LEADERSHIP

Founder

Alan Morinis

Alan's Bio

Executive Committee and the Board of Directors

Irv Robinson

Co-President

Sandy Greenstein

Co-President

Annabelle Imber Tuck

Secretary

Annabelle is the first woman elected justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and the author of the original order that reshaped the financing of public education in the state. In 1994, she issued an order declaring the state’s system of funding and operating its public schools unconstitutional and gave the Arkansas General Assembly two years to produce schools that guaranteed every child the same opportunity for a good education, as the state constitution required. She was re-elected twice before retiring.

Sandra Leif Garrett

Executive Committee & Past President

Sandy is a past president of the board of the Mussar Institute. She is a program and resource development consultant to nonprofit organizations. She comes to the role following a four-decade career in leadership positions in the public and nonprofit sectors in which she focused on helping women, children, new immigrants, and refugees succeed. She has studied and practiced Mussar since 2011 and joined the Board in 2012.

Daniel Beaupain

Daniel practices as a legal guardian / trustee after decades of being active as a management consultant. He is a gabbai, teacher, and board member at the Liberal Jewish Congregation of Amsterdam. Daniel is one of two Mussar facilitators and leaders outside the U.S. and supports or facilitates three Mussar va’adim in the Netherlands and one in Germany. He has been participating in a multinational va’ad since 2005, has been principal teacher of the Mussar Institute Europe since its founding and has translated “Everyday Holiness” into Dutch.

Karen Cheniae

Leslie-Anne Copes-Finke

Leslie-Anne Copes-Finke is Director, Teen Program for The Mussar Institute. As a member of the education staff at Beth El Temple Center in Belmont, MA, she facilitates TMI’s Teen Program with a group of 11th and 12th-grade teens. Leslie brings experience in leadership, team effectiveness, and fundraising having served as a consultant for Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ Leadership Development Institute, and more. She is currently is a Vice-Chair of the URJ Communities Leadership Team. She is the proud mother of three, ages (17, 20, and 23), and is a past president of her synagogue community.

George Gabanyi

Robert Mass

Robert Mass is Senior Advisor, Compliance Division, The Goldman Sachs Group L.P. Prior to joining the firm, Rob was an assistant district attorney in New York County, where he served as deputy chief of the Investigation Division and chief of the Labor Racketeering Unit. Prior to that, he worked at Kramer, Levin, Nessen, and Kamin, a New York corporate law firm, and at the American Civil Liberties Union. Rob is chairman of the FCA Markets Practitioner Panel. Rob is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Harvard Law School.

Prudence Simkin

Prudence is a former meeting planner, magazine editor, and Director of Membership and Volunteers at Temple Emanu-El, Dallas. She began her Mussar journey when Alan Morinis was a Scholar in Residence at Temple Emanuel.

Prudence has held a variety of leadership positions on the PTAs at her two boys’ schools, at Temple Emanu-El Dallas, and for The Mussar Institute.Prudence is eternally grateful to Alan Morinis, her long-time Mussar chevruta, her va'adim, and those at The Mussar Institute for being on this incredible journey with her.

Mussar Program Directors

Avi Fertig

Director of Mussar

Leslie-Anne Copes-Finke is the Teen Program Manager for The Mussar Institute. As a member of the education staff at Beth El Temple Center in Belmont, MA, she facilitates TMI’s Teen Program with a group of 11th and 12th-grade teens. Leslie brings experience in leadership, team effectiveness, and fundraising having served as a consultant for Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ Leadership Development Institute, and more. She is currently is a Vice-Chair of the URJ Communities Leadership Team. She is the proud mother of three, ages (17, 20, and 23), and is a past president of her synagogue community.

Leslie-Anne Copes-Finke

Director of Teen Program

Avi Fertig studied at the Yeshiva of Ner Yisrael, in Baltimore, before moving to Israel in 1997. While studying at the Mir Yeshivah of Jerusalem, he forged a close relationship with Rabbi Reuvain Leuchter, a foremost student of Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe, a recognized master of Mussar. Since that time, he has been studying, writing, and teaching Mussar to thousands of students. He is the author of two books on Torah and Mussar. He lives in Beit Shemesh with his wife and six children.

