My wife Yvette and I joined Sha’ar Zahav in 2017 after attending the High Holidays for a couple of years with our friends Jane and Michael Rice. We enjoyed the High Holidays services, the friendly ambiance, and we found the prayers and the songs, to be warm and welcoming.

I am the second of 5 children from a Sephardic Jewish family from Algeria, who emigrated to France in 1961. Yvette is the only daughter of Ashkenazi Hungarian Jews who left Hungary to France in 1939. They lost all their relatives in Auschwitz.

We are not very observant, but we feel the need to belong to a welcoming Jewish Congregation where we can find the same roots and heritage as those of our respective families. As a former Executive of international companies, I will be able to help with my business experience and culture, while sharing my French and Sephardic backgrounds in cooking and drinking.

We emigrated from France to the USA in 2005 to be close to our 3 children and 4 grandchildren. Being both retired, we love traveling, cinema, and outdoor activities. California is for us our new homeland. I am fond of politics, economy and history. Yvette loves art, music, reading, and she is an amateur live theater actress.

I look forward to getting more involved in CSZ life, but the last place you could expect to find me … is singing in the CSZ choir.

I came to Sha’ar Zahav in the late 1980s and became a member in the early 1990s, when Rabbi Yoel Kahn called my husband, our daughters and me an “alternative family” (a designation that still delights us!). Being part of Sha’ar Zahav has been central to our children’s upbringing and our family’s values.

I grew up in Manhattan culturally Jewish but not knowing much more than the Passover ritual, and I learned my aleph bet and more at Sha’ar Zahav’s adult education classes and through volunteering at Beit Sefer Phyllis Mintzer. The love and support I received from my fellow Sha’ar Zahavniks during my mother’s illness and death a few years ago reminded me again how important it is to me to be part of this community. During the pandemic, I was honored to be one of the creators and leaders of Sha’ar Zahav’s Hineni Caring Community – I’m deeply grateful for the friendships, old and new, that this work has given me. I’m also on the Disability and Accessibility Committee and I pop up here and there doing various other things at Sha’ar Zahav.

Outside of Sha’ar Zahav, I’m retired from a checkered career including practicing law, reproductive rights advocacy, and teaching adult and family literacy. I write a political activism blog and newsletter, and I sing in a sacred music chorus for which I also write the concert program notes – ask me for a copy of my essay “What’s a Nice Jewish Girl Doing Singing Bach’s St. John Passion?” Sha’ar Zahav has helped me learn that we thrive in a community where we can be at home as ourselves, a place where our value is realized.

I discovered Sha’ar Zahav shortly after moving to San Francisco from Oregon in 2007, and was impressed by this vibrant, welcoming community – right in my new neighborhood. My now-husband Marty became a member as he was preparing for his adult Bar Mitzvah.

We’ve celebrated two baby namings here. As parents of young children we attended family High Holiday services, and then found our way to Beit Sefer Phyllis Mintzer. Having grown up in secular families, we didn’t really know what to expect from a “synagogue school” and were delighted to again discover a warm, inclusive, and engaging community here at Sha’ar Zahav.

I work as a product manager for a non-profit whose mission is to amplify the power of philanthropy to end the climate crisis.

I am thrilled to be serving the Va’ad through the Federation Fellowship, which places emerging Jewish leaders with local Bay Area organizations to learn about nonprofit decision-making and community-building. This is an especially meaningful opportunity for me, since Sha’ar Zahav is also my Jewish spiritual home. I joined as a congregant in 2017 alongside my husband Ricky, because Sha’ar Zahav encompassed our values and needs. As a couple that comes from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, we needed a place where Ricky’s choice to become Jewish would be nurtured and celebrated, where our queer family and friends would be valued, and where our feminist/egalitarian expressions of spirituality would be encouraged. (We also love Rabbi Copeland, who married us in 2016!) By day, I work as the Assistant Director of San Francisco Hillel, an organization that supports Jewish student life on the college campuses across the city. It’s where I was activated as a student leader in college at San Francisco State, and where I was encouraged to pursue dialogue/conflict resolution skills relating to Israel-Palestine and build a Jewish community that reflected the beautiful diversity of Jewish peoplehood. When I’m not at Hillel, you can likely find me exploring the hiking trails of my neighborhood in Mill Valley, attempting to craft, or eating burritos with Ricky.

