Professional
Rabbi Thomas Alpert is pleased to be part of the Temple Etz Chaim community. He was ordained from the New York campus of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 2000 after a previous career as a lawyer. Since his ordination, he has served congregations in Malden, Brookline, and Marlborough, as well as having served as an interim rabbi in Madison, Connecticut. He has completed advanced training in congregational transition and change. His Torah commentary was selected for publication in Living Torah: Selections from Seven Years of Torat Chayim. more…
Hana Berman is our Director of Education. Hana comes to us with a broad range of experience. Prior to coming to Temple Etz Chaim, she taught at the Kehillah Schechter Academy in Norwood, Massachusetts for 18 years, teaching a wide range of ages and subjects in both the Judaic and general curricula. Hana became an Israeli citizen after living in Israel for six years. During that time, she was one of the founding members of the community of Neve Shalom, whose purpose is to provide a forum for Arabs and Jews in Israel to meet each other in an exchange of ideas and values. She later spent three years studying in Yeshivot in Jerusalem. Hana returned to the United States where she completed a dual degree in Philosophy and Elementary Education at Rhode Island College. She worked as a Resource Coordinator, teacher, and Family Educator at Temple Torat Yisrael in Cranston, Rhode Island, and spent ten summers as an instructor in Hebrew language and sailing at Camp Yavneh in New Hampshire. She received her Master’s Degree in Jewish Education at Hebrew College. Hana is the mother of 3 boys and Savta (grandma) to 2 grandsons who live nearby in Rhode Island.
Lay Leadership
Past Rabbis
- Arnold Fertig
- Jeffrey Goldwasser
- Barbara AB Symons
- David S. Widzer
Past Presidents
- Richard Shulman – Founding President
- David Hirshfield
- Andrew Brown
- Susan Bershad
- Barbara Gillmeister
- Risa Ceskavich
- Sue Cass
- Margot Rivelis & Bill Gilbert
- Grace Kooper
- Adam Cutler