Nancy Weiss

Director of Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training

Harvey Winokur

Director of Yesod Facilitator Training and Co-Chair of Facilitator Development Council

Rabbi Winokur, Co-Chair of the Facilitator Development Council and Director of Yesod, is a native of New York. He received his B.A. from SUNY at Buffalo, and his M.A. and Ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Kehillat Chaim, a Reform congregation in Roswell, Georgia, which he founded in 1982. Rabbi Winokur is a Facilitator/Trainer for Prepare-Enrich, an organization that administers premarital/marital needs assessments, a certified Spiritual Director, and a Trainer-Facilitator for The Mussar Institute.

Evie Weinstein

Co-Chair of Facilitator Development Council

Evie Weinstein has spent most of her professional life in Jewish Education and Jewish Communal work. Her career started in Jewish camping as the Assistant Director of Camp Lakeland and directing the Children and Youth Departments at the JCC of Greater Buffalo.

Evie became the Executive Director of the Bureau of Jewish Education of Buffalo and the Principal of the High School of Jewish Studies. It is there she was introduced to Mussar and Alan Morinis through Lead with Jewish Values, a Mussar Institute course for professional staff. Evie was trained as a Mussar Facilitator in Manchim and thus her relationship with The Mussar Institute began.

Evie has facilitated many TMI courses, has consulted and worked with Alan on the Challenges and Choices TMI course for teens, and is now on the Facilitator Task Force. She has attended many TMI Kallot.

Eric Gurvis

Director of Chaverim and Outreach

Rabbi Gurvis, Director of Chaverim and Outreach at TMI, is a graduate of SUNY-Albany and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Eric has served congregations in New York City; Jackson, MS; Teaneck, NJ; Newton, MA; and is currently the rabbi of Sha'arei Shalom in Ashland, MA. Eric facilitates Mussar groups throughout the Greater Boston area and in Western Massachusetts. He and his wife, Laura Kizner Gurvis are blessed with four children and two young grandsons.

TMI Directors and Administrators

Rivka Felsher

Director of Operations

Debra Pinger

Director of Communications

Debra brings many years of public relations experience to her work. She has been an agency Senior Counselor at Dan Pinger Public Relations, Director of Communications and Development for the Nashville Film Festival, and the Executive Director of the VIA Institute on Character, an organization that studies the science of character strengths. Debra converted to Judaism in 2012 at The Temple Congregation Ohabai Shalom in Nashville. Her daughter and three granddaughters have since converted as well. She lives near her wonderful children and three granddaughters on the St. Lawrence Seaway in New York.

Dianne Benmayor

Customer Service and Technical Assistant

Dianne brings a wealth of experience in customer service and management gained in the luxury giftware industry. She is a certified yoga instructor with more than 500 hours of teaching experience. She teaches and has taught yoga, including Mussar Yoga, at a variety of locations including the Mayerson JCC, Wise Temple, and other congregations. She discovered Mussar after being enlightened by one of her students about Edith Brotman’s book, Mussar Yoga, and through the book she found TMI. She lives with her husband in Cincinnati, OH. They have two grown children and a beloved granddaughter.

Sarah Canfield-Dafilou

Teen Program Associate

Sarah graduated from the School of Education and the school of Jewish Nonprofit Management at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She comes to TMI from Kehillah Jewish High School where she loved working with student leaders and organizing and leading the annual class trips as their Director of Experiential Education. She is excited to bring her organizational systems skills and passion for empowering students to TMI. She currently lives in France with her husband and two cats.

Alex Keller

Communications and Digital Associate

Alex writes and manages a variety of communications projects and digital assets for TMI. Following a year at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, he graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Journalism and English. Recently, he managed a staff of 30 at Cincinnati's premier destination and event venue, Taft's Ale House after traveling the Southern U.S. as a member of a successful sales team. Alex is grateful to the Mussar Institute for providing the courses and Kallah. On the recommendation of R. Ja'acov Haber, he continues to list three good things each day in his journal.