I’m proud and thankful to be joining the Va’ad at Sha’ar Zahav. I joined CSZ for High Holy days in 2017. I was enamored by the community and just had to join this amazing family. Since then, it has been a joy to be a part of Sha’ar Zahav. I’ve been involved with helping the Young Adult group, known as the Kaf Lameds. I’m passionate about ensuring that the future of Sha’ar Zahav is secured by today’s young adults! I am also engaged in the reopening committee for covid-19, and I work on the Siddur marketing committee where I help with the designs and social media.

I hope to bring some of these experiences to the Va’ad, and specifically to communicate the needs of our young adult community and collaborate to find ways to help young folks feel welcome. I also hope to bring my mixed Ashkenazi-Mizrahi lens to the Va’ad, as my Lebanese identity is as important as my Jewish identity.

When I’m not in community, I enjoy playing guitar, exploring new restaurants, and cooking dishes that incorporate all my cultures. I live in the Sunset district with my wife, Carolina, who is an ER doctor at UCSF.

I fell in love with Sha’ar Zahav in 2016 when I was working at the synagogue. I realized that this community was a manifestation of its members’ deepest held values and beliefs. And, I shared them and wanted nothing more than to participate in its growth and vibrancy. Since that time, I’ve served on the Va’ad Nominating Committee, led services, gave drashes, among other ways of giving back.

Outside SZ, I work as the Associate Vice President, Hillel Grants at Hillel International, where I oversee the Hillel Talent Grants program focused on recruiting, retaining and training Hillel’s 1200 professionals. Additionally, I work across the organization’s 20 grant programs to measure impact, streamline processes and ensure a relational approach to our grant-making across the organization. Previously, I served in positions across the Jewish community including at Birthright NEXT, the Covenant Foundation, the Jewish Theological Seminary and at Sha’ar Zahav! In a lay capacity, I serve as the local Leadership Council Chair for 18Doors, an organization dedicated to the inclusion of interfaith families in the Jewish community.

In my spare time, I can be found running trails across the Bay Area and hanging out with my husband, Nathan, and our dog, Stewie.

The last place you could expect to find me… is at a chocolate factory–yes, I’m that guy who doesn’t like chocolate.

I was the beneficiary of a special Sha’ar Zahav outreach program – my now-husband Alex Ingersoll recruited me to SZ when we met on the streets of Provincetown Massachusetts.  Since moving here, I’ve worked to ensure the financial vibrancy of our community – serving as Development chair most of the last 13 years as well as a prior stint on the Va’ad.  I’ve also served as the past board chair of Keshet (a national organization focused on LGBT inclusion) and as treasurer of both Rhoda Goldman Plaza and Menorah Park – two senior living communities.

I hail from the thriving Jewish community of Salt Lake City, Utah.  I grew up in a mixed marriage: my father was a Conservative Jew, my mother, Reform. I was active in BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth).  I left “Zion” for Harvard, where I received a BA in English and Psychology.  My MBA is from Boston University in marketing and finance.  I bring 40 years’ experience helping nonprofit and for-profit organizations learn, grow and innovate. Current clients include social justice and Jewish organizations – most notably Jewish Family and Children’s Services.

I joined Sha’ar Zahav over 26 years ago when I married my spouse, Ann Bauman, at Sha’ar Zahav.  She joined the synagogue to meet a nice Jewish girl.  She found one — it just took me several years to convert to Judaism. 

I started the Food Chavurah (Oneg Committee) in 2013 with Paul Cohen and served as the Chair for three years.  Ann and I continue to be members of the Oneg Committee and provide food for the Onegs including our chocolate oneg that usually takes place in early January.  I participated in the 2011 Strategic Plan Task Force, the Caregivers of Aging Parents Support Group and have made presentations to the Conversion classes. I am also a member of the High Holiday’s Shofar Corps and have recently agreed to be a co-chair of the East Bay Chavurah.  I will be having my adult Bat Mitzvah in July 2019.

I am the immediate past president of a LGBT non-profit organization that combines scuba diving and fundraising.  In addition to diving and traveling, I also like to garden. I am looking forward to deepening my connection with the Sha’ar Zahav community.

I moved to the Bay Area in the beginning of 2019, after being born and raised in Chicago, living in Pittsburgh and Baltimore, and then moving out West when I could go no further East. I fell in love with Sha’ar Zahav not long after my arrival in San Francisco. My childhood cantor recommended I attend, and I found a queer and Jewish community that I sorely needed.

Professionally, I’m a software engineer in biotech, working to accelerate the rate of research across textiles, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals. I’m also an artist, holding a Bachelors of Computer Science and Arts (BCSA) from Carnegie Mellon University, so my copious free time is full of dance, miniature making, and game design. You might also find me at the opera, watching my partner Alicia perform, or riling up our sphynx cat, Shiloh.