Michelle has brought her background in Marketing and Business to 30 years of community involvement. Her driving passions are her love for her family, dedication to strengthening the Jewish community, and providing compassionate care for others so her work has been primarily in three main areas: Jewish communal organizations, healing/spirituality and education (both public and Jewish).

Michelle currently chairs the URJ Camp Newman board and serves on the URJ North American and Bay Area Jewish Healing Center boards. She also provides end-of-life spiritual care to those on hospice, is working on community building with various organizations and studies religion and spirituality. Through the years, Michelle has also served on the Peninsula Temple Sholom board and its Executive and Personnel committees, started (with her husband) a division of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, served on the Wornick Jewish Day School board of directors and was its first Middle School PTO chair, has held leadership positions on the parent advisory boards of all of her children’s elementary through high schools, and has been involved with AIPAC.

Originally from Detroit, Michelle got her business degree from the University of Michigan and then moved to California to work for Clorox, where she met her husband Keith. She and Keith have 3 adult sons, all of whom received religious school educations, were involved in temple youth groups (NFTY), traveled and studied abroad in Israel (EIE, now Heller High), and loved their summers at URJ Camp Newman. Michelle and Keith spend a good amount of time traveling, mostly to see their sons — and now a daughter-in-law, too — who are scattered around California and Europe.

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Barry Asin was appointed President of Staffing Industry Analysts in January 2010, with overall responsibility for the company’s strategy, operations and growth, both in the U.S. and globally. He has been with the company since 2003, most recently as Chief Analyst and Managing Executive, where he led the team responsible for SIA’s award-winning research and content. A leading authority on the staffing industry, contingent labor and contingent labor management issues, he is a frequent speaker at industry events and his expertise is quoted in major business and industry publications, including the New York Times, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, and USA Today, among others. Prior to joining SIA, Asin spent nearly 12 years as a senior executive at global staffing leader Adecco SA. Before Adecco, he held operations management positions with Pepsico, and he began his professional career with Andersen Consulting, the predecessor of Accenture. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.S. in engineering from Princeton University.

His son Sam has attended Camp Newman for 11 years and enjoys being a counselor so that he can bring camp to the next generation. His daughter Julia attended Camp Newman for eight summers. Barry is happily married to Amy who also loves camp and joins him on our board.

Barry Brucker served twice as the Mayor of Beverly Hills, California. Barry grew up in Beverly Hills, attending Beverly Vista School and graduating from Beverly Hills High School in 1975. He then received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Business and Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon. He serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Independent Ink, a global manufacturer of printer ink.

In 1997, he was elected to the Beverly Hills Unified School District and he was reelected in 2001, serving two terms as school board president, in 1999 and 2003. In 2005, he was elected to the Beverly Hills City Council, and again in 2009. He served as Vice-Mayor in 2009 and 2010. He was elected as Mayor in 2008, and was reelected in 2011. After several years in city council and two terms as Mayor, Brucker decided to end a long fulfilling career with his ultimate decision to retire in 2012.

He serves as Vice President of the Beverly Hills Education Foundation. Previously, he served on the Board of Governors of Century City Hospital. He now serves on the Board of Directors of Friends of Sheba Hospital in Israel. He holds a black belt in karate. Married to Sue Brucker, also a board member, they have two children, Richard and Lauren. He volunteers at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills.

Sue Brucker is a Graphic Designer and Artist. Having always been involved in the creative process, in the summer of 2013, after a 25 year hiatus, Sue finally picked up the paintbrush and hasn’t put it down since. Currently, she has been creating one-of-a-kind, mixed media artwork. Inspired by color theory, Peter Max, Michael Lang, Jim Dine abstract, pop and modern art, she has been expressing and exploring her creative passion through a technique of sketching, painting, pouring, drizzling and carving. Her most recent work, “Heart on Fire”, was featured and sold at MusiCares’ (a partner of The Grammy Foundation and The Recording Academy) silent auction.

Married to Barry Brucker, former Mayor of Beverly Hills and also a board member, they have two children, Richard and Lauren. Sue has volunteered at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills and is on the Camp Newman Board and the URJ Board of Trustees.

