LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

IKAR's Leadership Council is a group of extraordinary lay leaders who are passionate about building IKAR. The Council has four pillars, each of which focuses on a different aspect of IKAR's community

Sarah Raful, Leadership Council Chair
*see board bio

TORAH

Jonathan Diamond, Chair
Jonathan Diamond a journalist and editor, came to IKAR with his family a little more than two years ago. The IKAR community proved to provide the perfect melding of religious, social, spiritual and educational needs of his family, one that blends different relationships to Judaism and different cultural origins. A Philadelphia native, he and Sandy Itkoff moved to Los Angeles from New York in early 2000. Their son, Leo was born a few weeks later and daughter Kidist Rose (Rosie) joined the family in 2004 with her adoption from Ethiopia. They live in Hollywood.

Michal Lemberger
Michal Lemberger has been a member of IKAR since its inception. She was originally drawn to the warmth of the community and loved that there were lots of families with small children around, even though she didn't have any of her own at that point. Now that she does, she has almost forgotten what IKAR services are like, but thinks the children's programming is wonderful. She loves sitting in front of fires, long walks on the beach and writing about herself in third person.

Lee Mendelson

Dan Messinger, Chair
Dan is a recovering IKAR board member who uses his role on the leadership council to fix his social justice cravings. After an extensive search throughout the Los Angeles community, Dan and his wife Deena found IKAR by mistake when they misunderstood the term "spiritual community" while looking for a weekly séance. Since that fateful Google search, the Messingers have drunk the IKAR kool-aid (cane juice sweetened, of course) and look to contribute in any way possible to the realization of IKAR's dream. Dan is a producer and Brand Energy consultant by trade and he and Deena are the proud parents of Max.

Michael Brous
I am involved in IKAR because it's a serious, committed spiritual community with a purpose. IKAR is basically "Facebook with a kick ass Rabbi" - a viral, fun, engaging community that never ceases to surprise, one that's actually trying to take the challenges of the world head on. I thrive on the Rabbi's Torah, and feel honored to learn from a leader with such a deep well of knowledge and passion. Outside of IKAR, I work in business development at Yahoo! - and mostly spend my days encouraging people to search on Y! and click on lots of ads instead of using our competition. I also lived in Jerusalem for 7 years, working in venture capital with early-stage Israeli internet companies. Most importantly, I found my wife Michal in an eyeglass store on Emek Refaim in Jerusalem, and we are blessed to have a baby girl Tamar, born just in time for a 2007 tax deduction.

Rabbi Andy Feig
Rabbi Andrew Feig is currently the Rabbi-in-Residence at Sinai Akiba Academy of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California. In this K-8 Solomon Schechter day school, Rabbi Feig leads services for the 2 - 8 grade classes, teaches Bible in 6th and 8th grade, and works on a variety of programming including a comprehensive Human Development and B'nai Mitzvah curriculum of which he is co-creating and implementing. At the end of the spring of 2007, Rabbi Feig completed his rabbinic training at the Academy for Jewish Religion, California, where he also completed a Masters in Rabbinic Studies. He also holds a Masters in Jewish Studies from the University of Chicago, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before coming to Sinai Akiba, Rabbi Feig worked as a Dean of Students at Milken Community High School in Los Angeles. He is blessed with a beautiful family; Julie, his partner of 10 years, Ella (6), Ezra (4) and Eytan (7 months).

Saul Korin
Saul Korin is a nonprofit superhero, husband to Tatum Wynne Korin and father to Amaya and Ella. When not doing IKAR events or chasing kids, Saul likes to organize Shabbat basketball games held in Pico Robertson. He prefers cookie puss to fudgie the whale. He prays for a Philadelphia sports team to win a championship, and that is why he comes to IKAR.

Nikki Levy
Nikki Levy stumbled upon IKAR after futilely searching Los Angeles for a shul that "felt like home" and didn't require daily hair blow-outs as a prerequisite to feeling comfortable at Shabbas. A native New Yorker, Nikki moved to L.A. in 2002 and was turned onto IKAR by a friend. She attended the first ever IKAR High Holiday service, and, sitting in the front row (where she can still be found), was immediately drawn to the incredible ruach and passion present, and remembers very vividly a sense of freedom and excitement experienced by both the founders and the Rabbi. She was hooked. Three and a half years later, she is proud and grateful to have found a community that supports, challenges, and sustains her in a city that doesn't easily offer it up. Nikki is excited to be chairing IKAR'S 2008 Annual Purim Justice Carnival, an exceptional night of education, activism, decadence and debauchery on March 20th at the WJCC. When not attending IKAR events, Nikki serves as a development executive in feature films.

