Board of Directors
Leah Krakinowski, Chair, a communications strategist for financial services and technology companies, had a 20-year career as a newspaper reporter, radio producer and magazine editor, working for media outlets such as Dow Jones, the Voice of America and Knight-Ridder, in the United States and Southeast Asia. In addition to her professional affiliations, Ms. Krakinowski has maintained a longstanding commitment to the Jewish community, raising funds through United Jewish Appeal’s Young Leadership program in Washington, D.C.; serving as a board member of the Hong Jewish Benevolent Society, a private agency allocating funds for elderly, indigent Jews throughout Southeast Asia; participating in the creation of the Hong Kong Jewish Community’s first traveling Holocaust Museum exhibition; serving as a member of the Board of Kehilat Kesher, a modern Orthodox Synagogue in Englewood, N.J., and donating her time to such organizations as Bonim Builders and Jewish Family Services. She has a bachelor of arts in communications and economics from the State University of New York at Albany, and a masters of arts in Journalism from the University of Maryland. Most recently, Ms. Krakinowski, through a grant from the Berrie Foundation, participated as a community empowerment fellow with Mechon Hadar, a New York-based yeshiva that combines traditional text study, egalitarian prayer and social action with a special focus on personal religious growth.
Daniel Held is a doctoral candidate in the Davidson School for Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary, a Wexner Graduate Fellow, and Tikvah Scholar. His research interests include experiential learning in Jewish day schools and the training of experiential educators. Prior to moving to New York Daniel was a tenured faculty member and the Director of Student Activities at TanenbaumCHAT, the Toronto Jewish community high school, and a consultant on experiential learning. For seven summers Daniel was a member of the educational and administrative staff at Brandeis University’s Office of High School Programs where he has also been a fellow in the Seminar on Jewish Experiential Learning. Daniel writes a monthly column on education and youth culture for the Canadian Jewish News. In addition to his work as a Jewish communal professional, Daniel has held a variety of positions as a lay leader including service on the boards of directors of the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre, Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Disaster Response Corps, the editorial board of the Canadian Jewish News and the central planning committee of Limmud Toronto. Daniel was a founding member of Toronto’s partnership minyanim – KOH and TPM.
Sam Kur teaches English at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls. She holds a BA in Education and English and a MA in English Education from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, where she was a Pardes Fellow. She has been involved in the creation of “partnership minyanim” in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Chani Laufer graduated from Fordham Law School in 2004. After graduation she worked as a Law Guardian representing children in custody and abuse and neglect cases in the Bronx and New York district court. Before entering law, Chani was a journalist, reporting for the Philadelphia Enquirer and the Bergen Record. She was also involved in New York State politics. Chani, and her husband Steve, live in Riverdale with their two children, Shoshana and Ari.
Belda Lindenbaum is the Vice-President of Development at the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. She is also a board member of Ramaz Day School and Bar Ilan University. With her husband Marcel, and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, she co-founded Midreshet Lindenbaum in Israel, which is a post-high school learning center for diaspora women and a Yeshivat Hesder (combining study with military service) for Israeli women. She is the mother of five children, all married, and the proud grandmother of 18 and still counting.
Andrew Silberstein is senior vice president of Globecomm Systems, a publically-held global provider of communications solutions and services. He currently leads the company’s operations, planning and execution of strategic business development, as well as sales and management of ongoing services. A 25-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, Mr. Silberstein most recently served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Schema Inc., a global wireless optimization software company, with operations in the United States, Israel and Latin America. Prior to his tenure with Schema, Mr. Silberstein served as Globecomm’s Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Mr. Silberstein has served on the board of a number of Jewish institutions, including the Ohel Leah Synagogue in Hong Kong, and is currently a board member of Areyvut, a non-profit organization helping Jewish youth infuse their lives with the core Jewish values of chesed (kindness), tzedakah (charity) and tikkun olam (social action). He is also involved with the Sanhedria School for Boys in Jerusalem. Mr. Silberstein has a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Rutgers University, M.Sc. in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and an Executive MBA from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, the country’s academic leader in science and technology.
Abigail Tambor currently serves on the boards of JOFA, Penn Hillel and Yavneh, a Partnership Minyan on the Upper East Side. She has been dedicated to developing greater opportunities and leadership roles for Women in Orthodox communities since birth. She currently resides in Manhattan with her husband and 4 children.
Advisory Board
Rabbi Marc Angel
Rabbi Michael Balinsky
Rav David Bigman
Rabbi Zev Farber
Rabbi Aaron Frank
Blu Greenberg
Rabbi David Kalb
Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky
Rachel Keren
Esther Krauss
Rabbi Asher Lopatin
Rabbi Hanan Schleisinger
Rabbi Hyim Shafner
Rabbi Mendel Shapiro
Rabbi Daniel Sperber
Rabbi Saul Strosberg
Rabbi Uri Topolosky