Arlene Chernow is an Outreach Specialist in the Union for Reform Judaism’s Congregations Consulting Group. Arlene has worked in the field of URJ Reform Jewish Outreach and Membership since 1984. Reform Jewish Outreach is the groundbreaking part of the URJ that welcomes and integrates those who are new Judaism especially interfaith families and Jews-by–choice. Arlene is married to Judge Eli Chernow. Their three daughters were long-time campers and they are now the parents of Rabbi Mari Chernow, Rabbi Jordana Chernow-Reader and Rabbinic student Ilana Mills. Arlene is a member of our board and a proud member of our Legacy Society for Living Judaism, ensuring the future of camp.

Judge Eli Chernow, (Ret.) has been providing alternative dispute resolution services for civil, probate and family law matters in Southern California for over twenty years. Prior to becoming a full time mediator and arbitrator, Judge Chernow served on the bench of the Los Angeles Superior Court for sixteen years. Judge Chernow has experience in virtually all areas of civil and family law and specialty complex cases. Judge Chernow is a co-author of The Rutter Group’s California Practice Guide: Civil Trial & Evidence and lectures frequently for bar associations and other organizations. He is the author of numerous published articles on such topics as sanctions and expert witnesses, and is a former associate professor of law at USC Law Center, where he taught courses on evidence, corporations and environmental law. He is the current or former member of the Family and Juvenile Court Advisory Committee, Judicial Council of California; Executive Committee, Lawyers Conference, Judicial Division of the American Bar Association; Board  Member:  Regional, District and North American boards, Union for Reform Judaism (formerly Union of American Hebrew Congregations), North American Camp committee of Union for Reform Judaism, and Camp Newman.

Judge Eli Chernow is married to Arlene, who is also on the board. Their three daughters were long-time campers and they are now the parents of Rabbi Mari Chernow, Rabbi Jordana Chernow-Reader and Rabbinic student Ilana Mills. Eli is a member of a our board and a proud member of our Legacy Society for Living Judaism, ensuring the future of camp.

Rabbi Steven Chester is a Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Sinai in Oakland, CA. Rabbi Chester retired in 2011 after 22 years on the bimah and 40 years in the rabbinate. Before coming to Temple Sinai in 1989, Rabbi Steven Chester served congregations in Jackson, Michigan (where he also served as prison chaplain for the Jewish prisoners of the State of Michigan) and Stockton, California. He has taught Hebrew at Jackson Community College, Bible at Spring Arbor College and Bible and Judaism at the University of the Pacific, where he was named Adjunct Professor in the Religious Studies Department. Rabbi Chester received a B.A. in History from UCLA (1965), a B.H.L. from Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles (1967), a M.H.L. from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati (1971), and an honorary doctorate from HUC in 1996. He was ordained in 1971. His Rabbinic thesis was “Eli Wiesel: Rebbe for our Generation.”

Rabbi Chester is married to Leona. They were married in 1969 and have two children, Adam and Shira. Adam and his wife Keng are the parents of Rabbi and Leona’s granddaughters, Anna and Abigail. Rabbi Chester has been bringing Anna to Camp Newman since she was in preschool, and in 2015 plans to bring Abigail for the first time. Rabbi Chester is a proud member of the URJ Camp Newman board.

Bruce Cohen grew up in Orange County, CA, and attended Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton. As a youth he was a song leader, and a member of his temple youth group and SCFTY. Bruce was a camper (1977-79), CIT (1980), and Counselor (1981-82) at Camp Swig. Currently, Bruce is a Senior Partner with Kurt Salmon, an international management consulting firm. After studying at UC Berkeley and the University of Sussex in England, Bruce received his B.A. with highest honors from UC Berkeley in Political Economy of Industrial Societies. He started his career at Bain & Company, before moving to private equity for a few years. Since completing his M.B.A. at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, he has accumulated more than 20 years of consulting experience to private equity firms and corporations in retail/consumer industries. He is a senior advisor to his clients focused on due diligence and developing strategies to support profitable growth. His clients include private equity funds, manufacturers, distributors, operators, and retailers. Bruce is a member of the Board of Advisors, University of Wisconsin, Graduate School of Business and is a member of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. His wife Robyn is a fitness instructor. With 3 sports minded boys, Bruce enjoys coaching baseball and basketball for his kids. His kids, Zachary, Joshua, and Benjamin have all attended camp for several years and love it!

