Board of Directors

CBI has been a pillar of my life since I moved to Northampton with my husband Joel Feldman (also on the board!) 30 years ago.   I was not raised with any Jewish learning or practice so I "became Jewish" through my experience at CBI. And I love what it means to be Jewish! This community raised our 3 children, all bar and bat mitzvahed here, and then I joined the tribe, literally and figuratively, with a bat mitzvah of my own in 2021.  My gratitude for all of it is unending.  I became co-chair of the Tikkun Olam Committee more years ago than I can count and have greatly enjoyed providing support for CBI's extraordinary commitment to social justice. My work has always been focused on justice - at the start as a legal aid lawyer and for the last 15 years as director of the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness - and connecting to the Jewish tradition in its call for healing the world is a constant source of inspiration to me.  I am also Co-chair of the CBI Capital Campaign, which offers a thrilling window into the future of our campus (can't wait to make it happen together!).   I am honored to serve CBI at this exciting and complex time, and look forward to supporting an ever stronger and connected community.   

I am a retired attorney residing in Northampton. My wife, Dorothy Nemetz, and I have been members  of CBI since 1990 and our three children went through Hebrew School and had their bat and bar mitzvahs here.  Over the years, I have served on a variety of committees and special initiatives, and served as co-president 2017-2019. Dorothy is a former CBI president and served on the Board for 21 years. I look forward to joining with our rabbis, Executive Director and the Board in their ongoing  work to make this synagogue a central part of the Jewish community in this area, just as it has been central to our family's Jewish community and Jewish identity for the past three-plus decades. 

I have been a member of CBI for about a year and a half, since my partner Naomi and I moved to Northampton from Brooklyn, NY. I am a regular Torah reader; a member of the Development Committee; a participant in the Jews Read Palestinian Stories Havurah; and an alum of two of Rabbi Becca Walker's classes on prayer. I love the community at CBI and especially cherish the intergenerational friendships I've made at shul. In my professional life, I work as a registered nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital and I am active in the Massachusetts Nurses Association. I live in Village Hill Cohousing, where I spend time building community with my neighbors, and even more time in meetings. When I'm not in meetings, I enjoy walking in the dog park with my dog, Alvin; biking around the Valley; and sampling local ice creams.

I have been a member of CBI on and off for the past thirty years. I served on the board of directors for approximately 7 years including two years as vice president and three years as co-president.  During the three years in which I served as co-president, we were able to obtain congregational and board approval to lease the land behind CBI for the purpose of building what was to become the Lander-Grinspoon Academy which my son attended. During my second term, CBI was without a Rabbi and, similar to the present day, organized members of the community to take responsibility for the duties that would normally fall to the Rabbi. During this time as co-president, CBI  purchased the land next to CBI, which is now the Abundance Farm and did quite a bit of work on the then existing dues structure in order to be competitive in our search for a new Rabbi. Ultimately we hired Rabbi David as our new Rabbi. I stayed on for a third term with a new co-president in order to provide a bridge for our new hire. Both my children attended the CBI religious school and my daughter was Bat Mitzvahed at CBI.   Presently, I am a joint member of both CBI and JCA. I am a retired criminal defense attorney, where I worked to preserve the rights of criminal defendants as they navigate the difficult maze, which is our criminal justice system.

I live in Northampton with my partner Naomi and my two wonderful daughters, and I am a proud product of the CBI community.  I was a member of Gan Keshet’s inaugural class, and I received my Jewish education in ALMA (which was just called “Hebrew School” back then).  I majored in Religious Studies in college and then I dabbled in the gateway drug of eco-Judaism as an educator at the Teva Learning Center in my twenties.  After spending the traditional decade on the Upper West Side of Manhattan I moved back to the Pioneer Valley where I have been excited to see all the ways that CBI has changed and all the ways that it has remained the same.  I am grateful that three generations of my family have all found a home in CBI.  My hobbies are gardening, the history of the second temple period and late antiquity, reading comic books and organizing comic books.  I also have a thriving law practice on the side.

Gillian Murray Kendall

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I moved to Northampton in 1986 with my husband, Robert Dorit, and we became members of  Congregation B’nai Israel shortly thereafter. Both of our sons, Sasha and Gabriel, had their bar mitzvahs at CBI, and  I have served on the Board for many years—and was a co-president for a two-year stint (beginning 2014). I loved  co-editing the Weekly and the Kehila and am happy to see them morph into ever more reader-friendly publications.  I am an English professor at Smith College, where I specialize in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama outside of  Shakespeare. I have published a book of essays on Shakespearean Power and Punishment (Fairleigh Dickinson  University Press, 1998), and, more recently, published two novels, The Garden of Darkness (Ravenstone Press,  2014) and The Book of Forbidden Wisdom (HarperCollins, 2016). By serving on the Board, I hope to be of service  to Congregation B’nai Israel and to give back to an institution that has given my family so much. 

I have been a member of CBI since 1999, when I returned to the Valley with my wife (Eve Weinbaum) after having grown up in Amherst, and served as co-president 2016-18. We attend Shabbat services regularly and our three children - Jonah, Aviva, and  Ruthie -- have been a part of the CBI religious school most of their lives. I am a Professor of Architecture at UMass Amherst, where I teach the histories of cities, and the theory and practice of historic preservation.  I am currently on leave from UMass to serve as the Vice President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the 115,000 member union of public school and college educators.   My work advocating for a more just society is inextricably bound up  with my dedication to Judaism. I look forward to helping to support CBI as a thriving Jewish home for all of us, dedicated to Jewish prayer and study, and the work of Tikkun Olam.

Since moving to the area to start my medical residency at Baystate Medical Center in 2017, my family and I have become deeply involved with Congregation B'nai Israel and have been formal members since 2022. Our connection to CBI began with a captivating Shabbat Shabloom at Abundance Farms during the pandemic and has grown ever since and has quickly become our first adult Jewish home. CBI has become a source of comfort and community, especially after the October 7th attacks. Our commitment to CBI has only increased with our son attending Gan Keshet and ALMA, and our one-year-old daughter is now attending Shabbat Shabloom. 

As a physician triple board-certified in adult, pediatric, and obesity medicine and an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine, my professional career is dedicated to improving patient care and medical education. I also have experience working in non-profit organizations during my community service with AmeriCorps and community organizing while working on the 2012 Obama presidential campaign. Outside of work, I play jazz guitar and recently discovered weightlifting. I am excited to continue contributing to CBI as a board of directors member with my professional experience in quality improvement, community organizing, and non-profit organizations. I aim to maintain the welcoming and nurturing environment I have cherished to continue the mission of CBI to strengthen Jewish life while bolstering our family's ties to this vibrant congregation.

I’ve lived in Northampton since 2010 with my wife Beth Notar and our two boys Isaac and Emile. We celebrated their b’nai mitzvah at CBI in 2017 after they went through the ALMA school program. I never really imagined I’d be so involved with Jewish life but find myself drawn to the culture of learning at CBI, and the warmth of so many people here. I have been on the Adult Ed committee since 2014.

Stan Schapiro
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