Clergy and Professional Staff

Rabbi Adam Feldman is the spiritual leader of The Jewish Center

Send an email to Rabbi Feldman

Anne Tucker is the Associate Rabbi at The Jewish Center

Rabbi Annie Tucker grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in Psychology and Jewish Studies. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, she received a master's degree in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2001, continuing on in the Seminary's rabbinical program where she was ordained in May 2006 with a concentration in pastoral counseling. At graduation, Rabbi Tucker received the Bernard and Sydell Citron Scholastic Prize awarded to the outstanding graduating student of the Rabbinical School. She also received the Lamport Prize in Homiletics.
Since arriving at The Jewish Center in 2006, Rabbi Tucker has become integrally involved in our school and youth community, serving as lead professional on our 2010 school change initiative for which she earned an Ateret Kavod award.  She is responsible for creating innovative and content-rich opportunities for learning and community building including an annual 1oth grade community service program in New Orleans, LA,  a weekly Bible BaBoker study group, and women’s trips to Israel and to Spain.  She also leads our Riverside High Holiday services.

Rabbi Tucker’s sermons and writings have been published in such venues as The American Rabbi, Sacred Journeys, Ramah at 60 and more.  She is involved in a number of local and national organizations and has served on the Rabbinical Assembly Executive Vice President search committee, the JTS Rabbinical School Women’s Task Force, and the JTS Rabbinical School’s Admissions Committee.

Send an email to Rabbi Tucker

 

Amy E. Rubin is Director of Administration

Amy joined the staff of The Jewish Center in 2009 as her first foray into the world of Jewish communal service. Previously, Amy was the Director of Marketing and Promotions for Prudential’s commercial mortgage division capping off a 23-year career at Prudential that also included stints in facilities, corporate communications and human resources. She blends her considerable business experience with deep familiarity with congregational life. Amy is a long-time lay leader at Temple Beth-El in Hillsborough, New Jersey. During her leadership tenure there, she served as President (2001-2003), Treasurer, (1995-1997) Trustee (1989-present), and chair of a wide range of committees including the Religious and Nursery Schools, Personnel, Leadership Development, Construction and Jubilee.

Amy’s work in marketing communications has won the 2005 IRIS “Best in Show” Award from the New Jersey Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators and the 2005 and 2008 New Jersey Art Directors Guild design awards. She has served as a panelist on topics ranging from brand strategy to volunteerism. She currently serves as a director for the Amy Heinel Garthly Foundation for Medical Research and is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators, the American Marketing Association and the North American Association of Synagogue Executives.

Although the field of synagogue administration is relatively new to Amy, “I feel like I’ve been training for this role my entire career,” she says.

Amy earned her BA in Communications with a minor in Religion Studies from Muhlenberg College. She resides in Hillsborough with her husband, Ken and their three daughters, Amy, Kayla and Talia.

Send an email to Amy Rubin

Gila Levin is the Principal, Religious School
Gila Levin brings 15 years experience at The Jewish Center as a teacher, B’nai Mitzvah coordinator and Ritual Director to the current  position as School principal. Gila was born in Haifa Israel. She received her B.S. and  M.A. from the Technion and taught at Rogozin High School in Kiryat Ata for 12 years.

Gila and her husband Gadi live in Hillsborough. They have three children: Yariv, Yuval, and Yael, and three grandchildren , Lia, Jake and Maya.

Send an email to Gila Levin

 

Gayle Wagner is Early Childhood Education Director

Since arriving at The Joan Levin Early Childhood Education School in 2005, Gayle has implemented after-school enrichment classes, Hebrew storytelling programming and much more into the Early Childhood Education School’s daily schedule.  Other additions and innovative programming include Israeli dance, a Community Day Tzedakah Walk-A-Thon, weekly Shabbat Challah delivery for the Early Childhood Education School and Jewish Center, and a pilot Ritual Program under Maxine Handleman for Early Childhood Education (JEA).  Most recently, she helped develop a Hebrew Immersion Early Childhood Education School Class starting in September 2009.  Her emphasis is on creating and maintaining a warm, enjoyable, and enriching educational experience for her students and a stimulating professional environment for her staff.

