Meet our professional staff
Howard Greenstein joined us from the Educational Alliance on New York’s Lower East Side, where he had been the Associate Executive Director of Operations and Business Strategy at Manny Cantor Center for 5 years. In that role, he led strategic operations and oversaw the budget, infrastructure and teams that support the programmatic mission of the 132-year-old flagship building of this historic Jewish agency. He also managed multiple business units including fitness, art school, facilities rental, kosher kitchen, security and facilities.
He previously served as CEO and President of Harbrooke Group, which helped companies and nonprofits communicate with their customers and operate their organizations using the latest technologies and operations methods. At Harbrooke Group, Greenstein worked with a variety of groups from small nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies, cable networks, and Wall Street firms, as well as major advocacy groups, helping them create online presences and execute strategy. Prior to starting his own firm, Greenstein’s career spanned organizations such as Microsoft, J.P.Morgan, and New York University, as well as several start-ups. At the Twin Towers Fund, he managed the distribution of $168MM in funds to families of rescue workers who perished on 9/11, and worked on the creation of America's Camp for the children of those who died on 9/11 and in the line of duty. Howard volunteered as program staff for 10 years, and led the organization's operations and reunion programming for 7 additional years.
Greenstein has been an Adjunct Lecturer in the M.S. in Nonprofit Management at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies, and in the MS in Nonprofit at NYU SPS. He has co-founded and sat on the boards of the World Wide Web Artist’s Consortium and Social Media Club, and was a board member of the New York Software Industry Association, New York New Media Association, Temple Beth El of Spring Valley, The Cornell Club of Rockland County, Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Alumni Association, and Cornell Media Guild - WVBR. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University, and an M.P.S. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Howard and his wife live in Rockland and they are proud parents of two young adults.
Rabbi Sandy Zisser comes to Shaaray Tefila from the Leffell School, where, over the past 30 years, he has served in various capacities. Most recently, for the past ten years, he served as a Learning Specialist in the High School Center for Academic Support. Also, for 20 years, Sandy served as Director of Education in three different synagogues “down-county,” where he helped revitalize those congregations. Sandy holds various degrees, including a Rabbinical Ordination from the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute, a Master of Arts in Special Education from Bank Street College, and a Bachelor of Arts in American History and Judaic Studies from the State University of New York at Albany.
In his free time, Sandy is the founder and director of the Pluralistic Rabbinical Seminary, the only fully online pluralistic school to train future rabbis for the betterment of Judaism. Sandy lives in White Plains with his wife, Ann, a master educator in her own right. They have two adult children, Solomon and Ren.
Beth comes to us from Temple Beth El in Chappaqua where she worked as an Administrative Assistant in the Early Childhood Center for the past eight years. Prior to that she was a Buyer for many years for Saks Fifth Avenue and Loehmanns. She and her husband joined Shaaray Tefila many years ago because they were captivated by the beauty of the sanctuary and the grounds. They vowed to have their children's Bar Mitzvah here which they ultimately did. Two successful celebrations later, Beth is poised and passionate to help facilitate upcoming celebrations for you!
Lauren Hollander is a recent graduate of Binghamton University where she majored in Psychology and minored in Judaic Studies. She was very involved in campus life, especially in Hillel-JSU where she was President in her senior year. She also taught Hebrew School at Temple Israel in Binghamton.
Lauren grew up going to Temple Shaaray Tefila and was deeply involved in Temple life. She had her Bat Mitzvah and Confirmation at Shaaray, joined the youth group board and became a Madricha. She was also involved with NFTY, attended URJ Eisner Camp and traveled to Israel on 3 separate occasions. A fun fact about Lauren is that she’s also a twin!