many years, as well as on the Board of Emmanuel Center, our programmatic collaboration with Emmanuel Church. After taking a hiatus while our children were young, I am happy to return to service at CRT with a focus on how we support families in making Judaism part of their lives.
A native of Richmond, Virginia who was raised in a Conservative Jewish congregation, I have lived in Boston since 2004. I am a graduate of the University of Texas and the University of Virginia School of Law, and I have a solo law practice serving as a general counsel to early stage and emerging growth companies. We live in Charlestown. Our days are filled with school and sports-related commitments of our kids, cooking, gardening, exercise, yoga, and walks with our mini Labradoodle Charlie.
Dan Lissner was our first full-term board president and is a founding member of the congregation.