KEHIILLAH

Jami Trockman, Chair
Jami Trockman is the Kehillah Pillar Chair on the Leadership Council. In her first few years living in Los Angeles, she synagogue hopped ad nauseum and was thrilled to finally find a spiritual home in IKAR. In her spare time, she works for the Jewish Federation, where she is a fundraiser (also known as a "fun raiser"), and she is active in the Jewish Communal Professionals of Southern California and the Professional Leaders Project. She is a real sucker for a soy latte and a spinning class (not necessarily in that order). If you have great ideas for how IKAR can engage in meaningful community building of any kind, she's all ears!

Sarah Benor
Sarah Benor is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Hebrew Union College. She teaches about the social science of American Jews, as well as about language and culture. She mentors students in the School of Jewish Communal Services and serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Southern California. Sarah is married to Mark Bunin Benor and is a valued and energetic member of the IKAR hesed group who lovingly prepares and brings goodies to community members, even as she juggles her three children.

Alisa Finsten
I joined IKAR in early 2005, shortly after relocating to LA from New York City. After living in NYC without being part of a synagogue community, I was longing for the opportunity to be involved in one again. What my husband Jim and I discovered in IKAR was so much more. We both feel so fortunate to have found such a welcoming, supportive and spiritual community and a place that always has something going on for everyone. We feel blessed to have met so many wonderful people through IKAR too. For the past year I have been involved in IKAR has the House Party Coordinator. I enjoy being able to help get people where they want to go! I have worked in the nonprofit world for 10 years, most recently as Director of Development for Los Angeles Team Mentoring, an organization focused on mentoring programs in middle schools in LAUSD. In February, I will be transitioning to a role working for Mayor Villaraigosa's Office of Homeland Security and Public Safety working on grants to support Los Angeles' public safety initiatives.

Rachel Fleiner
After searching Los Angeles up and down for a community that fed my hunger for an active, thoughtful, spirited and spiritual Jewish community miraculously I came upon IKAR. I am so grateful to be a vital part of the IKAR community whose foundation is to embrace challenge, inspire social change, and build a beautiful and rich umbrella for each member to feel connected in some way. I love that my husband, Sam Simkin, and I can find fulfillment at IKAR in our different ways. I love watching the children fully engaged and included, which goes hand and hand with my work as an occupational therapist that I believe has also become my life's passion. You can otherwise find me behind a camera, playing with our most adorable dog, Nagy, and spending time with Sam. I am looking forward to having my family grow with and love IKAR. I am thrilled to be welcoming new members, helping to ensure that our community continues to feel warm and inviting to all, and work on developing new projects and ideas that will enrich the greater community and our environment.

Jonathan Golub
Men's Club founder, "Jews Who Rock" band leader, occasional DJ, and general rabble-rouser, I came to IKAR for the cookies and stayed for the people - the incredibly wonderful, smart, talented, caring people. As new parents, my wife Brooke and I looked for a community where our children could have the same kind of positive, empowering, and joyful Jewish experience as we did growing up, and we found it here. Three years later, along with Brooke and our sons Leo, Ezra and Judah, I'm thrilled to be a part of such a vibrant community and honored to contribute to its growth. I also manage digital brand strategy for Looney Tunes and Harry Potter at Warner Bros.

Rachel Light
After searching LA for a synagogue where I could feel comfortable, I found so much more in a community that embraces me like family. IKAR inspires and motivates me to look beyond the details of my day-to-day grind and engage in the world in a manner that heightens my Jewish identity and reinforces my spirituality. When I'm not planning a Grey Area event (or critiquing whatever meal is being served), I run a recruiting company called The Assistance Group. I find people their Executive Assistants, Personal Assistants and Domestic Help.

