Our Leadership

Bonnie grew up in Shrewsbury, NJ. Her ties to MRT go all the way back to 1961. Her parents joined MRT that year when it was housed in the Presbyterian Church. She was confirmed at MRT by Rabbi Ellenbogen.

Bonnie also started her volunteering at MRT at a young age. While attending Red Bank Regional High School she also found time to be involved with the MRT Youth Group, and was President from 1970-1971. Her daughter Sarah has followed in her footsteps serving as Youth Group President in recent years.

Bonnie went on to college at SUNY – College of Environment Science and Forestry at Syracuse University. After college she met her husband, Ron, in Texas and they have been married for 26 ½ years. They have three children. Zoe is 33 and lives in Houston. Adam is 31 and lives in Lake Charles, LA. He is married to Katherine and they have a one year old son named George. Sarah is 18 and lives at home. She will be attending Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville NY in the Fall.

Bonnie and her family moved back to Red Bank in 2012. She spent most of her career as a major department store retailer and retired after 27 years. She currently sits on the Monmouth Medical Center Foundation Board as well as the MRT Board as Chair of the Religious Education Committee.

By Jay Feigus

Busy, busy, busy. If he’s not coaching his daughter’s softball team or running his office furniture business, he’s at MRT volunteering. Jay Feigus is a busy person.

Born in Brooklyn, NY he moved to Middletown when he was 3. His grandparents and parents joined MRT at that time. The Feigus’s are now a 4th generation MRT family. Jay was Bar Mitzvahed at MRT by Rabbi Winters and has good memories from those days. He went to Middletown South High School where he played football and baseball. He then attended Rutgers where he played baseball and majored in Economics. He graduated in 1987. The family office furniture business was waiting for him and he is now partners with his brother.

Rabbi Priesand married Jay and his first wife Cynthia in 1996 and she also named their daughter Julia. After Cynthia passed away Jay married Monica in 2003 and Kate was born in 2005. Jay was always somewhat active in MRT with the Arts Festival but as his children became more involved so did he.

With a push from Gaby and Rabbi Pearlman Jay joined some committees but it was Semmes Brightman constantly calling him that finally did it. Jay found that the more he volunteered the better he felt. “I like to help people,” is a constant refrain from Jay. “If I can make changes to help people I feel better. I like volunteering because I can make a difference.”

In his “free” time, Jay enjoys golf, football games and Mets games.

Boy are we lucky to have Jay at MRT!!!

By Bob St. Lifer

Bob St Lifer was born and raised in Hillside NJ. His family was very active in their synagogue, but all the Jewish families in Hillside and Elizabeth worked together regardless of the temple or synagogue they were affiliated with. As a child Bob remembered that people would gather at people’s homes a few times a year to do community fundraisers. Everyone would call out what they could give. Wealthy people could give much more then others, but every time someone made a pledge, it was greeted with thanks and enthusiasm. Every one’s pledge was honored and appreciated, no matter how great or small. People used to bid to get a High Holy Day Aliyah, but whomever would win would say, “but please tell the Rabbi to give my aliyah to the person who deserves the honor, my bid serves as a donation.”

As soon as they moved to Colts Neck they joined MRT and the Jewish Federation. He believes it is important to support the Jewish community.

All of Bob’s friends were going to Rutgers and American University, but he wanted to do something different. He was advised to go to University of Pittsburgh. It was a great choice because it was there that he met Susan. After college Bob went onto Law School at Pepperdine in Malibu, California. He passed the NJ bar but chose to join his father in the men’s clothing business. Bob worked at the store which moved to Toms River at the Ocean County Mall. Susan and Bob moved to Colts Neck to be closer to the store, but not so far from family. Susan works as a special ed teacher in Eatontown. They had Lily and then the twins, Sam and Emily. Lily is a Pre school teacher in New Brunswick, Sam is married to Annie and they live in San Diego; he is finishing up his MA and works for a military contractor. Emily works in LA at a synagogue called Temple Beth Am and she loves it there.

When they moved to Colts Neck, MRT became a very important part of their lives, all their children went to religious school, became B’nai Mitzvah, and went through Confirmation. Both Bob and Susan remain active in the synagogue. They attend Friday night services regularly. Bob attends Saturday AM study every week and goes all over to take Jewish studies courses at Rutgers and other synagogues in our vicinity. Bob also belongs to Freehold Jewish Center and attends the morning minyan every day since he retired.

