Leadership
Directors
LYNNE HIMELSTEIN has dedicated herself to the Jewish community, assuming a leadership position on the National Women’s Philanthropy Board United Jewish Communities. She has served as Chair of America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for Central Indiana. Additionally, she has held leadership roles in National Council of Jewish Women and JCRC. In great demand as a speaker on Jewish philanthropy, she has traveled around both the United States and Israel, inspiring people to give to Jewish organizations. Lynne was born and raised in Los Angeles, but for the past 18 years, she and her husband have lived in Indianapolis where they raised their two children. She has recently returned to Los Angeles.
RABBI LYNNE KERN is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has written for the Kansas City Star, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. For eight years, she also co-owned and acted as Creative Director at a national advertising agency. Ordained from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in 2001, she has served as a congregational rabbi for five and a half years, as well as founding Timbrels Through Torah: A Women’s Institute of Jewish Learning. She is a co-writer of the documentary theater piece, Stories From the Fringe, about women rabbis, which is currently playing in theaters around the country. She is also the co-producer of a documentary-in-the-making, On the Fringe, about how women rabbis are transforming Judaism. Out of these two projects was born The Story Archive of Women Rabbis, of which Rabbi Kern is one of the creators. This will be the first all-video archive collecting and preserving the stories of women who are rabbis. Rabbi Kern acts as a scholar-in-residence and consults on programming for synagogues worldwide. She has been published in newspapers, magazines and anthologies, including The Women’s Haftarah Commentary, and is currently working on a spiritual memoir.
RONDA SPINAK (Co-Founder & Artistic Director of the Jewish Women’s Theatre) is a writer and producer. She created and produced At-Homes Salon Theatre in Los Angeles to sold-out audiences. She holds an MBA from UCLA, a Masters in Professional Writing from USC and two degrees from Stanford. She has written for the Emmy Award-winning children’s show, Rugrats, authored the critically acclaimed nonfiction book ProBodX: Proper Body Exercise (HarperCollins, publisher), and written many plays, including Oscar Wilde’s Wife, which was a finalist at the Ashland New Play Festival and Dayton’s FuturFest. She is currently producing the documentary film about women rabbis entitled, On the Fringe, and has recently penned the play, Stories From the Fringe: Women Rabbis, Revealed!, the personal stories of women rabbis culled from the transcripts of the documentary film. Stories From the Fringe receiveD a run at the Rochester JCC in October and will be presented in New York at the Westside JCC in June 2012.
Advisory Board
Rabbi Toba August
Rabbi Anne Brener
Rabbi Sharon Brous
Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe
Rabbi Denise L. Eger
Rabbi Karen Fox
Rabbi Laura Geller
Rabbi Miriyam Glazer
Rabbi Zoe Klein
Rabbi Naomi Levy
Rabbi Sheryl Lewart
Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh
Rabbi Cheryl Peretz
Advisors
American Jewish Archives
Jewish Women’s Archive
Sponsors
Hebrew Union College – Institute of Jewish Religion
Jewish Theological Seminary
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies
Editors
NATALIE MARKILES attends the Harvard-Westlake School, where she received the Humanitas Award for outstanding community service and the Leon C. Memorial Fan award for her one act play. Natalie is an assistant teacher of religious school for K-3rd graders at Temple Judea. This past summer, Natalie was a key production assistant on the feature film “Last Look”. She also performs with the Second City Teen Troupe and “Scene Monkeys”, the Harvard-Westlake Improv Comedy Troupe and enjoys playing JV water polo.
