The Community Synagogue Staff
Executive Director |
Director of
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ECC Director |
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Jeff Rembrandt
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Shari Isserles
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Jen Schiffer
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Assistant to the Clergy |
Office Manager |
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Jean Gatz
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Annette Rosalia
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Controller |
Communications Associate |
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Phyllis Zuckerbrot
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Hanna Markowitz
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Administrative Assistant |
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Maria Khan
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Early Childhood Center
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Assistant Director of
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Liad Zayit
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Orly Danialian
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ECC Administrative Assistant |
Youth Engagement
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Miranda Cohen
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Sal Kraiem
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Facilities Manager |
Associate Director of Engagement |
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Ted Dzyr
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Lindsay Ganci
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Administration Team
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Jeff Rembrandt
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Jeff grew up in Cleveland Ohio. He received his BA in Rhetoric from Kent State University and an MSW from The University of Cincinnati, with a concentration in Non-Profit Administration.
His professional, non-profit experience has primarily been in Jewish Community Centers in Ohio, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and as the Regional Director for Women’s American ORT.
Jeff joined The Community Synagogue staff in 2017 as our Executive Director and is proud to be part of the team that keeps our Reform Synagogue growing and thriving. His office door is always open and he is looking forward to meeting everyone. He would love to have you stop by and say hello when you are in the building.
Jeff lives in Port Washington with his wife, Rabbi Rachel Rembrandt, and their two cats. They are the proud parents of 3 grown children; Jason who lives in Hartford Connecticut, Micah who lives in Brooklyn, and Hannah who is a PhD candidate in Speech Language Pathology at Syracuse University..
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Jean Gatz
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Jean grew up in Woodhaven, New York. For most of her career, she provided Administrative support at corporate accounting firms in NYC. Before joining The Community Synagogue in April 2017, she worked for six years at a Long Island based Special Education software firm.
Jean feels blessed in her current position as the Assistant to the Clergy and enjoys providing for all of the clergy’s daily needs, as well as assisting the congregants with any questions or needs they may have.
When not working she enjoys reading, ancient history, astronomy, and science fiction and she is an avid animal lover. She lives in Merrick with her partner Andrea and their cat, Zoey.
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Annette Rosalia
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Phyllis Zuckerbrot
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Phyllis is an active member of Temple Am Echad in Lynbrook, NY where she is currently Assistant Treasurer and was previously, Sisterhood President, Social Action Chairperson and Youth Committee Chairperson. She has also helped on rabbinic search committees over the years. When not in synagogue, Phyllis enjoys playing with her young grandson.
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Hanna Markowitz
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Hanna grew up in Roslyn, New York and graduated from Marist College in May of 2023 with a Bachelor's degree in Digital Media and Graphic Design as well as a minor in Fashion Merchandising. Previously, Hanna has worked as a counselor at Camp Jacobson and interned at companies such as Estée Lauder in which she learned that working with people and designing were two things that she enjoyed most. She has a Cavachon named Max who she adores. When Hanna’s not working, she loves traveling and spending time with family and friends.
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Education Team
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Shari Isserles, RJE
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Shari Isserles is now in her 20th year as the Director of Congregational Education at The Community Synagogue. She received her Masters of Religious Education (M.A.R.E.) degree from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion after doing her undergraduate studies at Boston University.
Shari has extensive experience in Jewish educational leadership, educational development and engagement. She has a breadth of experience with kids of all ages from our youngest learners to our adult learners. Shari strives to keep our synagogue on the cutting edge of Jewish education and has brought many innovative programs to our learners, including the FLAME (Family Learning & Mitzvah Education) Program, Hebrew Through Movement, Parent/Child cooking workshops and various Tikkun Olam projects. In addition to her congregational work, Shari serves as a Vice President of the Association for Reform Jewish Educators (ARJE).
Shari has always had a strong connection to Jewish camping. She grew up as a camper and later spent many summers as a staff member at the URJ Eisner Camp. She continues to spend time at camp where her husband Paul is the Director and their son is a 3rd generation camper.
Shari, her husband Paul and son Michael live here in Port Washington. Outside of her professional life, Shari most enjoys spending time with family and friends. She also loves chocolate, the NY Mets and binge watching episodes of The West Wing.
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Jen Schiffer
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With over 15 years of experience working in the field of early childhood education, Jen is thrilled to be “coming home” to TCS. She began her teaching career working in both public and private schools, in New Jersey, New York City, and most recently, here on Long Island. Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jen served as our ECC Assistant Director, as well as our Summer Camp Director. After a two-year hiatus where she served as Director of Temple Beth Sholom’s Early Childhood Center in Roslyn Heights, Jen returns to the ECC, bringing with her an in depth-knowledge of developmentally appropriate practice, an understanding of the best ways to teach Jewish values and traditions, as well as a passion for leadership.
Jen’s goal is to bring families together at the ECC to help foster meaningful connections, creating a kehillah kedoshah (sacred community), amongst each and every person in the school, including the amazing ECC staff that she is honored to lead. For Jen, every voice matters, and as she often says, “if I don’t know, I can’t help.”
