Rabbi Barry Lutz (Rabbi) Since joining TAS in 1984 as Director of Education, Rabbi Barry Lutz has been the architect of our successful and respected educational program. Our nationally recognized Confirmation program, community trips to Israel and 11th grade social justice experience in Washington D.C. are among his proudest accomplishments. Rabbi Lutz served as assistant chair of the 1992 Conference for Alternatives in Jewish Education; as a member of the executive board of the National Association of Temple Educators, and as co-chair of the Bureau of Jewish Education’s Principals’ Council. He is a clinical faculty member for the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at the Hebrew Union College. Rabbi Lutz was ordained at H.U.C. in 1999. He holds an M.A. in Jewish Education from H.U.C. and a M.S. in Educational Psychology from U.S.C. Rabbi Lutz is joined in his enthusiasm and dedication to this community by his wife Debbie and children Adam, Jeremy and Emily.
Halli Steinberg (Director of Education and Youth Programs) comes to Temple Ahavat Shalom from Camp Kinneret, where she spent four summers as the Assistant Director and Director. She also was the Religious School Principal at Temple Judea in Tarzana and West Hills for six years. Halli has a Master’s Degree in Education and an MBA in Non-Profit Management, both from the American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism). She lives in Agoura Hills with her husband and two children. Halli is excited to be part of the Temple Ahavat Shalom family!
Oshrat Moyal (School Administrator)
Reesa Shaw (School Administrative Assistant) After teaching at Ahavat Shalom for over ten years, Reesa also began working in the temple school office as the Religious School Administrative Assistant in 2008. Her administrative background includes an 18 career in the temporary personnel services industry where she managed numerous temp services over the years. She also has an extensive sales and social work background, as well.
Fanny Arana (10th Grade)
Lisa Bassett (Dalet) has been teaching Dalet at Temple Ahavat Shalom since 2007 after a long absence. While she attended preschool at the temple, much of her jewish experiences were through Temple Ramat Zion. Here she attended USY, hebrew school and taught in both the preschool and Hebrew school. After hebrew school was completed, Lisa stayed involved with the Bureau of Jewish education by attending Dor Hadash, Havorat Noar and Hallutz. These programs had such a tremendous impact on her that she taught Dor Hadash at Temple Ahavat Shalom until the program was cancelled. Besides teaching Dalet, Lisa is an inside account manager for Nexus IS. She is also happy and proud wife to Greg and mother to Josh.
Esther Brombart (2nd Grade) has been teaching at Temple Ahavat Shalom’s ECEC for almost 20 years. She is a graduate from the University of Washington and lived in Israel for two years. Esther is a mother of three fantastic children and a grandma of four fabulous grandchildren. The main point is….she lovee kids and is honored to be able to teach your children!
Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik (Confirmation)
Efrat Doitch (Resource Tutor) is the supervisor of the Resource Room at T.A.S. and has been either a student or a staff member (on and off) since she was five years old! Her daughter, Maya, is in the Pre-K at the Temple and loves it. She also has a son, Ethan, who just turned one who will soon be attending the mommy and me class. Efrat is a school counselor, but has been a stay-at-home mom since her daughter was born four years ago she is now enjoying her job in the Resource Room. She enjoys reading, going to the beach, hiking, skiing, movies and traveling (but hasen't done much of that since kids).
Anita Dolgin (Third Grade) started working at Temple Ahavat Shalom in 1990, first as a substitute teacher, and later as an assistant. She went to college to get her units as a pre-school teacher and was offered a job to teach the 3 year old children. She has been working at TAS since. In 2008, Anita was offered the job to teach third graders and happily accepted. "It has been a wonderful experience." Anita is also the proud grandman of a one-year-old grand daughter. In her spare time,she enjoys reading and enjoying her family. Anita also enjoys travelling and has been on a few tours of Europe and Israel.
