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Welcome | About TBE

Lay Leaders

Meet our lay leaders

Daniel Navisky

Danny Navisky

President

Danny, his wife Elizabeth, and their sons Asher and Lev have been fixtures at TBE since rejoining Elizabeth’s childhood community many years ago. Each member of the family has made TBE a second home—serving in leadership positions, singing on the bimah, participating in learning opportunities, supporting the congregation’s technology staff, and many other roles. Danny currently co-chairs TBE’s Bonim Shalom Visioning Team and co-chairs TBE’s partnership with Or Hadash, our sister congregation in Haifa. Among other leadership roles, he previously served on TBE’s Board of Trustees as the Vice President of Adult Jewish Living and as the Vice President of T’filah. You can find Danny at TBE most days of the week, whether it’s Friday Night Services, a mid-week meeting with congregants or clergy, Sunday morning Hebrew School drop off, or Saturday morning minyan and Torah study.

Outside of TBE, Danny is the Boston Executive Director of Thrive Scholars, a national education-to-career nonprofit helping high-achieving students of color from economically disadvantaged communities get into and graduate from college equipped to achieve their full career potential. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Arts Collaborative. No matter what he’s doing, he’s listening to and learning about music of all kinds, even if he has none of the musical talents of the rest of his family.

Danna Greenberg

Vice President of Administration

Danna and her husband, Michael Tobin, have been members of TBE since 1999. The TBE community has been central to their lives and they feel fortunate that their three children, Micaela (23), Jonah (20), and Seth (18) have grown up at TBE, actively participating in and leading youth activities, and forming close connections with peers, educators, and clergy. Danna has served in a variety of leadership roles including co-chair of The Leadership Council, Vice President of Jewish Living, and co-chairing multiple rabbi search committees.

Paula Berg

Vice President of Caring Connections

Paula and her daughter Lila (15) live in Wayland and have been members of TBE since 2013. One of Lila’s
first memories is when she was five, she got to walk around the new TBE building wearing a yellow
hardhat. Over the years, Paula has served in various capacities on the Caring Connections team,
packaging deliveries for congregants, delivering honey and visiting homes and hospitals to bring a TBE
connection to those who’ve suffered illness or injury. Paula was on the TBE team to personally call
congregants during the early days of the pandemic.

Professionally, Paula is a family law attorney with a solo practice in Wellesley. Among her other
volunteer activities, Paula has served as a guardian and conservator for the elderly, offers pro bono
representation to victims of domestic violence, is Vice President of the Wayland High School PTO and
serves as a Hotline foster parent for children placed suddenly into the foster care system. Paula is the
Past President of the Massachusetts Association for Guardians ad litem and has served on the Board of
The Second Step and the Women’s Bar Association.

Julie Somers

Vice President of Communications

Julie Somers is a marketing communications professional with more than 20 years of expertise in communications, marketing and public relations. She currently leads employee engagement communications for a global healthcare company. Previously, Julie served 8 years as Vice President of Marketing for Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) where she was responsible for the in-house creative agency, digital marketing, public relations, crisis communications, and events.

She has also worked in Marketing and PR for corporate restaurant and retail companies including Panera Bread and BJ’s Wholesale Club.

Julie and her husband Moe have been TBE members for 20 years and have 2 adult children who grew up involved with TBE. Julie’s favorite experiences with the temple community include co-chairing a rabbi search, being part of the original team that created the “How do you Tikkun Olam?” bumper sticker, serving on the Lunch and Learn committee, and enjoying Friday night services.

Julie also serves as a board member of the Vilna Shul, the Center for Jewish Arts and Culture in Boston.

Susan Solomont

Vice President of Development

Susan Solomont and her husband Alan have been TBE members since 1989. Their two daughters Becca and Stephanie both went to TBE Nursery School, became Bat Mitzvah at TBE and Stephanie and her husband Geoff were married by Rabbi Sisenwine and Cantor Zell in 2023. They are looking forward to naming their granddaughter Leni, now 7 months old at a Friday evening service.