Jen is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania, and received her Master’s degree in teaching Spanish and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. A lifelong learner, Jen went on to add an additional Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education to complete her resume. She also holds a NYS Training & Technical Assistant Professional (T-TAP) Credential as a Professional Development Specialist Trainer in Early Childhood, and serves as treasurer on the board of the Jewish Early Childhood Association (JECA).
Jen lives here in Port Washington with her husband, Michael, and their sons, Jonah and Nathan. When she’s not at the ECC, Jen can be found on the baseball field where she serves as the “mom-a-ger” for her son’s Legends baseball team, or in the kitchen cooking or baking. Her specialty is making rainbow challah on Shabbat. As Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home,” and Jen is honored to be back “home“ with her TCS family.
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Liad Zayit
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Over the past two years, Liad has worked at the ECC as an Assistant Teacher in our Pre-K Program. While serving this role, she supervised children, evaluated their performance with regarding to their social, emotional and cognitive development, and provided them with support throughout the day. Liad also created classroom materials, organized data and participated in Parent Teacher Conferences. She is proficient in progressive ECE philosophies, various teaching approaches and has substantial experience both as an educator and office administrator. Prior to her professional positions, Liad served as a camp counselor at The Community Synagogue Summer Program for 8 years and volunteered at our Religious School as a Teacher's Assistant. Liad is dedicated to supporting families and colleagues as we continue to navigate our Early Childhood Center to excellence.
Liad has been devoted to Early Childhood Education since graduating with honors from Roslyn High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Hofstra University in Communications & Public Relations with a minor in Early Childhood Psychology. Liad also holds a NYS Child Development Associate accreditation (CDA) and is proficient in all I.T. Office programs. In addition to her work commitments, Liad regularly volunteers as a reading specialist.
Born and raised on Long Island to Israeli parents, Liad is the middle of three siblings. She is fluent in Hebrew and has strong connections with Israel where both her parents were born and still have extensive family there. Liad loves to cook, travel and go on walks with her husband Alec and their dog, Leo.
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Orly Danialian
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Orly Danialian serves as The Community Synagogue’s Assistant Director of Education. Orly was a teacher in our program for many years before joining our full-time team, so she brings a wealth of classroom experience to her work. You can often find Orly overseeing our Hebrew program, working with our teachers or kvelling over our students' progress in their Hebrew studies. Orly loves to get involved in creating new and exciting curriculum and programs. Her creativity and energy helps to make our school a vibrant learning community for all.
Orly grew up in Israel and served in the IDF for two years. She came to the United States in 1995 where she met her husband David. She & David currently live on Long Island with their three wonderful children.
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Sal Kraiem
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Sal grew up in Queens, New York and is a recent graduate of Queens College with a Bachelors in Political Science and a double minor in History and Jewish History. Sal spent his summers at Jewish day camps where he became a counselor then worked his way up to a leadership position this past summer. Sal is serving as our Youth Engagement Coordinator in addition to a CLASP fellow with the URJ. In his free time, Sal enjoys spending time with his family and close friends.
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Miranda Cohen
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Miranda recently graduated from Adelphi University with a Bachelor’s in Social Work. Throughout her time at Adelphi, she held multiple social work-focused internships, which included Island Harvest Food Bank and The Life Enrichment Center at Oyster Bay. Through these experiences, she developed an unwavering passion for serving and giving back to different communities. She gained strong interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills.
Additionally, her experiences as being a day camp counselor for Preschool-aged children, combined with her love and commitment to Jewish values, she could not be happier or more excited to join the ECC family!
Miranda lives in Plainview Long Island with her mom, dad, older sister, and dog named Georgia. In her free time she enjoys hot yoga classes, walking Georgia, and spending time with her family and friends.
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Ted Dzyr
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Lindsay Ganci
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Lindsay has been lucky enough to be a part of our synagogue's professional leadership team for the last 15 years, first leading our youth engagement department, and now the engagement initiatives for our entire congregation.
Lindsay lives in Port Washington with her daughters Ruby and Jayne. She received her BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Muhlenberg College, her MA in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her Certificate in Jewish Education from the HUC-JIR. Lindsay was selected to be one of 24 fellows of the UJA-Federation's Ruskay Institute for Jewish professional leaders in 2017, and in 2016, Lindsay was selected to be a participant in the Paideia Paradigm Program with Jewish professionals from the US, Europe and Israel. Lindsay was a recipient of The Jewish Education Project Young Pioneers Award in 2015, and has published articles in the URJ's Journal For Youth Engagement.
Lindsay loves connecting with and developing relationships with the members of our congregational family. Please reach out to her at any time!
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Wed, April 30 2025
2 Iyar 5785
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For Complete Community Calendar Click Here |
Worship Schedule
Shabbat "Tazria-Metzora" ~ "שבת "תזריע־מצרע
Friday, May 2
6:30 pm – Erev Shabbat, in honor of Israel's 77th Year of Independence. Worship in person or watch on our Website. This will immediately be followed by a Special Yom Ha'atzmaut Oneg Shabbat. Click here for more information.
Saturday, May 3
9:00 am – Adult Torah Study, in person or register here to join via Zoom.
10:30 am – Shabbat Morning, Bat Mitzvah of Frankie Klein, worship in person in the Main Sanctuary or watch on our Website.
10:30 am – Shabbat Havurah Morning, worship in person in the Beit T'fillah.