Irit Drori (Resource Tutor) earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and her Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from California State University at Northridge. For the past two years at Temple Ahavat Shalom, she has assisted students of various grades with their Hebrew skills, pronunciation, and grammar, as well as teaching a class on Holocaust studies. She has also helped work with students on prayers and the Jewish Life Cycle.
Rebecca Green (Religious School Dance) eagerly encourages you to “shake your tushy!” Rebecca has been a member of the TAS family since she was in 3rd grade. She has been teaching Israeli folkdance since she was 17. Her mother, Mrs. Green, taught her everything she knows. Rebecca is honored to have received the Bureau of Jewish Education's Smotrich Family Foundation Award and the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education. In the past, she has served the Jewish community as a Unit Head at Camp Newman, the Arts & Education Specialist at the Zimmer Children's Museum, and as a teacher in the TAS confirmation program.
Suzanne Green (Second Grade) has been teaching religious school at Temple Ahavat Shalom for twenty-one years. Sue is honored to be a part of the temple community. Sue feels that the second grade curriculum of Mitzvot allows her to empower her students and their families to make the world a better place with many hands-on projects. In January 2002, Sue was honored with the prestigious Sara and Simha Lainer Distinguished Religious School Educator Award from the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angeles. Sue has had a varied career in Judaic education, serving on the staffs of North Valley Community Center, where Sue taught Judaica, cooking, sewing, and arts and crafts classes; University Synagogue (first grade); Temple Israel of Hollywood (kindergarten and fifth); and Temple Beth Hillel where she was the Primary Department Coordinator. She has also served as the Primary Department Coordinator at Temple Ahavat Shalom. She resides in Granada Hills with her husband Paul.
Sivan Harari (Resource Tutor)
Marilyn Kessler (First Grade) has been happily teaching first grade at TAS since 2000. She focuses on Bible stories and how to make learning fun by doing various art projects, engaging in discussions, and acting out the stories in order to reinforce the lesson of the day. She has also been teaching for LAUSD since 1990 where she taught first grade for nine years and now is currently teaching a language development program at the pre-kindergarten level. Marilyn truly loves children and working at TAS!
Jacqueline (Jackie) Kovar (Aleph, Dalet) was born in Santiago, Chile. After spending a study year in Israel, she returned and began a 12 year term at Temple Solael in West Hills, where she taught a variety of age group from Kindergarten through 8th grades. She was also the curriculum coordinator. Jackie has been teaching at TAS since 1992. She teaches both 4th grade (Aleph) and 7th grade (Dalet) Holocaust studies. She is the coordinator of the Holocaust program. In her time off, Jackie enjoys reading, swimming, going to the beach and traveling.
Fanny Koyman (Bet)
Ziva Lev (High School Art)
Sonia Liberman (Aleph) has been a guiding light at TAS since 1964, most recently teaching Alef class and tutoring. Soon after high school graduation she came to the U.S. and studied at the University of Judaism, receiving her B.A. and Masters in Jewish studies. She is highly regarded among her peers and has left countless memorable impressions upon her students.
Danielle Licht (Eighth Grade)
Michael Loewenstein (Gimmel) was born and raised in Israel, where he graduated from the agricultural school Ayanot. He served in the Israeli Defense forces from 1965 to 1968 and in 1967 took part in The Six Day war. He came to the United States in 1968 where he studied economics and marketing at UCLA. He began teaching Religious School at Temple Beth Hillel where he taught until 2002. In1973 he led the LA Ulpan program to Israel with Rabbi Julian White. He married in 1975 and has two daughters who both attended Kadima Hebrew Academy. Michael was also on the Executive Board of Kadima Hebrew Academy for 5 years and was the Vice President of Education for 4 years. Michael was honored by the Bureau of Jewish Education with the "Lainer Distinguished Educator Award" in 2001. He lives with his wife Sherry in Chatsworth.
