Since high school, Cindy’s personal mission statement has been, “I am a servant of K’lal Yisrael.” Although her natural inclination was to be an educator, Cindy also wanted to make Aliyah and be financially self-sufficient, so she set out to develop tech skills that would be transferable to establishing a career in Israel. Cindy’s first career was in database management and systems analysis, first in banking, then in high tech, and mostly in Israel. Cindy has since had a long and fulfilling second career in Jewish education, based in New York, teaching children, teachers, and adult learners, and leading departments, curriculum development projects, divisions, and schools.

In addition to being certified in Systems Design and Analysis by the Sivan Institute in Tel Aviv, Cindy holds a BA in Economics/Management Information Systems and Near Eastern Studies from University of Michigan, an MA in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and a doctorate in Religion and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her area of doctoral research was in teacher learning and professional culture. Cindy began learning Hebrew in earnest while in college, studied for one year at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and over the years returned again and again to Ulpan and to a well-known Hebrew language tutor in Tel Aviv, in order to become fluent and proficient in all aspects of Biblical, Rabbinic and modern Hebrew.

Having grown up in an actively involved Reform Jewish family with strong roots in synagogue, youth group, and Jewish camping, Cindy has been a teacher and leader in every aspect of Jewish congregational and day schools across the religious spectrum, as well as in the Ramah camping movement. Her first career in systems design and analysis always informed Cindy’s work, and she became the unofficial “guardian of the data” at every school in which she worked. Cindy served for seven years as Head of School at the Schechter School of Long Island, with a staff and faculty of 100 professionals, teaching and nurturing hundreds of students from Kindergarten through 12th grade, until they would head off to elite colleges, universities, the US or Israeli military, or gap year programs in North America and Israel. Cindy is so proud that her own children and all SSLI alumni step into the world fortified with powerful learning and leadership habits, Jewish identities, and Hebrew language skills.

Early in the pandemic, Cindy returned to the physical and virtual classroom as a Jewish day school teacher, teaching middle school English at Ramaz and elementary Hebrew and Judaic studies at Schechter School of Long Island. In her spare time, Cindy studies Daf Yomi, tends to her garden, creates new recipes in her kitchen, and frequently visits her children and adorable grandson in Israel.