Coming Soon!

Moshe journeyed to Camp Swig as a Kallah camper in the summer of 1975 and has been coming back to Camp Swig and Camp Newman ever since. In the early 1980s, he served as a madrich (counselor) and was the 1985 boys CIT advisor. In the late 1980s, Moshe returned as a Rosh Eidah. In 1995, Moshe came back to Camp Swig as educational director during Ruben’s first summer. Since 1995, Moshe has helped Ruben and the camp in any way he could. Most recently, he has been honored to serve on the camp board and is a Charter member of our Legacy Society for Living Judaism. Outside of camp, Moshe uses the name Marc and serves as the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Quest for Inclusion: Jews and Liberalism in Modern America (Princeton University Press, 2000) and co-editor, with Ava Kahn, of California Jews (Brandeis University Press, 2003). He is currently the Academic Affairs Vice President for Lehrhaus Judaica. He has served as Vice President of the board, San Francisco Bureau of Jewish Education and is the past President of Brandeis Hillel Day School. Moshe is married to Marci, who ran Camp Katan in the summer of 1995. They have two daughters, Rebecca and Shayna.

Marci’s first summer at Camp Swig was as the Camp Katan Director in the summer of 1995. She is married to Marc (Moshe) Dollinger, a long time Swig camper, who encouraged her to experience the joy of camping for herself. After that glorious summer in the mountains of Santa Cruz, she was hooked. The Dollinger family, including daughters Shayna and Rebecca, enjoy spending time at Camp Newman whenever possible. Marci is honored to serve on the scholarship committee of Camp Newman and on the camp board. Outside of camp, Marci loves to spend time traveling and visiting with family and friends. She is a newly retired teacher of Brandeis Marin day school and the proud Mom of two grown daughters. She volunteers in the community and serves on the boards of Jfcs and AABGU, is an alumnus of the Wexner Heritage program and looks forward to leaving a legacy of camping to future generations.

Susan Donner began her involvement in URJ Camping at Camp Swig in 1971 as a camper in Giborim. She was then a camper every summer culminating with being a CIT in ’79 and a counselor in ’80. Her passion for camp led to her father Conrad Donner’s membership on the Swig board in the ’70’s and ’80s. She and her husband Eric are also Charter Members of our Legacy Society for Living Judaism and their children Noah and Eliana are multi-year Camp Newman campers. Susan works as a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Woodland Hills, CA. She is also an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and a faculty member at the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. Susan graduated from Harvard University, University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, UCLA’s Adult Psychiatric Residency, Cedars-Sinai’s Fellowship in Child and Family Psychiatry and the New Center for Psychoanalysis. She is a past president of the Southern California Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists. She is a past and current member of national committees on Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis. Susan and Eric have been married for 23 years. Eric is a business attorney and partner at Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton in Los Angeles. Their son Noah will be starting college at Rensselaer (RPI) in New York in the fall and Eliana will, of course, be at Camp Newman this summer.

Julia Friedman grew up in Oakland, CA, where she attended Temple Sinai where her Rabbi and camp mentor, Rabbi Steven Chester always encouraged the importance of Jewish camping. Julia’s passion for camp and the camp community ranged from Bonim 1998 to being a Nefesh Coordinator in 2013, and now is thrilled to be serving on the Advisory Board. One of Julia’s current focus is to foster the camp connections wherever geographically people are; she enjoys hosting camp gatherings for Newman alum in NYC.

Julia is a social worker in NYC at a non-profit, Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO), that works to reduce recidivism by providing justice-involved 16-to-24 year old men education, emotional support, and employment opportunities. Julia directly correlates growing up at camp to why she works as a social worker.

Julia graduated from Drew University in 2013 with her B.A. in Sociology, and received her M.A. in Clinical Social Work in 2015 from NYU.

Coming soon!

