Board and Staff

STAFF

Lesley Sachs (director) was one of the founding members of “Isha L’isha – Haifa’s Feminist Center” and worked for 10 years in the Israel Women’s Network. Lesley served as Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) and then as Vice President of the World Union For Progressive Judaism. She is currently working as an Interim Director of “Project Kesher-Israel” and as the director of “Women of the Wall.”

ISRAEL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Anat Hoffman (chairwoman) is the executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the legal and advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel. Previously, she held a seat on the Jerusalem City Council, where for fourteen years she stood in opposition to the policies of the city’s right-wing and ultra-Orthodox administration. She has dedicated her adult life to the Jewish principle of tikkun olam, which literally means repairing the world.

 

Batya Kallus (vice chair) has been involved with WOW since she moved to Israel in 1991. She is the Israel Advisor to the Fohs Foundation, a private American foundation that funds organizations which advance shared society and equality between Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel, and Program Officer for the Moriah Fund. Kallus has a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Boston in community planning, and a Master’s in Human Service Management from the Heller School at Brandeis University.

 

Aliza Berger holds a PhD in educational statistics from Columbia University and an MS in Bible from Yeshiva University. She works as an academic editor and statistics consultant. She also authored the chapter “Wrapped Attention: May Women Wear Tefillin?” in the 1998 book Jewish Legal Writings by Women.

 

Rachel Cohen-Yeshurun was schooled at Bais Yaakov in Montreal and was active with synagogue youth (Rosh snif Bnei Akiva).  She made Aliya in 1989 to Ma’ale Adumim where she still lives.  She holds her first degree in Mathematics from Hebrew University and is currently working as a computer programmer in high tech in Jerusalem.  She is currently studying toward a MA in Computer science and is the chaur of Hahavurah Hamesoratit in Ma’ale Adumim.  She is married with two boys and Linda, the dog.

 

Peggy Cidor is a journalist in Jerusalem.

Harel Frenkel is a medical student at Ben Gurion University and an active member of the Masorti kehilla in Kfar Saba.

 

Cheryl Birkner Mack is a teacher of Judaics and English as a Foreign Language. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a Masters in Jewish Education from Jewish Theological Seminary. Cheryl is also a little league baseball coach.

 

Haviva Ner-David is the founding director of Reut: The Center for Modern Jewish Marriage. She has a doctorate from Bar Ilan University in the Philosophy of Halakhah, and private smikhah from Rabbi Aryeh Strikovsky. She is the author of the book ‘Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Towards Traditional Rabbinic Ordination.’

 

Bonnie Riva Ras is the assistant director of communications for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism where she is the editor of the Leadership News newsletter and she writes for and is the advertising director of CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism magazine. In the US, she was an educator in synagogue schools for 26 years and she previously worked as a journalist and editor of a Jewish newspaper.