Board of Directors
| Member | Location |
|---|---|
| Barbara Tobin, President | Sebastopol, CA |
| Michael Berenbaum | Los Angeles, CA |
| Rochel Blachman | Culver City, CA |
| Cece Feiler | Los Angeles, CA |
| Linda Gerard | San Francisco, CA |
| Ruth P. Goldberg | Kiawah Island, SC |
| Sharon Haims | Sherman Oaks, CA |
| Helen Jacobs–Lepor | Beverly Hills, CA |
| Rabbi Stan Levy | Los Angeles, CA |
| Harry Pelz | Scottsdale, AZ |
| Sheryl Sokoloff | Los Angeles, CA |
Staff
Samara Hutman, Executive Director
Eleanor Cohen, Project Administrator
Marcy Pluznick-Marrin, Fulfillment
Biographies
Gesher Calmenson, Founder. Gesher retired in 1995 from a 30–year career in publishing to work in Jewish education. In 2003 he founded the Remember Us Project. He is the Education Director Emeritus of Dor Hadash Religious School, Congregation Ner Shalom, Cotati, California, and completed a Fellowship in Jewish Family Education (1999–2002). Gesher served as Chairman of the Regional Educators Council, Bureau of Jewish Education, San Francisco (2001–2002), and was a leader in Jewish Family Room, a multi–generational home–based family education program (2002–2005). He served as a school assessment specialist and member of the coordinating committee of NESS, a program to encourage excellence in synagogue schools. In his home community he serves as the chairman of the Sonoma County Yom Hashoah Commemoration Committee, mentors bar/bat mitzvah students, and tutors special needs and gifted students in Jewish studies.
Elly Cohen, Project Administrator. Elly was formerly the Outreach Coordinator for the seniors program at the Sonoma County Jewish Community Center. A longtime active volunteer in the Jewish community, her involvement includes serving as a cantorial soloist and music coordinator for her congregation, serving on the board of directors of several Jewish organizations, and teaching religious school and adult education classes.
Marcy Pluznick–Marrin, Fulfillment, is responsible for providing names to Bnai Mitzvah students and their families. President of the Board of Directors of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, California, she has helped create and oversee development of Chaverim, a county–wide Jewish teen program, and has served onsteering committees for community organizing projects as well as for a synagogue Torah–writing project. Marcy’s children have all accepted the invitation to participate in Remember Us.
Barbara Tobin, Board President. Barbara has a background in Jewish communal work, nonprofit administration, and human resources management. She has held the positions of Program Director for the Sonoma County Jewish Films Series, and Coordinator for the Bureau of Jewish Education’s Feast of Jewish Learning for Sonoma County. Ms. Tobin has a personal connection to the Holocaust: her great–aunt, Cora Berliner, chose to stay in Berlin in 1930, rather than join her family in the United States, so that she could continue her work with the Kindertransport. She is believed to have died at Bergen Belsen.