Bob has been part of two Rabbinic search committees at MRT and financial secretary for the past 6 years. For fun he plays tennis and golf and cards a few times a week. Bob has a sister Lois and her daughter is our Religious School Principal-Stephanie Fields. Bob’s first cousin Bill and his wife Joanne also belong to MRT. As if all that isn’t enough Bob also volunteers for kosher meals on wheels and at Federation where he has held every Board position.

Quite simply, Bob loves MRT and says it is like his family. We are all connected and need one another, for Bob and Susan, it is all about “community”.

By Cantor Gabrielle Clissold

Jill may be the youngest oldest member of Monmouth Reform Temple. She joined MRT as a 5 year old in the mid 60’s after her family, the Bakers (Jerry and Peg), relocated to Colts Neck from Boston. She was Bat Mitzvah’ed and Confirmed at MRT and rejoined in 2000 when her oldest son, Alex, was just 1.

Many people know Jill as a real estate agent, but her background is actually in Marketing and Management Information Systems in which she has a degree from Boston University. If you have or had a Timex watch with a Disney character displayed on the face (Remember those?), you are the beneficiary of a licensing agreement that Jill championed with Disney when she worked as a Product Manager for Timex. Working for Timex, Jill ventured regularly to Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the annual Watch Fair in Basel, Switzerland.

Jill competed on her Marlboro High School tennis team and continues to avidly play the game in a women’s doubles league and with a group of senior men. She is also quite musical having played the flute and piano and dabbling in temple choir for the joint Thanksgiving celebration with the Presbyterian church.

While Jill is probably best loved for her fun loving, bubbly personality and her fondness for dancing and getting a little crazy, she actually feels she is an introvert who has anxiety in new situations. But regardless, Jill is up for just about anything.

Like most parents, Jill is most proud of her awesome children, Alex and Alyssa, who just get more amazing every day. And like most of our MRT Community, Jill loves the warmth of the MRT family, the many friendships she has developed here, and the comfort of just being able to be herself.

Reach out to Jill to experience her spirit and join in some of the social and service activities sponsored by the MRT Sisterhood.

By Zach Gilstein

Mark, tell me about your family. Rosanne and I have a blended family of 5 children and are thrilled to be celebrating Adam’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah with our family, friends and Temple family.

Where were you born and where did you attend school? I was born in Jersey City in Margaret Hague Hospital , grew up and attended public schools in North Bergen NJ and gradated from East Brunswick High School. I attended University of Dayton, Ohio and graduated with a dual major in Bio-engineering and Chemistry and received my MBA from Fordham University at Lincoln Center.

What is your profession? I started my company in February, 2015, called Office BIZ, which is a distributor of office products, print and promotional.

That’s a long way from bio-engineering and chemistry. My professional career started as Sales Engineer selling chemical process equipment, and then selling high tech sterilization and depyrogenation equipment to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and medical research facilities. I moved on selling equipment to the power industry when Enron forced me to make a serious career change. That got me involved with office products.

What’s fun about being President of Men’s Club? I wouldn’t call it fun yet, as I am still finding my way as to the real role of the Men’s Club within MRT. I am associated with a terrific group of men who lend constant support so we can fulfill the needs and worthy causes in which MRT is involved . I do enjoy the challenge the Men’s Club offers. Personally, I feel I have found an extended family, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the male bonding that has come from the experience so far, and just being associated with MRT has allowed Rosanne and me to make new friends.

What books have you read lately? I mostly read periodicals rather than books, such as National Geographic and Cooking magazines or anything that might grab my interest. I enjoy knowledge I gain from reading such material.

Do you cook? Yes. I do most of the cooking at home and like experimenting with food and introducing new tastes to my family. My favorite recipe is a French Leg of Lamb but nobody likes it so I haven’t had the need to make it. One food I have introduced and was received quite well is Oxtail Stew. Almost everyone in the family seems to enjoy it. It is delicious!

What was the most fun you had as a kid? Playing outdoor sports with friends and just being outdoors. Kids don’t do that anymore. Though we didn’t belong to a Temple, I played on the Temple youth basketball team and was pretty good.

What did you hate most about school? I needed to transfer to East Brunswick High School in my Junior year and I was bullied the first few weeks until I stood up to the individuals. Gaining acceptance in a new environment was difficult and I was miserable. I buried myself in studies and did quite well. I really don’t condone fighting. I find it unpleasant, but sometimes you have to stand your ground and fight for your rights. I tell the younger boys at home that they should let no one bully them and that it is often just a matter of standing up to the bully. My high school experience is one reason why we are members of MRT. Both Rosanne and I feel that MRT fosters an incredibly embracing and welcoming atmosphere where one can assimilate quite readily into a new community.