Stu Treitel
Stuart Treitel who sometimes goes by his nom de plume, Soupy Cantor is an active member of IKAR since arriving in LA roughly three years ago. He wears many kipahs at IKAR as the Grand Poobah for the Men's Club, the keyboardist for the IKAR house band, Jews that Rock and most notably as half of the award winning duo, Outdoor Jewish Adventures which has taken many IKARites on hikes and camping trips. As a child of a Zionist family who went to Solomon Schechter, spent summers at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires and continued the cliché of a New York Jew by going to school at Brandeis, IKAR is the logical progression of my Jewish journey. It has been a welcome home since first arriving here and continues to fulfill and nourish me spiritually and nutritionally on Shabbat b'Yahads. Stuart is back to being a student in his pursuit of being a Physician's Assistant.

Mike Silverstein
Mike Silverstein was first dragged to IKAR by his then-girlfriend, now-wife Kim in the summer of 2004, after moving to LA from his hometown of Boston. What he found there was more than he ever could have expected: a fun, friendly spiritual community that perfectly balances traditional Jewish teachings with progressive politics, tzedakah and service with Torah and introspection, intense learning with music and dancing, and milk with meat. (Well, maybe not the last two together). He is now proud to call IKAR not just his synagogue, but his family. Mike has recently taken the reins of IKAR's Men's Club, a goofy troupe of IKAR males dedicated to good times, great nosh, attractive head-wear, and bringing out the ideals of IKAR into the community. When he's not cruising the Westside JCC, Mike works at a talent management firm in Beverly Hills, where he toils in service of America's Finest Citizens: its actors.

TIKKUN

Shawn Landres, Chair
Shawn's aim in life is to have every waking hour (and maybe the sleeping ones, too) qualify for Isaiah Fund credit. A number of people are convinced that he is everywhere, but he's usually somewhere else. His life outside of IKAR involves, among other things, helping Jewish communities be more like IKAR: seriously, he gets paid for this.

Bill Deliman
Finding my place in the Jewish world of Los Angeles has been a compelling journey. After converting to Judaism some years ago, I became a temple hopper- attending services and studying with various rabbis, seeking out that special community I could call home. IKAR has fulfilled my intellectual, social, civic needs and more! At IKAR, I belong to a spiritual community that has touched my heart and my soul. I have personally grown through the relationships I have formed and the partnership with PATH which reminds me how much further we have to go to bring justice and dignity to all members of our community.

Zuzana Landres
Zuzana Landres has been an active member of IKAR since spring 2004. A few years before that, back in her own "old country" (for those of you who still don't know, it's Slovakia), she had no idea about mixed seating, singing while praying, and women holding the Torah. She thought that "tikkun olam" was some sort of Israeli brand and that social justice meant automatically owning a Red Book and wearing a Young Pioneers uniform. She now knows better: IKAR is this crazy place where instead of praying, she ends up chatting with her friends, where "By the Waters of Babylon" has kind of grown on her, and where "tikkun olam" actually means something. And a little piece of trivia: when she first Googled "IKAR" back in 2004, the top hit actually was in Slovakia - Ikar is a well-known publishing house. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ingrid Lobet

Jonathan Matz
I'm honored to be a member of the Tikkun Pillar of IKAR's Leadership Council. A Los Angeles native, I discovered IKAR shortly after moving back to my hometown after nearly ten years away in Colorado, New York and France. I think it's fair to say I'm a dabbler: in arts management, which I'm currently studying in grad school; in electoral politics, for which I'm on hiatus from grad school until February 5. But a common thread that I've come to see is my own desire to break myself and the people around me -- in my community, in my neighborhood, in my city and country -- out of our insularity. IKAR constantly rejuvenates me in my quest to do just that.

Scott Minkow
In those BI days of yore (Before IKAR), I had tried various congregations and spiritual communities, but never found a place that spoke to my soul. I had sort of given up on ever finding such a fabled entity, and then (much like true love), I found it when I least expected to. Who knew that a drab space within a park could re-ignite a flame in me that I thought had died out? I've been so delighted and honored to be a part of IKAR, and if you're reading this bio, I don't need to tell you why.

Lee Winkelman
Lee Winkelman has been a member of IKAR since moving to Los Angeles this past summer. Lee was co-chair of the Social Justice Committee of Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive synagogue in Brooklyn. He worked for seven years in NYC for progressive foundations, including Jewish Funds for Justice. Before that he worked for 14 years as a community organizer in Massachusetts and El Salvador. Lee is enjoying exploring his newly adopted city with his wife Wendey and his four-year-old son Henry.