For many years, Susan served on the TBE board in a number of positions. Perhaps the most meaningful was chairing the Makom committee that helped build our beautiful building.

Susan currently is a Senior Philanthropic Advisor at The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) in Boston, Massachusetts, a not-for-profit consulting firm that advises individuals, foundations, and corporations on how to design philanthropy programs to create meaning and impact. Earlier in her career, Susan worked for WGBH overseeing all corporate fundraising for both the television and radio stations.

Susan and Alan lived in Madrid Spain from 2010-2013, where Alan served as U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra. One of the many highlights of their time there was when the clergy and 60 TBE members came to visit.

Susan is the author of two books, Lost and Found In Spain: Tales of An Ambassador’s Wife and the children’s book, Stella the Ambassadog.

Susan believes in being an active member of the community and has served on a number of boards in the Boston area. She has served on many boards including the Berklee College of Music, the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition, the New England Aquarium, the Women’s Health Initiative at Boston Medical Center, Newton Wellesley Hospital, the Citi Center for the Performing Arts, The Commonwealth Institute, the WGBH Board of Overseers, and the Boston Jewish Community Women’s Fund.

Glenn Burack

Vice President of Finance

Glenn and his wife, Rebecca live in Newton with their two teenage children Ethan and Gabriella. They have been members of TBE since 2015 and feel blessed to belong to such a warm and caring community. Glenn has served on the Finance Committee for several years, offering financial and long range planning advice and guidance for the Temple and for Cedar Bethel Properties. Professionally, Glenn is an independent strategy and operations consultant in the Boston area. He helps companies accomplish their most strategic initiatives through a wide range of financial, business, product development, and governance engagements. Glenn also currently serves on the Board of Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Boston.

Juli LeDoux

Vice President of Governance

​Juli grew up at TBE and is now proud to have her husband Jonah, and two children Maisy (9) and Miles (4) as active members of the community. Juli and her family are engaged with Families with Young Children and BaDerech programming. Juli has been a member of Families with Young Children committees, and Gan Elohim committees, and has recently formed a new group for Moms of Young Children, bringing social and learning events to the community. For the past three years, Juli has been a member of the Nominating Committee. In addition, she is a member of the TBE Choir.

Juli is currently the Director of Marketing at ImmunoGen, bringing education to patients about the ovarian cancer treatment landscape. She just launched the first ovarian cancer treatment in 9 years. Juli is a volunteer member of Lasagna Love and Neighbor Brigade, as well as the Cultural Enrichment Chair at Eliot Elementary School.

Outside of her professional and TBE life, she participates (newly) in musical theater, and spends as much time as she can doing fun activities with her family and making them smile.

Marni Allen

Vice President of Adult Jewish Living

Marni grew up at TBE and returned to the community over a decade ago after living in DC. She and her husband, Jonathan have three children, Lucas (13), Olivia (13), and Abby (10), who are active participants in TBE’s youth learning programs. Marni has served in several leadership roles at TBE, most recently as VP Governance. She feels deeply at home every time she walks through the temple’s front doors, whether starting the day meeting with other TBE leaders or ending the week at Shabbat services. She especially values the opportunities to form connections with a wide variety of temple members, beyond her original home base of families with children.

Outside TBE, Marni is the Vice President, Volunteer Mobilization and Leadership at Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), where she helps ensure that the Jewish community’s work is enhanced by the tremendous talent that exists across Greater Boston. She is the head coach of a local Girls on the Run team and serves on the Board of the Mason-Rice AfterSchool Program.

