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 Linda
Abrams
For the past 25 years, Linda Abrams has worked as a Management
Consultant and Executive Coach. She consults, designs
and implements management development programs for a wide
variety of companies and government agencies, both in
the United States and overseas. A special interest is
the issues and challenge of women in the workplace. Linda
is currently on the planning committee of UJA Federation
Women Together in Leadership, Westchester Business and
Professional Division. Linda has residences in New York,
Florida and Colorado.
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 Michele
Cohen
Trained as an educator Michele Cohen has spent much of
her career working in finance at Steers and Cohen, a company
co-founded by her husband. She recently retired when the
company went public and has been involved in various philanthropic
projects. Michele serves on the COJR (Committee on Jewish
Renewal) task force at UJA Federation NY. She traveled
to Russia with Project Kesher for the first time in June
2004 as part of the delegation on the Voyage on the Volga.
Michele is a resident of New York City and East Hampton,
Long Island.
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 Dr.
Joan Kirschenbaum Cohn
Dr. Joan Kirschenbaum Cohn is a clinician, assistant professor,
lecturer, author, and spokesperson in the Mental Health
sector. She developed community based programs with major
teaching hospitals including Harvard (Brigham and Women's
Hospital and Children's Hospital), Stony Brook University
and Mount Sinai Hospitals. Dr. Cohn served as a consultant
to nursery schools, colleges and family businesses. She
provided crisis incident debriefing concerning 9/11.
Dr. Cohn became a founding member and Associate Director
of Mental Health at the Mount Sinai Women's Health Program
in New York City, training physicians in women's health
and participated in women's health research. Additionally,
she has been an Assistant Professor in the departments
of both Medicine and Community and Preventive Medicine.
Dr. Cohn has co-authored two books as well as numerous
scientific articles and has a private practice in NYC.
Dr. Cohn has been actively involved in numerous charitable
organizations and has been a long-time supporter of Project
Kesher and has residences in New York City and Long Island,
New York.
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Ruth Flicker
Ruth Flicker, M.Ed., is president of RRF Human Development
Consultants, Inc., a Canadian-based management consulting
firm. An expert in organizational design, Ruth’s practice
is situated at the busy intersection of strategic planning,
change management, leadership development and re-inventing
governance. Ruth’s clients include businesses, governmental
agencies, universities, hospitals, school boards, and Jewish
community agencies across Canada, the United States, and
abroad.
Ruth was born in Haifa, Israel, raised in Montreal and
educated at McGill University as an educational psychologist.
In 1975, she co-founded Montreal’s first public alternative
high school, a highly successful experiment in re-engaging
bright, alienated youth. Five years later she founded
Project MOM, a confidence-building program for re-entry
women, and in 1983 she created Opportunities for Advancement
for Women. Ruth has written and delivered groundbreaking
curricula in leadership development for a number of organizations,
including the program From Manager to Leader at the McGill
University International Executive Institute. A community
activist, she has served as co-president of Auberge Shalom…pour
Femmes, the first Jewish shelter for battered women in
Canada; as Chairperson of the Y County Camp; as a founding
board member of Just Vision; and as a founding trustee
of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of the Greater Palm
Beaches.
In recognition of her professional achievements, social
commitment and important contributions to the advancement
of women, Ruth was named as a Woman of Distinction by
the Montreal Women’s Y Foundation and awarded the
2003 Royal Bank of Canada Laureate for Entrepreneurship.
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 Sheila
Friedland
Sheila Friedland is a Director of the Elaine Gorbach Levine
Charitable Foundation, dedicated to helping families,
with particular focus on emotionally disturbed youth and
Jewish women and girls in the United States, Israel and
the former Soviet Union. She is also the past Executive
Director of the Westchester Jewish Conference. Sheila
is on the Board of Trustees of Temple Israel Center in
White Plains, New York. From 1982 - 1994, she was on staff
at the Jewish Museum of New York. Sheila took part in
the Project Kesher delegation to Chernigov with her husband
Bob. Sheila resides in White Plains, New York and is the
immediate past president of the Project Kesher board.
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Barbara Glickstein
 Barbara
Glickstein is a public health nurse executive and broadcast
journalist, fusing these professional world’s reporting
on emerging health trends in policy, practice and research
for over twenty years. She produces and hosts Healthstyles,
an award winning, weekly program on public radio and is
a health reporter for Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius
Satellite radio. Her husband Ethan and children Manya and
Ezra are a constant source of deep love and joy.