Gayle graduated from Douglass College, Rutgers University with a BA in Art and Education. She spent her sophomore year studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and has been working in the education field with a focus in Early Education.  Gayle has taught Art in grades K-12 for public school districts, and pre-school at Temple Beth El in Hillsborough. Through her years at Temple Beth El, she was a teacher of the students ages two through four.  She helped create the full-day kindergarten program that she taught for five years, played a significant role in developing the Jewish content curriculum for all ages of the nursery school at Temple Beth El, and was appointed as Assistant Director. She was the Art Director and later the Director of their summer camp program. Her most recent position before joining TJC was Director at The Goddard School in Branchburg.

She resides in Hillsborough with her husband, Rick and has three children Jared, Tye and Blaire.

Send an email to Gayle Wagner

 

Neil Wise is the Director of Programming

Neil Wise brings 10 years of youth and synagogue programming experience to The Jewish Center. Neil joined us at The Jewish Center in the fall of 2007 after serving as the Youth and Program Director at Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, Pa.  He also taught religious school, Hebrew high school, and was a youth group advisor. He comes from a strong background in USY (United Synagogue Youth). In his youth, he served as a regional USY board member, traveled to Poland and Israel with USY, and has been a staff member for USY on Wheels. Neil’s Jewish educational background came from Abrams Hebrew Academy and Gratz Hebrew High School. Neil is known for his Congregational Purim extravaganzas.

His vision is to see The Jewish Center become a leader in its youth and synagogue programming, and to infuse the synagogue with new energy.

Send an email to Neil Wise

 

Cantor Mike Weis is the Ritual Director

Originally from Chicago, Cantor Weis obtained his BA in Economics from Stanford University
in 1986 before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film, television and theatre that included a one-year program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Along the way, he founded a small graphic design and printing business that steadily grew into one of the leading providers of marketing materials to the performing arts community in Hollywood. Having grown up in a secular home, Cantor Weis was a relative stranger to Jewish life until his early 30s, when he first began exploring his Jewish roots in depth. That initial exploration ultimately led to his decision to go to JTS to pursue the dual degree program in Sacred Music and Jewish Education.

During his years at the Miller Cantorial School and the Davidson School at JTS, Cantor Weis was (among his other activities) a High Holiday Hazzan at Rodef Shalom Congregation (VA), and a religious school teacher and B’nai Mitzvah tutor at Temple Emanu-El (NJ) and Congregation Sha’arei Tikvah (NY). He held an extended Cantorial and Educator internship at the Highland Park Conservative Temple.

His ultimate goal is to help Jews of all different backgrounds learn to engage with their sacred tradition and find a sense of wholeness and belonging. He finds enjoyment and challenge in creating davening experiences that are accessible and inspiring, and that seamlessly blend traditional and contemporary nusach.

Send an email to Cantor Weis

 

Student Cantor Tahl Ben-Yehuda

Tahl Ben-Yehuda has been our student Cantor since October 2010 and will lead our High Holiday services for 5772.

Tahl grew up in Western Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida, the oldest of four children of Rabbi Eliezer and Leah Ben-Yehuda.  Initially she trained to become a doctor but by the end of a pre-med graduate school program she realized that her calling was to the American Jewish community.  She studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary while teaching and conducting congregational prayer on Shabbatot and Hagim.  She completed the pre-rabbinic Mechina program and then went on to earn a Master's degree from the Davidson School of Jewish Education at the Seminary.  She has served as a Congregational Hebrew School principal, High Holy Days cantor, Hebrew and Judaica teacher of middle and high school grades, B'nai Mitzvah tutor, and USY director.

Tahl is currently a student at the H. L. Miller Cantorial School of The Jewish Theological Seminary.