Jessica Lasser

Vice President of Youth Jewish Living

Jessica has lived in the Boston area for just over 11 years, coming originally from Louisville, KY, where her parents taught through example the importance of involvement and philanthropy in the Jewish Community. She has served on the TBE board for the past four years as VP of Tikkun Olam is excited at the prospect of transitioning to the role of VP of Youth and Jewish Living. She has been intimately involved with refugee resettlement at TBE, originally helping resettle Syrian families in 2017 and since then working with families from Afghanistan, Ukraine and currently, Honduras. In her day job, Jessica works part-time at The Second Step as an attorney focusing on domestic violence immigration and family law. Previous to this role, she was a guardian ad litem with The Legal Aid, representing children in abuse, neglect and custody cases and was President of the board of the Alma Center, a program that works to end the cycle of domestic violence by working directly with the perpetrators of the violence. Jessica is a certified mediator, has a JD from New York Law School and a BA in History from Northwestern University. She reluctantly competes in a triathlon every September to help raise awareness for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and ran one marathon in 2004 which thankfully checked that off the bucket list. Jessica lives in Newton with her husband Ethan, 2 dogs and 3 kids Levi, Hattie and Goldie, who all happily attend the Rashi School.

Susan Alvares Correa

Vice President of K’lal Yisrael

Susan Alvares Correa traces her Jewish roots back to pre-Inquisition Spain and is a 13th generation member of Curaçao’s Sephardic community, the oldest in the Americas. Although she has lived in the United States for over 30 years, TBE is the first American community in which Susan felt at home. An architect by training, she felt an immediate connection to TBE when she first approached the building over 10 years ago. The embrace of the space was echoed by the people she met and thus began a slow widening of her sense of belonging to the Jewish people. Since joining TBE, Susan and her family have become involved on numerous fronts. She is an active mentor through the Partakers Reentry Program, and a member of the Anafim L’Haifa partnership with Or Hadash. Susan has served on the Leadership Council and is a past co-chair of Sisterhood@TBE.

Susan is actively engaged in economic revitalization projects in Curaçao and other Dutch Caribbean islands. She is also a certified life coach working primarily with women in life transitions. Susan and her wife Kate live in Weston with Susan’s two daughters, Sofia (now 20) and Lia (now 16) Silva. Susan loves cooking and has recently caught the pickleball bug.

Ted Nesson

Vice President of Member Engagement

Ted Nesson, his wife Susan, and his daughters Alexandra (26), Michaela (24), and Hannah (21) have been TBE members for 20 years. Shortly after the third bat mitzvah, Ted and Susan were invited to participate in TBE’s Atid program. Inspired by the Atid experience, Ted subsequently joined the Leadership Council, helped launch the Civil Discourse initiative, and worked with the Israel Strategy Group, focusing on growing our community’s connection with Israel – and with our sister congregation, Ohev Avraham.

Throughout 2020, Ted worked closely with TBE’s clergy and staff to launch the Community Connections Initiative, helping our members to stay connected during the pandemic. Ted is truly honored to have the opportunity to further serve the TBE community as a member of the board.

In his professional life, Ted is a technology industry executive, currently leading the software architecture efforts at SS&C Eze, a provider of financial software solutions and technology services.
Ted and Susan live in Newton, with their dog Brody. In his free time, Ted can often be found walking Brody in Newton, Needham, or Weston.

Eric Hochberg

Vice President of T’filah

Eric and his family joined TBE in 2012 after relocating to the area. After initially engaging primarily through regular attendance at Tot Shabbat with his daughter, Eric grew to find meaning and a deeper sense of connection through committee participation, serving as a ritual subcommittee co-chair on the Yaldeinu committee; as a member of the T’filah committee; as a member, and 2021-2023 co-chair, of the No’ar committee; and as part of the Bonim Shalom Visioning Team.

A former elementary school teacher, Eric is a senior researcher at TERC, a Cambridge-based non-profit organization dedicated to improving math and science education, where he works in research, development, and evaluation of STEM education programs and initiatives. Eric lives in Natick with his wife and two daughters.

Nicole Roos

Vice President of Tikkun Olam

Nicole has been a member of TBE since 2005. Since then, she has been actively engaged in numerous activities, including serving as the TBE liaison to the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO); TBE Congregants to Prevent Gun Violence; and, since late 2019, coordinating the TBE Racial Justice Initiative’s Voter Freedom/”Every Voice Every Vote” campaign to combat voter suppression.