Jen Gubitz

Facilitator Training Consultant

Rabbi Jen Gubitz discovered Mussar in 2014 and has been a devoted practitioner and facilitator in Synagogue communities ever since. With over 15 years of experience in Jewish professional life, Jen is a graduate of Indiana University and was ordained in 2012 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (NY) where she was a Tisch Rabbinical Fellow. She is the founder of Modern JewISH Couples. Her writing appears in the Boston Globe, Lilith Magazine, and OnBeing. She lives in Boston with her husband, Matan, and their rescue dog, Joey.

MUSSAR TEACHERS AND KALLAH FACULTY 2022

Julie Dean

Julie Dean blends 25 years of professional experience as a group facilitator of interpersonal dynamics with a passion for Jewish renewal and experiential learning. A resident of Minneapolis, she leads one of the nation’s largest citywide initiatives for Mussar, helping hundreds of people connect with their middot. As a Jewish educator, Julie leads ongoing Mussar study groups, writes curricula, facilitates workshops and retreats, and provides facilitator training. Her other involvements include writing and leading Shabbat meditations, singing in an acapella Jewish women’s choir, leading a monthly Jewish women’s spirituality group, and participating with multiple congregations in musical tefillah as a hand drummer and vocalist.

R. Judith Edelstein

Rabbi Edelstein is a post-denominational teacher, spiritual leader, counselor, and writer who has worked in synagogues, long-term care facilities, and Jewish organizations. She said, "The practice of highlighting different middot enabled me to see my own areas of strength in addition to characteristics that required constant vigilance. This focus created an opportunity for me to be conscious of traits that needed only fine-tuning and those that demanded much more.

R. Hillel Goldberg

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. He is the editor and publisher of the Intermountain Jewish News (IJN). He has won more Rockower Awards for excellence in Jewish journalism than any other person. Rabbi Goldberg was a leading student activist during his college years at the University of California Berkeley and Yeshiva University, foreshadowing his immersion in Jewish ethics and the Mussar movement. He studied Mussar at the Novorodock yeshiva in Jerusalem over the course of ten years. These experiences formed the basis for his two groundbreaking English works on Mussar, The Fire Within and Illuminating the Generations. Dr. Morinis has said of The Fire Within that it "jolted his heart....and its impact on my Mussar path cannot be overstated."

Ruchi Koval

An Orthodox woman, wife, and mother of seven, Ruchi Koval is the co-founder and director of the Jewish Family Experience in Cleveland. She is a certified parenting coach, educator, author, musician, and motivational speaker. Her first book, "Conversations with G-d," was released in 2016. Ruchi was a recipient of the CJN's 18 Difference Maker award in 2015. She has been teaching Mussar from classical texts to hundreds of students for well over a decade. She second book on Mussar is called, Soul Construction.

R. Yaacov Haber

Rabbi Yaacov Haber has been a leading force in the Jewish community for over forty years. He lived and taught in the United States, Australia, and Israel. He is presently the Rav of Kehillas Shivtei Yeshurun, a vibrant community in the center of Ramat Bet Shemesh, Israel. He was Rav of Congregation Bais Torah in Monsey, NY, and served as the National Director of Jewish Education for the Orthodox Union. He is the creator of TorahLab, a popular online educational resource center, and was one of the founding members of AJOP.

R. David Jaffe

Rabbi Jaffe is a writer, teacher, and spiritual seeker who has spent his adult life pursuing Jewish wisdom and working for reconciliation and social justice. His first book, Changing the World from the Inside Out (Trumpeter, 2016), explores how to walk a holy path that integrates deep spiritual wisdom with the daily work of peacemaking and social change. David’s social consciousness was forged by the busing era and legal desegregation of the late 60s and early 70s in New York as well as the growing openness about the Holocaust in the Jewish community.

