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Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, Founder and President
Rabbi Sidney Schwarz founded PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values in 1988 as a means to spark greater interest in Jewish values and tikkun olam, repair of the world. He previously served as executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, D.C. and was the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Rockville, MD, where he is now rabbi emeritus.
Dr. Schwarz is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) and holds a Ph.D. in Jewish history. He has served on the faculties of the University of Maryland, Temple University and the RRC as well as the Wexner Summer Institute and the Whizin Family Education Institute. Schwarz’s first book, Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of American Jews can Transform the American Synagogue (Jewish Lights) was not only widely read and quoted, but has been used by hundreds of synagogues and rabbis across the country. In it, he offered a new paradigm to help reclaim the American synagogue for a younger generation of American Jews. Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World (Jewish Lights, 2006) uses a similar blend of history and sociology to offer a new vision for a Jewish community built around a commitment to social justice.
Schwarz is the co-author of Jewish Civics: A World Repair/Tikkun Olam Manual (1994) and Jews, Judaism, and Civic Responsibility (1998). He has written more than 100 articles for various journals, including Judaism, Moment, Sh'ma and Reconstructionist, and is a frequent lecturer on contemporary Jewish affairs. In 2002, Rabbi Schwarz was awarded a Covenant Award for Exceptional Jewish Educators by the Covenant Foundation. To view Rabbi Schwarz's remarks at the awards ceremony please click here.
Marilyn W. Smith,
Executive Vice President
Before joining PANIM as Executive Vice President, Marilyn Smith served as the vice-president and director of programs at Reading Is Fundamental and as the executive director of Communities In Schools National. During the Clinton Administration, Smith was the director of the Department of Service-Learning for the Corporation for National and Community Service where she managed the Department of Service-Learning and the Learn and Serve America grants program. Smith also has extensive experience in higher education, having held several teaching and administrative positions at universities around the country. She holds a Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Maryland and a M.A. degree in reading education from the Ohio State University.
Megan Brudney, Development Associate
Megan was born and raised in Athens, Georgia, the home of the Georgia Bulldogs. She is a proud graduate of Duke University, where she majored in linguistics. Megan began her PANIM career as the 2006-2007 Pollin-Cohen Fellow and is excited to have since joined the permanent staff. Megan’s primary interests include living in the District of Columbia, playing guitar, cooking, and watching Duke basketball.
Jodi Garber-Simon, Director of Marketing/PR
Jodi is PANIM's Director of Marketing/PR. Jodi was the communications director for the Credit Union Association of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM before moving to D.C. She has worked as a reporter for newspapers across the Western U.S. Jodi is a graduate of Bennington College, M.F.A., and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, B.S. Jodi lives with her husband, Neil and their two dogs in downtown D.C.
Pamela Grutman, Program Associate
Pamela, originally from Manalapan, New Jersey, graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a major in architecture. There she held held several prominent positions in the Jewish community, and was a religious school teacher. Additionally, she completed the Hewlett Program in Architecture: Community Building, Building Community. She is an alumna of Panim el Panim and was the 2006-2007 PANIM Dorot Fellow. After PANIM, she hopes to continue combining issues of housing and development with social justice.
Lani Hart, Smith Fellow
Lani grew up in Buffalo Grove, Illinois and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in Sociology, Jewish Studies, and Hebrew. She also served as a Service Learning Fellow on her campus. Lani has participated in a variety of Jewish programs including the Machon Kaplan summer internship at the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C. and as a counselor for a NFTY in Israel high school trip in the summer of 2006. She also spent a semester abroad in Prague, Czech Republic, where she was able to study Jewish history and travel around Central Europe. After the fellowship, Lani plans to stay involved in the nonprofit world by pursuing another position in the Jewish community or going to graduate school for nonprofit management.
Holli Hartman, Office Administrator/Registrar
Holli Hartman joined PANIM in December 2004 as our Registrar/Administrator. She finished the Master of Arts in Legislative Affairs program at George Washington University in December 2005, and has worked on a number of political campaigns. Originally from Lawrence, Kansas, Holli attended the University of Kansas where she received her bachelor’s degree in Anthropology. In her free time, Holli enjoys reading and participates in medieval recreation.
Rachel Hillman, Pollin-Cohen Fellow
Rachel, originally from Fremont, California, is a recent graduate of Brandeis University. While at Brandeis, Rachel was the Social Events and Culture Coordinator for Hillel for two years and an active member of Brandeis' only sketch comedy troupe for four years. Rachel has spent several summers working for a variety of Jewish organizations, including the Washington office of the Anti-Defamation League, Shalom Bayit: Jewish Women Working to End Domestic Violence, and Genesis at Brandeis University. Rachel is an avid traveler, having visited over nineteen countries and studied abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. Rachel plans to pursue a career in informal Jewish education with a focus on Holocaust Studies.