Nicole is a current Advisory Committee member and former Board Member of the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA) and a former Board chair of NARAL Prochoice Massachusetts (now Reproductive Equity Now (REN)). She is a longtime member of the NARAL/REN Endorsement Committee.

With a background in health care management, Nicole has worked at the MA Department of Public Health since 1995 in a variety of roles, all related to improving systems of care for children with special health needs and their families. She is currently the Operations and Budget Manager in the DPH Division for Children & Youth with Special Health Needs.

Originally from New York, Nicole came to MA for college and loves it here. She now lives in Waltham.

Monique Burns Thompson

Presidential Appointee

Monique and her family (Dr. Michael Thompson and daughter’s Mikaela (26) and Isabelle (16)) became members seven years ago when their youngest Isabelle started her bat mitzvah journey at TBE. Isabelle was an active member of the B’Yachad, and then in Havayah as a Challah Back Girl and Madrichim (teacher in training) before leaving for boarding school. Monique has been an active member of the adult learning community, the Sisterhood@TBE and has served on the Bonim Shalom Visioning Committee. In addition to working closely with the rabbinical team while planning (and replanning) the last bat mitzvah before the pandemic, she has also been touched by the thoughtful and skilled support of the entire TBE staff during the illness and death of her co-parent Michael.

Professionally, Monique has spent 25 years as a social entrepreneur in the K-12 education industry. She was co-founder of two national non-profits: New Leaders and TeachPlus. For the last six years she has been a full-time faculty member at Harvard Business School. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston and Board of Advisors of RevOps Health. Monique and Isabelle live in Wellesley and Mikaela is in medical school at Northwestern University Feinberg School in Chicago.

Alexandra Fuchs

Presidential Appointee

Alexandra is a Development and Marketing professional who has held senior roles at the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Boston (BGCB), and earlier in her career at Unilever. As COO of the BSO, she was responsible for earned revenue and oversaw the Marketing, Sales, Communications, Education & Community Engagement and Sponsorship teams. As Chief Advancement Officer of BGCB, she led the management and implementation of a comprehensive campaign, securing more than $100 million during the first three years of the campaign. Currently, she serves on the Newton Free Library Board of Trustees, the Board of Advisors at Celebrity Series of Boston, and the Campaign Cabinet of CJP. She is an enthusiastic cellist and plays in the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Newton. She has also enjoyed volunteering at TBE Table over the past two years.

Alexandra and her husband, Gideon Argov, have been members of TBE for more than 20 years and their daughters Talia (18) and Shira (16) grew up at TBE (starting with Katan Gadol) until they moved to Tel Aviv in 2015 for two years. Their daughters are now leaders in Tzofim (Israeli Scouts) and Talia is heading to Israel next year to attend Mechinat Tavor. Alexandra has three step-sons, one of whom served in the IDF, and two step-grandbabies who thankfully live in the Boston area. She brings extensive experience in strategic planning and nonprofit management and, along with her family, a deep connection to Israeli society.

Jennifer Morris

Presidential Appointee & Leadership Council Co-Chair

Jen is a nurse at Beth Israel. For many years, she has been very involved in TBE Youth Jewish Living and Gan Elohim and has brought her entire family over to TBE! She is a longtime
member of the Leadership Council, having experienced the LC through many iterations. In addition to her role co-chairing that group, she will help bring the voice of the Gan Elohim and young family communities to the TBE Board.

Neil Silverston

Past President

Neil Silverston is the cofounder and executive director of SparkShare, a diverse network of youth and organizational partners that helps young people build the skills and connections they need to become powerful agents of change in their communities and in their own lives.
 
Since Neil, Risa, and their kids joined TBE in 2004, Neil has been an active and engaged member; including serving on the TBE Board as Recording Secretary from 2011-2012 and VP/Tikkun Olam from 2012-2016. Neil was also a member of the Asst Rabbi Search Committee for Rachel Saphire, and Co-Chair of the Cantor Search Committee for Shanna Zell.
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