Who was the greatest influence in your life? My mother.

If you could invite 3 famous people for dinner who would they be? Moses, Jesus and Abraham Lincoln.

What would you serve? Kosher oxtail stew.

Would you like to add anything else? I love my wife and my blended family and my extended Jewish family.

Thank you, Mark!

By Eleanor Rubin

Linda Burns is co-chair of the Membership Committee and a member of MRT’s Board of Trustees. With her co-chair Gena Ansell-Lande, Linda is responsible for recruiting, orienting, and welcoming our new members, as well as connecting new members with established members. In her engagement with MRT, Linda has noted that “you can take on a volunteer job at MRT that is totally different than your ‘day job’, thus allowing you to experiment in expanding your skills”. Linda’s variety of experiences at MRT exemplifies that view.

Linda, a native of West Hempstead, Long Island, has lived in Monmouth County since 1988. Her professional career has been in the Human Resources area for tech and pharmaceutical companies. Currently, she is the Head of HR for the US office of Helsinn, a Swiss pharmaceutical company. She and her daughter Leah joined MRT in 1998, shortly after Linda’s marriage ended in divorce. Linda was attracted to MRT by Rabbi Priesand’s reputation as the first woman rabbi, and was comfortable with the large number of interfaith families at MRT. As Linda engaged with MRT, so did Leah, who served as President of our Senior Youth Group. (Leah has since become a practicing civil engineer.)

At MRT, Linda has jumped into several areas that are new and different from her professional life. She has been the head of the Outreach Committee (welcoming interfaith families), been the chair of the Religious Education Committee (and had a first stint on the Board), led a community outreach project in an early Mitzvah Day, and served in the leadership of the Arts Festival as chair of the Ad Journal. In each of these positions, Linda found a mentor at MRT who asked and encouraged her to become involved and taught her what she needed to succeed. Among those mentors were Roy Eisen, Bob Gabel, Arlene Berg, Gayle Horvath, Alice Berman, Rich Sachs, and Joel Morgovsky.

Beyond MRT, Linda serves on the Board of the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra, where she is the chair of the Program Journal.

Linda appreciates the ways that she had been given an opportunity at MRT to try new jobs and tasks, beyond her “real-world” career, and feels satisfaction in being able to make a contribution to the larger community in which she lives.

By Jay Wiesenfeld

Zach Gilstein is the newly-elected President of MRT as of July 1st, and is a member of MRT’s Board of Trustees. Raised in a Conservative synagogue outside of Philly, Zach migrated to the
Reform movement when he and his wife, Sheila, began attending High Holyday services at MRT (and at a few other Monmouth County temples) for ten years prior to officially joining in 1994, when the oldest of their two sons (Jeremy) entered Kindergarten. One of the key attractions of the Reform HHD service was that, “it was finite-it started and ended on time, as opposed to a Conservative service which lasted for six hours with a constant ebb and flow of people-the Reform service was much more engaging”.

Zach is proud that his sons, Jeremy and Joshua, were both Bar Mitzvah’d and Confirmed and Sheila was Bat Mitzvah’d at MRT. By contrast, Zach moved to Maryland in December of his sophomore year in High School and never completed his Confirmation, and he believes that the post-Bar Mitzvah years are when our youth are mature enough to understand the foundations of Judaism and delve into the more real-world aspects of our faith.

Zach is an avid golfer and tennis player which he does regularly on the weekends and when he can get out of work early. He also loves to do puzzles of all sorts and particularly likes working the The New York Times Sunday crossword and the KenKen puzzles. He is a life member of the United States Chess Federation and during Grad School was almost an Expert player, but now mostly just plays on the computer.

One of the most important things about MRT to Zach is that we have always been a “fair-share temple-one of the founding principles back in 1959 was the kibbutz model, whereby people contributed what they could, and that no one was excluded”.

What would success look like to Zach at the conclusion of his Presidency in July 2017? “That more people are connected to each other, have opportunities to get together and enjoy each other’s company, and that each member finds his or her portal”

By Linda Burns

Lauren		Sarah

Lauren and Sarah are both seniors in high school.  Lauren attends Wall High School where she is a member of the National Honors Society and plays flute in the school wind ensemble.  Sarah attends The Ranney School, at which she swims breaststroke on the swim team and enjoys acting in the school shows.