Rivy Poupko Kletenik

Rivy, a Covenant Exceptional Educator Award winner, is in her sixteenth year as Head of School of the Seattle Hebrew Academy. She is an enthusiastic student of Mussar, the Daf Yomi, and poetry. Her weekly podcast, “The Poem. The Parsha. The Podcast” is available on Apple Podcasts. Rivy’s articles have been featured in the JOFA Journal, Lilith, New York Jewish Week, and Tablet. She enjoys serving as scholar-in-residence in communities, presenting at education conferences, and as a Limmud presenter. Rivy is married to Rabbi Moshe Kletenik and is the proud mother of four children and eight very impressive grandchildren.

R. Dovid Nussbaum

Rabbi Dovid Nussbaum is currently mashgiach ruchani (spiritual advisor) at Yeshivas Torah Ore Israeli division in Jerusalem, a position he has held for the past twenty-five years. Born in the United States, and a native English speaker, Rav Nussbaum came to study in 1978 at the renowned Mussar Yeshiva at Beer Yaakov, Israel, under the guidance of Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe zt’l, the leading Mussar personality of our generation. He has lived in Israel ever since. Rav Nussbaum remained a close student of Rav Wolbe until his passing in 2005.

R. Justin Pines

Rabbi Justin Pines serves as Director of Youth and Young Adult Initiatives for the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where he works closely with day schools, camps, and teens around questions of Jewish identity and the State of Israel. Prior to joining Hartman, he served as Mashgiach Ruchani (Director of Character Development) at the Ramaz Middle School, where he developed and implemented Mussar programming for parents, faculty, and students. He also worked with Rabbi Dr. Irving ‘Yitz’ Greenberg on a commentary on and translation of Rabbi Israel Salanter’s Ohr Yisrael. The grandchild of four Holocaust survivors, he received his BA from UPenn, his JD from Harvard, semikha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, was a Wexner Graduate Fellow and practiced corporate law at Paul, Weiss. Justin and his family live in Englewood, New Jersey, where he serves on the board of the Moriah School.

Helaine Sheias

Helaine Sheias, Ph.D., made Aliyah to Israel in her teens, served in the IDF, and settled in Israel for more than two decades. She is a graduate of The Mussar Institute Yesod Facilitator Training Program and Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training. She has facilitated various TMI courses for the past three years guiding people to the sacred place within where unity integrates all polarities. This process facilitates circles of transformation and change by modeling spiritual awakening, and self-reflexive learning, or Hitlamdut.

Facilitating Mussar courses brings Helaine deep joy and a continuous sense of awe and wonder.

MUSSAR FACILITATORS

Robert Barris

About Robert

Robert is the co-author of Mussar in Action, with Alan Morinis, translating into English various selections from the Alei Shur, the writings of Rav Wolbe. He is a practicing psychiatrist since 1984. He is shomer Shabbat and integrates Orthodox practice with Jewish renewal. Robert has had a serious mindfulness practice for many years. He has been active in TMI for the past ten years as a former board member and as the facilitator of several TMI distance va’adim. Robert’s interests include lifestyle medicine (particularly nutrition and exercise), the martial arts, and playing with his grandchildren.

Ken Birenbaum

About Ken

Ken has been a student of Mussar since 2010, and a Mussar facilitator since 2012. After taking the Manchim facilitator training program as a student he taught that program for 2 years. He has taken and facilitated each of the Mussar Institute’s courses from beginner to advanced, and especially enjoys witnessing Mussar's transformative effects on new eyes.

He was President of his synagogue, Congregation Shaare Emeth, in St. Louis, Missouri, and served on the Boards of the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Day School, The Union for Reform Judaism, and as a Board member and Treasurer of the Mussar Institute

Howard Brill

About Howard

Judith Edelstein

About Judith

Sandy Greenstein

About Sandy

Sandy is Co-President of the Board of The Mussar Institute. He has more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing, construction, and risk management-loss control. He lives in beautiful Thousand Oaks, Calif. He believes strongly in Mussar’s path of Jewish character development and spiritual growth. and that by practicing Mussar and as a Mussar Facilitator, he has helped close the gap between his ideals and the life he actually leads.