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 Sallie
Gratch
In 1986, Sallie Gratch closed her private practice in family therapy and took a giant step forward into the peace movement. Sallie’s participation in peace walks in the (then) Soviet Union introduced her to an issue that soon became her passion: becoming an advocate in America to support the emerging interest in Jewish renewal within the Soviet Union.
Her efforts to engage the support of American Jewry were generally rejected or ignored. Nevertheless, Sallie felt committed to advance and publicize the issue of Jewish renewal in the Soviet Union. She felt a commitment to the friends she had made on her many trips there and during the six months she lived in Kiev with her husband in 1991. She was determined not to turn her back on people who mattered to her and to the Jewish world.
In 1989, Sallie founded Project Kesher to provide a solid organization through which to formalize her activities around Jewish renewal. The word “kesher” meaning “connection” was chosen intentionally, to underscore the importance of bringing people together from both sides of the world to promote learning, understanding and mutual respect.
In 1994, Sallie, in partnership with her friend and today’s CIS Director Svetlana Yakimenko, organized Project Kesher’s International Conference of Jewish Women held in Kiev, Ukraine. This historic conference advanced Project Kesher as a women’s organization, with social activism as its key component.
Sallie’s leadership awards include:
1996: Anne P. Ogilby Award, Simmons School of Social Work, Boston, awarded for creative social work practice through her work in founding Project Kesher.
2005: Honored by Women’s eNews as one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century”.
2006: Lifetime Achievement Award, National Association of Social Workers, Northeastern District, Illinois.
2007: Included in “Confessions to a Serial Womanizer: Secrets of the World’s Inspirational Women”, by Zerbanoo Gifford, Blacker Ltd.
In 2006, Sallie founded Women Founders Collective (www.womenfounders.org), a nonprofit organization that provides a global support network to women founders and founders-to-be of nonprofit organizations.
Sallie and her husband, Alan, live in Evanston, Illinois and spend their summers at their homestead logcabin in NW Montana. They have three adult married children and 10 grandchildren.
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 Linda
F. Vogel Kaplan
Linda is a resident of New York City, and with her husband
Hirsch runs a CPA firm in Manhattan.. Linda is an officer
of Congregation Rodeph Sholom and in addition to the Project
Kesher board, sits on the boards of The Big Apple Circus,
her co-op, HUC-JIR Board of Overseers and the HUC-JIR
School of Sacred Music Advisory Board.
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 Rita
Kashner
Rita Kashner is a novelist and short-story writer. She
has a B.A. from Smith College and a Masters in English
Literature from Brandeis University. She teaches contemporary
Jewish literature and leads poetry-writing workshops for
women in domestic violence shelters in Westchester. Her
publications include the novels Bed Rest, To The Tenth
Generation, and The Graceful Exit, stories and articles
in magazines and journals, and numerous book reviews for
The Washington Post and Newsday. She serves as a member
of Project Kesher's Board.
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 Sheila
Lambert
Sheila Lambert is Board Chair of Project Kesher.
Her professional experience includes twenty years of progressively
responsible positions in the corporate sector for The
Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, culminating in positions
as VP - Human Resources and Senior VP & Publisher
for Moody's Investors Service, a division of
Dun & Bradstreet. Her extensive philanthropic experience
focuses on Jewish continuity and helping underserved and
disadvantaged populations, particularly women and children.
A member of the board of Project Kesher, Sheila is the
Founder and Board President of Bottomless Closet, and
is a member of the Board of Governors and Overseers of
Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. She
is a Founder and Board Chair of Summerbridge, is on the
Board of Directors of the Jewish Children's Learning Lab
which is a Jewish Children's Museum, and is the former
Vice President of the Board at Congregation Rodeph Sholom,
a major Reform congregation in Manhattan. Sheila is also
a member of the Advocacy Council for the Citizen's Committee
for Children. Sheila has residences in New York City and
Fire Island, New York.
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 Eve
Landau
Eve Landau is the Executive Director of Ma'yan: The Jewish
Women's Project a program of the Jewish Community Center
in Manhattan. She is a member of the board of Project
Kesher and currently serves on the steering committee
of The Task Force on the Jewish Woman of UJA-Federation
of New York. She is also a member of the Gay and Lesbian
Concerns Committee at Westchester Reform Temple.
Before co-founding Ma'yan in 1993 Eve was the Director
of Community Relations at Westchester Jewish Community
Services. An active community volunteer for many years,
she served as a member of the Board of Education in Scarsdale,
NY, was an officer of the Scarsdale League of Women Voters,
and founded and directed The Child Care Association of
Scardale, a school based before and after school child
care program in her community.