Sarah is really passionate about working with children and intends to pursue a career that will enable her to continue doing so, perhaps child psychology.  She works as an intern in the lower grades at Ranney, reading to fourth graders and helping them with their analytical skills.  She’s also in the  Madrahim program in the MRT Religious School.

Lauren loves music and looks forward to playing flute in her college symphonic band, though she hasn’t zeroed in on a particular school yet.  She’s studied flute since the 4^th grade and also plays piano and dabbles in guitar and ukulele. Lauren had the honor of performing in Lincoln Center, Kimmel Center, and Temple University with her school’s band. She is also very involved in her school’s Relay for Life, and Music Honors Society.

Given a free Sunday, Lauren would go out to breakfast with friends and then head for the beach to read a good book.  Sarah really didn’t care what she was doing as long as it was with other people.

Both remarked that the thing they loved best about MRT was the feeling of being part of a big family and the great bonds and friendships they have formed.  Lauren and Sarah also enjoy their involvement in the Temple Youth group which has enabled them to meet people from all over the Garden Empire Region (NY and NJ).  They are both excited about the many SMaRTY activities planned for the upcoming year.

For more information about SMaRTY, feel free to reach out to Sarah or Lauren.

If you have a question about financial funds at Monmouth Reform Temple, chances are Stu Tuchband, Finance Committee Chair, will have the answer. Since joining MRT in 1969, Stu and his wife of 56 years, Cora, have been involved in a variety of activities, but for Stu, the primary focus has been finance.

Temple involvement came naturally to Cora and Stu, as they met in the youth groups of their neighborhood synagogue in Brooklyn, NY.  Stu graduated with an engineering degree from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now part of NYU) and after getting married, moved to NJ, earning Master’s Degrees in Electrical Engineering and System Science. While doing his undergraduate work, Stu became captain of the Brooklyn Poly Nighthawks rifle team.  He was also in the Air Force Reserves where he achieved a Master ranking in both rifles and handguns.

Stu worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories until the early 1970’s when he left and founded a telecommunications consulting firm with two other budding entrepreneurs.  He was President and CEO of the consulting firm and retired in 2006.

Stu and Cora joined MRT in 1969 to meet other families with common interests, and to start their children in religious school.  Stu says his greatest benefit from MRT was successfully raising his children in the Jewish tradition.  Second to that was (and still is) making new temple friends and growing those relationships. His earliest interests at MRT were Ritual and Finance and he right away joined both committees.  A former MRT President, Stu was involved with the Monmouth Festival of the Arts, and currently Arts & Deco Committee.

Stu enjoys singing in the MRT choir, blowing the shofar at services, skiing, tennis, reading and birdwatching. When not busy at MRT, he loves to adventure travel (he’s been to every continent), visit his children and grandchildren and tend his garden.

An early recollection from the 1980’s at MRT with Rabbi Priesand is especially poignant:

“In the 1980’s the Temple participated in a social action project to resettle refugees from Viet Nam.  Dozens of Temple members donated their time, effort and funds to help four Vietnamese adults establish themselves in our country.  Over the course of about 5 months my family provided housing for all of them by sharing our home.  It was quite a cross cultural learning experience for the whole family and each of us gained enormously from the experience.  The first to arrive were a brother and sister.  Each had left a spouse behind.  Then, another sister and her husband arrived.  She was pregnant.  For political reasons it took us ten years to reunite the brother with his wife and child.  Over the years we remain close to them and their growing families.” 

Stu’s dedication to MRT goes back decades and continues to stay strong.

By Marjorie Wold

MRT is pleased and proud to have Jay Goldberg Trustee of the temple this year.  Jay brings his warm personality, his commitment to the temple as well as his 30 year experience as a Financial Advisor to his position as Chairperson of the House committee. Jay is a  Retirement Planning Specialist with Axa Advisors in their Woodbridge, New Jersey branch. Jay and his charming wife, Ellen, have been members of MRT for many years. Their two sons, Joshua, who is 25 and in the solar power business,  and Jeremy, who is 22 and a singer, musician and rock star,  have grown up in our temple. Both Jay and Ellen enjoy numerous, close friendships with other temple members.  Jay enjoys being a board member so that he can give his time, passion and efforts back to our MRT community.  When you see Jay at temple, please feel free to introduce yourself to him. He looks forward to chatting with you.

 By Rachel Placitella