The Board of Trustees meets at 6:45p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Kehilla members are welcome to attend our meetings. Board members include: Barbara Rhine, Co-Chair  Barbara Rhine is a practicing lawyer in downtown Oakland. Her legal work consists of representing children in the middle of difficult custody disputes; mediating divorces, representing parents in juvenile dependency cases, which involve the foster care system; school discipline cases; guardianships; and police misconduct cases.
In the past, Barbara has been a lawyer for the United Farmworkers Union (during the largest farm worker strike in California history), and a law professor at San Francisco's Golden Gate University (Rabbi David was among her students). She is also a writer, with one novella published todate. Her hobbies include tennis, hiking and piano. She has been a lifelong progressive activist. Barbara's involvement with Kehilla began when her children (two daughters, now grown) were very young. In addition to serving on the Board, Barbara is currently active on Kehilla's Green Committee, and is working with the Economic Justice Committee on a joint project to involve Kehilla with green jobs for Oakland. Barbara particularly values Kehilla for its active engaged stance in the world, and for its welcoming of all Jews who want to come, as well as all others who wish to accompany them. Lynn Bravewomon  Lynn Bravewomon is a Safe and Inclusive Schools Educational Consultant who has worked in Bay area schools for over 20 years. She supports public and private school communities as they reform school culture and climate into equitable, inclusive environments where all students thrive. She does this through a social justice model in which all educational community stake holders increase their ally identity and behavior as they strengthen their understanding of how power, access and privilege operate in relationships and systems through the lens of race, gender, sexual orientation and other related core identities. Lynn is currently the coordinator of the Safe and Inclusive Schools Program for the Hayward Unified School District.
Lynn has been involved in Kehilla since the late ‘90s and the Bar Mitzvah of her step-son. Since then she has thoroughly enjoyed the experience of her younger son’s bar mitzvah and her participation on the Youth Education, Bar/Bat Mitzvah and Adult Education committees. Lynn continues to serve as a liaison to the BarBat Mitzvah Committee and participates on the board-led membership committee and the Welcoming Synagogues Project. Lynn’s family includes her wife Ann Kennedy and sons Josh and Sam. (Josh became a Bar Mitzvah in ’98 and Sam in 2007.) A lasting memory for romantic and political reasons was our marriage at the Kehilla same-sex couples marriage fest with six other lesbian and gay couples. Our wonderfully enormous chuppah and the sight of our congregation in elation, tears and joy as we spoke our vows felt transformative to us all. Wendy Buffet Ron Cohen  Ron Cohen, along with his son, Josh, has been a Kehilla member for nine years. He served on the Bar/Bat Mitzvah Committee and then subsequently a series of committies concerned with Kehilla's space: the Space Task Force (part of the Strategic Planning process), the Home of our Own Committee, and most recently, following purchase of the building on Grand Avenue, the Facilities Committee. As a result of his committee involvement, the passage of time, and several friends joining Kehilla, he has progressed from a semi-detached observer who liked Kehilla's high holiday services and religious school but had little connection to the community, to someone who feels very much at home in Kehilla, is engaged in it, and spiritually/culturally enriched by it. As the work of the Facilities Committee wound down, he felt that it was time to look for a broader way to work for the Kehilla that reflected his increased connection.
Ron’s role in the Space Task Force was one of constructive skepticism and analysis, both skills acquired through his decades of work as a physicist. He came in recognizing that it would be nice for Kehilla to own a building but dubious about the finances and what the financial pressures might do to the community. He wound up as an enthusiastic supporter of a "Home of our Own" provided that the finances could be made to work, and convinced that the finances might just be doable for a building with a price tag around that of the “Grand Shul.” He hopes that he can bring these skills to the Kehilla Board and that, in so doing, will be able to help further build this wonderful community. Nancy Feinstein
Seth Frohman  Seth Frohman has been a member of Kehilla for over eight years. He was a member of the original space needs assessment committee and part of the group that identified the 1300 Grand Ave building. He and his partner, Rafi Hoch, live in Berkeley with their two children, Claire, 13, who just became a Bat Mitzvah at Kehilla and Bette, 10, who is in the 5th grade at Kehilla School.
Seth has a Masters degree in Social Work and a long history as a rehabilitation social worker, social work department head and health care administrator. For the past 10 years he has been a Director of Operations at a small managed care company, specializing in catastrophic workers compensation injuries. He has extensive experience in operations and personnel management.
Seth has previous board experience as a board member of Families with Children from China - Northern California and has coordinated their annual Between Two New Years parties (with over 700 attendees) for the past several years. He looks forward to the possibility of serving on the Kehilla board and giving back to the community that has given him and his family so much.
Joel Kreisberg  Joel is the executive director of the Teleosis Institute, an organization dedicated to educating health professionals about sustainability and environmental integrity. He is an adjunct professor in the Integral Theory Master’s Program at John F. Kennedy University, maintaining a private practice in Homeopathy and Integral Healthcare in Berkeley, CA.