Barbara Grosh

About Barbara

Barbara began studying Mussar in 2009, after watching her husband increase in joy, trust, kindness, and equanimity through Mussar practice. She trained to become a facilitator in 2015 and has been leading va'adim in Rochester, NY ever since. She takes great joy in watching her va'ad members report positive changes in their lives. She traveled with TMI in Israel in 2017 and 2020. She is such a promoter of the value of Mussar practice that she has been invited to lead va'adim in surprising places like churches, neighborhood centers, and vocational training centers aimed at rehabilitating people leaving prison. She greatly values the community of learners that is TMI.

Damaris Methner

About Damaris

Damaris Methner is a Mussar facilitator who is noted for her eco lyricism; illuminating the connection to the sacred shattered sparks of creation that exist in nature and the poetic expression of that relationship. Her writing on “hearthkeeping” articulates the application of Mussar to the role of caretaker. Damaris is a clinical psychologist. Her doctoral dissertation and research focused on the use of metacognition with learning disabled students. Metacognition is also the contemplative practice used in Mussar to access the superconscious, the highest “Soul” level of human consciousness

Sharon Schwartz

About Sharon

Sharon is the immediate past chair of the Facilitator Development Council. She discovered Mussar through Alan Morinis’ book, Climbing Jacob's Ladder in 2008 and looked for a way to study with others in order to deepen her practice. She joined the first Manchim facilitator training group and soon after facilitated her first va'ad through Season of Mussar I and II. She went on to collaborate with Alan to adapt Path of the Soul for va’adim.

Sharon says, “I work with an amazing team of dedicated TMI volunteers, all devoted to making the facilitator experience as easy, comprehensive, and enriching as possible for all members of our Facilitator Network.”

Chasya Uriel Steinbauer

About Chasya

Rabbi Chasya Uriel Steinbauer has been studying Mussar and facilitating Mussar groups since she met Alan in 2001 before his first book was published. She taught Mussar at the JCC Manhattan from 2005 - 2013 and from 2008 - 2011 coordinated TMI'S Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training program. She has rabbinic leadership certification from Drisha Institute, an Orthodox women's yeshiva. In 2009, she founded the first egalitarian Mussar va'ad in Jerusalem at the Conservative Yeshiva. Currently, she directs the Kehilat Mussar at the Institute for Holiness in Israel, which she founded.

Michael Selz

About Michael

Michael is a husband, father of two grown children, and a tech consultant. who has been on a Mussar journey for 11 years, beginning when a friend asked him to try it out with him during a difficult time in his life. In 2015, he trained with TMI as a facilitator and since that time has led local va'adim (plural of va’ad.) For the past three years, he has led 9th graders at Temple Emanu-El, Dallas in a semester-long Mussar teen program from TMI. This summer, he led a small va’ad in the Five Steps intro program.

Helaine Sheias

About Helaine

Facilitating Mussar courses brings Helaine deep joy and a continuous sense of awe and wonder.

Nancy Weiss

About Nancy

Nancy is the Director of the Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training Program, a course she co-wrote with Alan Morinis, Founder of TMI. She serves on the Mussar Institute Facilitator Council. She is a depth psychotherapist dedicated to helping others discover unique pathways to their soul’s expression. A collage artist, poet, and SoulCollage® facilitator, Nancy guides people in bringing an expressive voice to the Mussar traits and spiritual principles. Her collage art appears in Midrashic Mirrors, which illustrates the richness of creating art to reflect the essence of each Torah portion

Stephen Weiss

About Stephen

I am a physician and artist who has been taking portraits of spiritual leaders in small towns in California’s Central Valley for 15 years. Spiritual Leaders I have studied at The Mussar Institute for 4 years and completed Manchim Advanced Facilitator Training in 2020.

My father and I had a difficult relationship. After my sons were born, I understood that the only way I could have the father I wished for, was to be that father to my sons. After my father’s death, I did not know how to honor him. A teacher told me “honor the moment of conception, God’s holy spark.”

Mussar is choosing to live a better version of ourselves. Mussar guides us to our inner holiness and teaches us to honor the holiness in others.

Jason Winston

About Jason