Jim Heeger, like his wife, Daryl, has been actively involved with the URJ camps for many years. Before becoming URJ Camp Newman Board Chair, Jim led the Master Plan Committee that developed the long-term vision for Camp Newman’s facilities and he chaired the Facilities Renovation Committee for the major renovations that preceded the Tubbs Fire. Jim has held a number of high tech senior management positions in Silicon Valley. He was President, CEO and Chairman of GreenRoad, an Israeli-founded technology company. Prior to GreenRoad he was President and CEO of PayCycle, held executive management positions at Adobe Systems and Intuit and was President and CEO of Fotiva. He earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a BS in management from MIT.

Jim is active in the Jewish community in the Bay Area and is a Past President of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills and of Hillel at Stanford. He is currently serving as Vice Chair of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, Immediate Past Chair of Moishe House and current Board Chair of the San Francisco Jewish Federation. He is also a past officer of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Jim Heeger grew up in Sioux City, Iowa and spent his summers at Congregation Emanuel’s Camp Shwayder in the Colorado Rockies.

Jim and his wife, Daryl Messinger, have two sons who are “bi-coastal” alumni of both URJ Camp Swig/Camp Newman (California) as well as URJ Camp Eisner (Massachusetts). Adam attended Camp Newman for five summers and Camp Swig for one, and Robbie attended URJ Eisner Camp in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, as a counselor and song leader where he met another counselor Rel Friedman to whom he is engaged. Daryl and Jim reside in Palo Alto and are both Charter members of the Camp Newman Legacy Society for Living Judaism.

Rabbi Douglas Kahn is the Executive Director Emeritus of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council and the founder of BroadTent Consulting where he helps communities across the country on sensitive community relations and polarization issues. He joined the JCRC in 1982 and became Executive Director in 1989, a position he held until his retirement in June 2016. Doug serves on numerous boards including the Graduate Theological Union and the United Religions Initiative Foundation Board which he chairs, and most recently co-chaired with Michelle Tandowsky a national URJ Task Force to rebuild URJ Camp Newman, largely destroyed in a 2017 California wildfire. A fourth-generation San Franciscan and proud alumnus of Camp Swig, he has been honored by numerous organizations for his work.

Abi Karlin-Resnick joined the Camp Newman board in 2013. She was a camper, CIT, and counselor in the ’80s and ’90s, and is the second of three generations to attend Camp Saratoga/Swig/Newman. She has a background in fundraising and nonprofit management and is currently the Executive Director of Health Connected, an adolescent health organization in the Bay Area. She is passionate about ensuring that children have the opportunities to grow personally, culturally, and spiritually as she did during her nine years at Camp Swig.

Coming soon!

Rabbi Stephanie Kramer is the Associate Rabbi at Congregation Shomrei Torah, a reform congregation in Santa Rosa, California. During the 2017 Northern California Wildfires, Rabbi Kramer led the entire Sonoma County Jewish community with grace and dedication, earning her the moniker the “Fire Rabbi”. During the devastating fires Rabbi Kramer organized resources to help families in need and turned the temple into an evacuation center, a day camp, and a place for comfort. She worked to find temporary housing for congregants and others in the community who lost their homes. Fittingly, Rabbi Kramer also works in a group supporting rabbis through trauma and natural disasters.

Along with her daily pulpit responsibilities, Rabbi Kramer enjoys supporting the broader Jewish community through her work on a number of Boards and Committees including  the Northern California Board of Rabbis Advisory Board, the IsraAID Global Rabbinical Council, the Sonoma County Jewish Leadership Council, and the Budget and Finance Committee for the Central Conference of American Rabbis and she is the Immediate past president of Sonoma Hillel.

Ordained at the Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbi Kramer holds a Masters Degree in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College and a B. S. in Psychology from the University of Houston. She is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the  Shalom Hartman Institute, and is currently in the Clergy Leadership Incubator and in the inaugural an all female cohort, Voices for Good.

Rabbi Kramer’s writing has appeared in The Washington Post, eJewish Philanthropy, and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. She and her husband, Adam Kramer have two children, Micah and Noa.