Eve was honored by US/Israel Women to Women on the occasion
of their Silver Anniversary in the Fall of 2004 and by
the Manhattan Borough President in July 2005.
Eve is married and has two grown children and three grandchildren.
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 Sonia
Michelson
Sonia Michelson is a social worker working with older
adults and families who are dealing with the many challenges
of aging. She also teaches courses in social policy at
the University of Massachusettes Gerontology Center. Sonia
lives in the Boston suburbs and is involved with numerous
non profits and in the local Jewish community.
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 Arleen
Priest
Arleen is office manager and bookkeeper for the Aaron Priest
Literary Agency. She has been on the Board of Trustees of
Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York for 18 years.
She has co-chaired the Hungry and Homeless Committee at
Temple Israel Center for 18 years as well as food coordinator
for volunteers providing food for a White Plains homeless
shelter. Arleen devotes several hours a week to Jewish studies
and is a long time ceramicist in her spare time. Arleen
is involved in Jewish and World philanthropy. She and her
husband Aaron have been honored by Israel Bonds and Jewish
Theological Seminary. Arleen lives in Scarsdale, New York
and Westerly, Rhode Island with her husband. She has two
sons and two grandsons. She is excited and proud to be part
of the Project Kesher Board.
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 Deborah
Roberts
Deborah is the mother of three children, Lauren, Andrew
and Michael. She is married to her best friend David Roberts.
She just started a new venture representing Bill Blass New
York clothing. She loves meeting the women of Bill Blass
and finds it so satisfying to dress someone and have them
feel good about themselves. Deborah is involved with various
charity organizations but her favorite is Project Kesher.
She is excited to be a part of the Project Kesher community.
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 Nancy
Solomon
Nancy Solomon resides in New York City and Fire Island
New York and is currently the President of Congregation
Rodeph Sholom, a reform synagogue on the Upper West Side
of New York. Prior to that she served as Chairman of a
multi-issue children's advocacy organization, Citizens'
Committee of New York, where she is still active.
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 Sharon
Ufberg
Dr. Sharon Ufberg is the immediate past Board chairperson
of Project Kesher. She is currently the chair of the Board
of Reclaiming Judaism as a Spiritual Practice, holds a
seat on the Board of Lehrhaus Judaica in Berkeley, California
and is a Fellow of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. She
has served on numerous boards in the national and international
Jewish community, most recently as a member of the World
ORT Board of Directors.
Dr. Ufberg, is honored to be a member of the integrative
health care team at the Continuum Center for Health and
Healing at Beth Israel Hospital. Dr. Ufberg is the past
Chair of the California State Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
She is a senior consultant for American Specialty Health
Plans and Travelers/St. Paul"s Insurance companies.
Dr. Ufberg founded EmeryBay Backcare and Rehabilitation
and Boardwalk Chiropractic in Northern California and
is a founding contributor to the IntegrativePractioner.com.
The mother of three college students, she is a feminist
peace activist that believes anything is possible.
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 Eunice
Ward
Eunice first became involved with Project Kesher as a
participant in the 1994 International Conference of Jewish
Women in Kiev. She is a former Chair of Project Kesher’s
board and served as co-chair for the Voyage on the Volga
in June of 2004. During her tenure on the board, she oversaw
the doubling of our budget and Project Kesher’s first
Teen Leadership Retreat. She currently is serving as co-chair
for Project Kesher’s Summit on the Black Sea schedule
for May 2006. Eunice is founding partner of the law firm
Nottage & Ward and was listed in Chicago Magazine
as one of the city’s 30 toughest attorneys.
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 Debbie
Wasserman
Debbie Wasserman of New York City until recently served
as the Executive Director of Israel Policy Forum, an independent
and non-partisan organization that supports U.S. efforts
to advance peace diplomacy in order to strengthen Israeli
security and advance U.S. strategic interests in the region.
She currently runs her own consulting firm working with
non profit organizations in transition. She is a member
of the steering committee of The Dialogue Project, an
exchange between women leaders of the American Jewish
and Palestinian American communities, and serves as a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the White
House Project. Debbie has served as the Northeast Director
of the National Jewish Democratic Council and as Special
Projects Director and Executive Committee Liaison of AIPAC
(American Israel Public Affairs Committee).
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Diane Wohl
Diane Wohl of Long Island, New York is a philanthropist
who is active in UJA Federation of New York, Hillel International,
Women's League for Conservative Judaism, JTS and List
College. She has been a member of Project Kesher's board
for the past year.
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