Our Emeriti

Dov Peretz Elkins is the Rabbi Emeritus

Rabbi Elkins graduated from Gratz College for Hebrew Teachers (1958), received a B.A. from Temple University (1959), and received a M.H.L. from the Jewish Theological Seminary (1962).  He was ordained in 1964. He later received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from JTS, and was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Gratz College.
In 1976, Rabbi Elkins received his doctorate in counseling and humanistic education from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School.  Rabbi Elkins has served as a military chaplain, authored over thirty-five books, including the New York Times best-selling CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE JEWISH SOUL  He received numerous awards from Israel Bonds and many other organizations.

During the years 1992 - 2005, he was the spiritual leader of The Jewish Center of Princeton. During that period he served as President of the Princeton Clergy Association, the Princeton Medical Center Committee on Ethics, the Rabbinical Assembly Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, and many others. He was primarily responsible for helping TJC acquire 3 new Sefer Torahs, the two lots of land adjacent to the present site, and the Computer Learning Center in the Religious School.

Rabbi Elkins is married to Maxine, a former teacher in our Religious School, a Jewish and Israel activist, and owner of “Israeli Crafts.” They have six children and nine grandchildren, in New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.

 

Murray E. Simon is the Cantor Emeritus at The Jewish Center

Cantor Murray E. Simon is a native of Philadelphia, PA where he earned the degree of Bachelor of Music in Performance from Temple University. In 1980, Cantor Simon was honored by Temple University as its "Alumnus of the Year" of the College of Music.

Recognizing his love for interpreting the liturgical music of the synagogue, Cantor Simon enrolled at the Hebrew Union College - School of Sacred Music in New York City in order to prepare for a career in the cantorate. He was elected president of the student body and was certified and commissioned as a cantor in addition to receiving his Bachelor of Music cum laude.

Cantor Simon served several prominent congregations in the New York City and Boston communities before coming to The Jewish Center. He has been a lecturer in Jewish music and liturgy at Brandeis University and Hebrew College, Brookline, MA among others. He also attended the Boston Conservatory of Music where he received his Master of Music degree in Voice.

Cantor Simon is on the faculty of the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York City where he received the P’nei Torah Faculty Award in May 2009. He has served as Vice-president of Communal Affairs for the Princeton Clergy Association, National president of the Cantorial Alumni Association of the Hebrew Union College, national president of the American Conference of Cantors; president of the New England Jewish Music Forum; and is currently a member of the National Executive Council of the Cantors Assembly.

He is the producer of the highly-acclaimed historic DVDs, "Great Cantors of the Golden Age" and "Great Cantors in Cinema" in conjunction with the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University.

Cantor Simon is the recipient of two honorary Doctor of Music degrees  (Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary) in recognition of his many achievements and contributions made to the cantorate.

 

Fran Amir is Principal Emerita of Religious School

Fran retired from her role as the Principal of the Religious School in 2010 after 14 years.   She grew up in New York City and served in the field of education and youth programming most of her adult life. She graduated from Brooklyn College with a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Secondary Education and taught Social Studies in the New York City school system for 25 years. In the field of Jewish education, Fran did additional graduate work in Jewish Studies at Wayne State University and has taken numerous courses at conferences and workshops to enhance her Judaic background, and educational programming at The Jewish Center. She is also a graduate of the Meah program and became an adult Bat Mitzvah at The Jewish Center. She has taught in Religious Schools in New York, Michigan, Toronto, and at The Jewish Center and has directed teen programs both in summer camps and in after school programs.  She was on The Jewish Center Board of Directors as the Co-Chair for Youth and Family Programs for five years. Professionally, Fran is a member of the Principal's Cooperative Exchange and was its President for five years. She is also a member of the Principal's Council of Princeton, Mercer, Bucks, and the Jewish Educators Assembly.  Fran was recently honored as a Jewish National Fund Ambassador and under her leadership the Religious School won the Kehillah Award for Community Service from Jewish Family and Children's Service in 2008.

Fran and her husband, Assaf, live in Plainsboro. They have three grown children (Yariv, Lemore and Orly) and are the proud grandparents of Morgan, daughter of Yariv and Beth Amir.

 

updated: 12 January, 2012