CLASS NOTES

1995

Sarah Allen has been named Director of Board Relations for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).

2001

Lisa Kasdan and her husband welcomed the birth of their second son, Noah Samuel Brenner, on July 26, 2021.

Arielle (Kallus)

Mainzer and her husband Zach celebrated the first birthday of their son, Ciaran, in August 2021.

2002

Aviva Roland and her husband Scott welcomed the birth of their third daughter, Gefen. She joins big sisters Nili and Moriyah.

2004

Hili Rosen and her husband Daniel Urban (former Schechter student) welcomed the birth of their second daughter, Bela, on August 10, 2021. Bela joins big brother Remi and big sister Lila.

Mindy Schall ’97 and Alan Schall ’92’s son, Brandon, was called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah on September 4, 2021 at Etz Chaim in Livingston, NJ. The Schalls continued their celebration on Sunday, September 5 with family and friends.

2007

Michael Gorshein

married Danitte Kozai on October 3, 2021 in Jerusalem.

2008

Shira Kleinman

married Noam Raanan in Benyamina, Israel, on June 23, 2021. The celebration was even greater since the original wedding was delayed nearly a year. The couple resides in Haifa where Noam is a landscape architect, and Shira spent the summer as the Associate Director of NFTY in Israel to supplement her work as a licensed tour guide in Israel. Mazel tov as well to Shira’s mom, Lower School faculty member Diane Kleinman!

2008

Arielle Kramer Kuzdral has a new position as head teacher at Temple Emanuel of Pascack Valley.

2009

Michael Bier started a new job as a physician at UCLA Health in Culver City, CA.

Aaron Czinn and his wife Elianna Kaplowitz welcomed the birth of their son, Judah Zeke Czinn, on May 12, 2021.

Erica Rabner

married David Gorvy on October 10, 2021.

Dani Wolberger ‘11 and Zach Stern ‘08 were married under Jewish law on September 30, 2021 surrounded by many SSDS-GOA graduates in NYC. After a rescheduled date due to the pandemic, the couple was thrilled to reunite with all their oldest friends.

2010

Andrew Wingens passed the New York State Bar exam.

2011

The Class of 2011 held a very well-attended Shabbat picnic reunion on Saturday, September 25, 2021 in Central Park in NYC. Over 50 alumni, friends and family participated! It was great that so many members of the class got together to catch up. Thank you to Ariana Bader, Carly Rabner, Rachel Wener and Dani Wolberger for organizing this reunion!

Dani Gorshein Lyons

married Donnovan Lyons on February 21, 2021 in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Dani is currently working as a sustainability consultant at PwC, and her husband is a software engineer at FanDuel. The couple is living in Highland Park, NJ.

2012

Manon (Noni) Benisty

graduated on August 19, 2021 from LeMoyne College with a Master’s of Science and is a qualified Physician Assistant. She started working at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, NY in the Emergency Room in the fall.

Samantha Jay

and Reid Title were engaged on September 4, 2021.

2013

Carmelle Bargad

and Koby Zakaeim are planning a November 1, 2021 wedding in Israel.

Jessica Bielski Akhavan ’11

married Jonathan Akhavan on August 8, 2021 in Los Angeles. Jessica’s five best friends from the Class of 2011 were in attendance and danced down her aisle!

Jessica and (right)

Annabelle (Torgman) Degrazio ‘05

L-to-R: Stephanie Aaron, Carly Rabner,

Cara Kessler, Jessica Bielski Akhavan,

Nicole Brickman, and Dani Wolberger.

2013

Ben Hersch and Amy Wolf were engaged in spring 2020 and planned an October 2021 wedding.

2014

Kineret Brokman is engaged to Matthew Giddens. The couple is currently living in Atlanta, GA. Kineret is working at Lockheed Martin in Labor and Employee Relations and also currently working on her MBA in the evening at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business. Her fiancé works for Amazon as a start-up project manager.

2015

Elijah Rockman is engaged to Samara Gottesman (of Toronto). The couple met at Ramah Nyack, which is where they got engaged.

Rebecca Hersch

and Ezra Guralnik were engaged in May 2021. The couple is planning a summer 2022 wedding.

2016

Ben Soudry started a new job as a software engineer at Google in New York City.

Alex Rothschild started a new position as Product Engineer at Bleema Manufacturing Corporation.

Gloria Rothenberg ’13

married Matthew Meshberg on August 15, 2021 at Congregation Etz Chaim in Livingston, NJ.

Gloria’s sister Sarah Schonfeld ’06 and brother-in-law Evan Schonfeld ’06.

Schechter-GOA alumnae in the bridal party included Rachel (Schwartzman) Cardin ’13, Ally Bramnick ’13, Naomi Gutstein ’13, Jessica Hutter ’13, Gabi Wolberger ’13 and Talia Brickman ’13.