Joel has been a member of Kehilla for 10 years, having participated in two Bar Mitzvah celebrations of his children, Jeremiah and Samuel. Joining the board with his wife Wendy Buffet, Joel brings a passion for organizational sustainability, with a focus on sound financial planning and fundraising development. Julie Litwin  Julie Litwin and her family joined Kehilla 10 years ago when her son entered Kehilla School as a kindergartener. She immediately joined the Youth Education Committee (YEC), wanting to learn more about the school and its workings and to see how she could contribute. She is now completing her 10th year on the YEC!
Four years ago, Julie was elected to the Kehilla Board to be the liaison to the YEC. Her job has been to facilitate communication between the Board and the YEC and to help integrate the school and other youth programs into all aspects of the wider Kehilla community. This year she has also been the liaison to the Spiritual Life Practices Committee. Serving on the Kehilla Board has been a privilege for Julie. She has learned a lot about what goes into keeping this wonderful community afloat and about some of the challenges that we have to face in the coming years. Julie's family includes her wife, Shelley Sella, and her 15-year-old son, NoahLani Litwinsella. The wedding ceremony that she and Shelley celebrated with six other couples at Kehilla in 2008 and NoahLani's Bar Mitzvah celebration in 2009 were definite highlights of their lives. Many thanks to Kehilla. SAM Luckey, Co-Chair  SAM Luckey grew up in a secular, mixed religious family, but decided to become Bat Mitzvah at Kehilla, and got involved as an adolescent. She spent her teen years involved with Midrasha and JYCA, continuing her Jewish learning and staying rooted in Jewish community. She left town in 2002 to go to circus school, and then toured internationally as an aerialist; when she returned in 2008 she was excited to reconnect with Kehilla. She joined the Board last summer to deepen her engagement and learn more about this diverse and passionate community. She trains, teaches, and performs aerial and acrobatic disciplines locally.
Bob Olken  Bob Olken is an attorney, retired after twenty years service representing the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. He participated in the cleanup of many contaminated sites throughout northern California and the prosecution of environmental law violators. He turned to the practice of law after seeing first-hand the results of mass mercury poisoning as an English teacher in Japan. He now volunteers as a mentor in environmental law at U.C. Berkeley School of Law.
Bob became a member of Kehilla seven years ago when he and long-term member Amy Shutkin married. He particularly appreciates the welcome he has found in Kehilla as a member of a blended family and the diversity of families that abound here. Their daughter, Hero, grew up in Kehilla School and participated in the bat mitzvah program. Bob has been actively involved in Kehilla's adult education courses as well. Bob's contribution to Kehilla to date has been primarily "hands-on." He's the builder of our ark. He was part of the team that rebuilt our rear staircase last year. He has been a team leader for many years in Kehilla's Rebuilding Together Oakland program. He looks forward to broadening his participation through service on the Board. Carol Rothman  Carol Rothman is a licensed Marriage Family Therapist (MFT). She does intensive work with families who are reuniting with children who have been in the foster care system. Previously, she worked overtime as a political activist, including five years as assistant director with the American Friends Service Committee Rocky Flats Project in Denver. She has been an active member of Kehilla for 13 years.
Carol was originally attracted to Kehilla for the politics and stayed for the community. Following six years as an active board member for JYCA, Carol has participated in Kehilla's Economic Justice Committee. She enjoys organizing and participating in special fundraising events. Her side passion is gardening and flower arranging and she donates her flower arrangements to Kehilla and other non-profit events. Carol is married to Scott Ullman, who works as a trainer with the Foundation Center. Their children, Seth and Elon Ullman, both attended Kehilla School. Carol would bring organizing skills, fund raising experience, compassion, and flowers to the Board. Allan Solomonow  Allan Solomonow is a Jewish pacifist-activist who has worked for many years in the American peace community. He has sought to apply the principles of non-violence to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Allan edited Roots of Jewish Nonviolence when he worked for the Jewish Peace Fellowship and spent a year in prison for his dissent. Until he retired after 25 years, Allan worked for the American Friends Service Committee forging dialogue, promoting a two-state solution, bringing speakers to the U.S., leading tours to the Middle East and questioning general "wisdom."
Allan lives in San Francisco with Ofelia Alayeto, who works for UCSF. Their oldest son, Greg, lives nearby, and their younger son, Seth, lives in Brooklyn. Allan was brought up in L.A. (Temple Beth Am, conservative). He was the state religious chairman in AZA (B'nai Brith youth). Allan studied political science at U.C. Berkeley, where he was active in Young Democrats and SLATE. He received an MAT in social sciences from Antioch and then moved to NYC to teach and to work on radical approaches to education. He enjoys cooking and camping. He claims his sanity is maintained only because he watches MSNBC, Stewart, and Colbert. | 