Seth Kaplan, Dorot Fellow
Seth is from San Diego and is a graduate of the University of California-Santa Cruz, where he studied Psychology and Politics. While in college, Seth was active in KESHER, the college program of Union for Reform Judaism. During his junior year, he was chosen to serve on the KESHER National Leadership Counsel, where he had the opportunity to develop Jewish programming for students in universities across North America. Seth is passionate about social justice and political activism and is eager to share his passions and unique experiences with PANIM. Following his fellowship, Seth plans to return to school to pursue an advanced degree in politics, public policy, or law.
Lia Katz, Program Associate
Lia Katz joined PANIM in 2006 as the Smith Fellow, and has stayed on to be a full member of the staff. She graduated from the University of Toronto after completing a degree in international relations. She was very involved with the Hillel on her campus, serving as chair of Israel programming in her junior year and public relations coordinator in her senior year. She spent a summer volunteering in Ghana and Ukraine through the American Jewish World Service. As well, she worked as a news editor on an undergraduate international relations journal and volunteered as an adult literacy tutor in the Toronto Public Libraries. Lia works on J-Serve and as a lead faculty on Panim el Panim seminars among other projects in the office.
Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block, Director of Education
Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block is the Director of Education at PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values. He is the co-editor and co-author of Just: Judaism. Action. Social Change andhis articles have been published in Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility and Newsweek.com. He has launched two Jewish serving-learning programs: Summer JAM (Judaism, Activism, and Mitzvah work), which he directed for four summers, and PanimWorks. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Grinnell College and rabbinic ordination from The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He currently serves on the board of Jews United for Justice, the Advisory Board for The Selah Leadership Program of the Jewish Funds for Justice, and is a founding member of Eastern Village Cohousing, an award-winning, green cohousing community, where he lives with his family in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland.
Hannah
Lipman, Acting Director of Development
Hannah Lipman has been with PANIM for 15 years. She has served in numerous capacities as PANIM has grown. For the past nine years, she has been involved with development. Her primary responsibilities are coordinating PANIM's annual benefit dinner, donor relations, board relations, and special events.
Cheryl McGowan, Administrative Assistant
Cheryl McGowan was PANIM’s administrative assistant from 1994 until 2000. After a very long lunch break, she returned to her desk in 2007. A graduate of Frostburg State College and the now-defunct Washington School for Secretaries, Ms. McGowan has over 25 years’ experience with non-profit organizations. She enjoys entertaining people with amusing stories about her adventures as an emergency medical attendant with the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department. When not at work or riding ambulances, Cheryl likes to read and write science fiction novels.
Rachel Meytin, Director of the Center for Jewish Service-Learning
Rachel originally joined PANIM as the project manager for the Jewish Civics Initiative (JCI), prior to which she taught the JCI course at Los Angeles Hebrew High School. She has a master’s degree in Education and an M.B.A. in Non-Profit Management from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. She is originally from upstate New York and earned a B.A. from Boston University where she majored in psychology.
Debbie Monroe, Director of Finance and Administration
Debbie joined PANIM in June, 2005 as the Director of Finance and Administration. She is a graduate of Salisbury University. Debbie has more than 20 years of experience in Finance and Human Resource Administration in both for profit and not for profit organizations.
Miriam Posner Stein, Director of the Center for Jewish Youth Leadership
Miriam Stein is PANIM’s Director of the Center for Jewish Youth Leadership where she is responsible for recruitment and teaching on Panim el Panim. Before working at PANIM, Miriam served as the Associate Director of Communications and Special Projects at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) in Washington, D.C. She has her Master’s in Education and Judaic Studies from George Washington University and lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Andrew.
Shmuly Yanklowitz, Director of Summer JAM
Shmuly Yanklowitz grew up in Toronto, New Jersey, and Chicago and studied at the University of Texas for an undergraduate degree and Harvard University for his Masters degree in Human Development and Psychology. He is now completing a second Masters degree in Jewish Philosophy at Yeshiva University and beginning his Doctoral Studies at Columbia University in Moral Development and Developmental Psychology. During two different years, he studied at Yeshivat Hamivtar in Efrat, Israel where he also founded the Jerusalem Leadership Institute bringing together students and volunteers in Israel for dialogue, service projects, and leadership training. Shmuly has volunteered, taught, and staffed in many countries including Israel, France, Thailand, El Salvador, Ghana, India, and Ukraine. He is currently a Rabbinical School student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York and is a Wexner Graduate Fellow. In addition to being an avid reader and active athlete, Shmuly finds many of his passions in social justice and social action leadership. As a former PANIM Summer JAM staff person, Shmuly is very excited about Directing JAM in the summer of 2008.
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