Rick Lupert (Music, 9th Grade) has worked at Temple Ahavat Shalom for twenty years. He is the music specialist at the school serving the Kindergarten through Dalet classes, as well as the monthly Saturday morning Guiar minyan with Rabbi Alan Henkin. He also teaches the Jewish Identity unit in the ninth grade curriculum. Rick served for six years as the Assistant Director for Hillel at Pierce and Valley Colleges for which he was awarded the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence Award at Hillel's International Professional Staff Conference. He has been involved with LA's poetry community since 1994 and runs a major poetry and writing related website. Rick is also serves as Marketing Coordinator for TAS, creating print and electronic marketing materials for the Temple's community. He also works from home as a freelance graphic and web designer who has created web-sites for luminaries such as Craig Taubman, Jeff Klepper and Danny Maseng (among others). He is married to Addie and they live together in Van Nuys with their son Jude who was born in 2008.
Eric Morgenstern (Bet, Eighth Grade)
Eran Naor (Resource Tutor)
Stefanie Phillips (Dalet) is graduating from California State University, Northridge with a B.A. in Modern Jewish Studies, and is very active in the Jewish Community on campus. She attended TAS Hebrew School starting in 4th grade, and was a member of the Confirmation Class of 2003. Stefanie is very excited to be starting her first year as a teacher at TAS!
Jody Rubin (Kindergarten) has been a member of the TAS teaching staff since the early 1990's in both the Religious School and the ECEC. Jody always gets such joy out of helping the little ones learn how to put their lunch box away, and say the hamotzi for the first time, and then later spending the year with them in the religious school, learning about the Jewish holidays, acting out Bible Stories, and learning how important it is to do a Mitzvah. Jody is extremely proud of her popular Storybook Cooking class which has become a favorite part of the week for many of our temple preschoolers. Jody grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA in 1975. She continued her education in Early Childhood Education and has recently returned to school to earn her California Early Childhood Education Credential. Jody is the proud mom of three sons, Matthew, Danny, and Josh who all became a Bar Mitzvah here at TAS, and were also confirmed. Jody looks forward to many more years of opening up the eyes and hearts of our little ones, and showing them just how wonderful it is to be Jewish!
Rabbi Dalia Samansky (Gimmel) is excited to be joining the TAS team after being ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in May 2009. During rabbinical school she spent two years at Sha’arei Am Temple of Santa Monica, served as a Chaplain at Children’s Hospital, and participated in several interfaith conferences. Before entering rabbinical school, Rabbi Samansky graduated with a BA from Brandeis University, and then spent several years working in the Boston Jewish community, including serving as Director of Education and Family Educator. In 2003, she served on the Mazkirut board for the Conference for Alternatives in Jewish Education. In addition to her work in the Jewish community, Rabbi Samansky is very involved in her local community, volunteering for campaigns and serving as an elected Ward committee member (during her time in Boston). Rabbi Samansky’s thesis was a qualitative and quantitative study on programs focused on engaging young professional Jews in the Jewish community. Rabbi Samansky’s life is enriched by her wonderful husband Jason and their beautiful daughter Naomi.
Reesa Shaw (Kindergarten, 9th Grade) has been a teacher at Temple Ahavat Shalom since 1997. She and her family have been members of the congregation since 1995. Her two children, Brandon and Stephanie, both attended pre-school here at TAS, and are currently students in the Confirmation program. Reesa has her Bachelors degree in Journalism from Cal State Northridge, where she met her husband David. She attended Los Angeles Hebrew High and graduated from Union Hebrew High School.
Bruce Udelf (3rd Grade, 10th Grade) has taught religious school since 1975, but came to TAS in 1989. He currently teaches third and ninth grades, but has taught nearly every grade, as well as a variety of subjects. He is also helping to lead the Cooking Chug in the Confirmation program. Bruce holds a B. A. in Geography from Miami (Ohio) University, along with a M. A. in Geography and a teaching certificate from Western Illinois University. In everyday life, he is the Executive Director of Brighton Gardens of Camarillo, a retirement community.
