Board of Directors

George Goldenberg, President

George, an emigre to the Bay Area from Moscow, holds a Masters in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and was formerly a VP of Engineering at Yahoo!. He is currently EVP of Platform and Products at CaaStle, where he created a platform that powers the majority of apparel rental services in the US. George serves on the boards at Meira Academy, The Shalem School, and is a proud parent of two SPHDS students.

Leo Lazar, Vice President

Leo is currently the Associate Publisher of 70 Faces Media, the largest digital publisher of Jewish content in North America (JTA / The New York Jewish WeekMy Jewish Learning / Kveller / The Nosher / Alma).  A DC native with French roots, Leo graduated from Princeton with a degree in Public Policy in 2005. Leo moved to the South Bay area in November 2018 with his wife Becky, who joined Google as International Tax Counsel.

Jason Bayer, Treasurer

Jason was born and raised in Los Angeles and moved to the Bay Area where he received degrees in Economics and Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from UC Berkeley. He and his wife Catherine have three kids, two of whom are in the Early Childhood program at SPHDS (Benjamin and Mira). Jason was a software engineer at Google and has worked across the company for the past 16 years. Today, Jason is a manager at Facebook.

Jonathan Gershater, Secretary

Jonathan grew up in South Africa where he attended King David Jewish Day School from preschool to 12th grade. He moved to California in 1991. He graduated with a BS in computer science and has lived in Palo Alto since 2001. He is married to Adele who was a past-treasurer of SPHDS. Their son and daughter attended SPHDS from pre-school to middle school. Jonathan was a past-treasurer of Congregation Emek Beracha in Palo Alto where he has also volunteered in various roles.

Joyce Bassan Abadi, Director

 

Born in Colombia and raised in Panama, Joyce moved to the Bay Area in 2015 with her husband, Abe. They have raised 3 boys in Palo Alto, two of whom are enrolled in SPHDS. Joyce is a stay-at-home mother who is passionate about education and parenting and teaches parenting courses on Zoom to mothers around the world. She is also an active member of the Emek Beracha Community in Palo Alto, where she volunteers in helping plan community events. 

Yaffa Borison, Director

 

Yaffa grew up in Denver, CO, and earned a BS and MS in Engineering, as well as an MBA from Boston University. She began her career at Oracle Consulting in Boston, and in 1997, transitioned to a Product Management role at Oracle's headquarters in Redwood Shores. After 11 years in tech, Yaffa decided to take a break to focus on her family and discovered her true passion in selling residential real estate on the Peninsula. Her two daughters attended SPHDS from Room 1 through 8th grade, during which time Yaffa served as treasurer of the Parent Association for 8 years.

 

Linor Eylon, Director

Linor Eylon is passionate about Jewish day school education and has devoted over 25 years to working with and supporting Jewish children. For a decade, Linor proudly taught in and directed the SPHDS Preschool program. She then served multiple terms on the Board of Directors of SPHDS and has chaired many events for SPHDS and Kehillah Jewish High School (Palo Alto). Linor holds a Bachelor of Science in Child and Family Development (Summa Cum Laude) and was the recipient of the prestigious Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award which honors outstanding Jewish educators throughout North America. Linor along with her husband, Eyran, have lived in the Bay Area for the past 21 years. Linor and Eyran are the proud parents of 3 children who are all alumni of SPHDS and Kehillah Jewish High School.

Shachar Hadar, Director

Schachar holds degrees in accounting and finance from both Israel and the United States. He has owned a tax accounting firm in Silicon Valley for over 25 years. He is married and has two daughters: one is a senior in high school, and the other is starting university in Israel after serving as an officer in the IDF.

Naama Hammel, Director

Naama and her family joined the SPHDS community five years ago. She is married to David and is the proud mother of Yaara (SPHDS alum, 10th grader at JCHS), Roei (7th grade), and Tamir (4th grade). Born in Boston and raised in Israel, Naama is an ophthalmologist by training and is currently a Clinical Research Scientist at Google Health developing machine learning models for the detection of diseases from medical images. She completed her medical and ophthalmology training at Tel-Aviv University; her glaucoma fellowship at the Shiley Eye Institute, UC San Diego; and her ophthalmic informatics fellowship at the UC Davis Eye Center.

Stephen Kloder, Director

Stephen Kloder grew up in Atlanta, GA and has been living in Silicon Valley since 2013. After studying Computer Science at Georgia Tech and University of Illinois, he worked at various tech companies: fulfillment center software at Amazon, document understanding at Microsoft,  co-founding AttorneyFee (now part of LegalZoom), and experiment platforms for Google.  He currently builds machine learning models for payment systems at Square. In his previous homes, he was involved with chesed efforts at Champaign Urbana Jewish Federation, and the Executive Council of the Capitol Hill Minyan in Seattle.

Noam Levanon, Director

Noam was born and raised in Israel, where he graduated with Law and accounting degrees. He and his wife, Lital,  relocated to the bay area and are proud parents of 2 Sphds students. Noam works at Veev, a Technology-enabled homebuilding company, as a business analyst and an associate at J-ventures, an early-stage VC fund.

Dr. Maly Oron-Benhamou, Director

Maly was born, raised, and attended medical school in Israel. After graduation, Maly relocated to New York City for her residency and fellowship training with her husband, Ori (an SPHDS alum!). While in New York both their sons, Jonathan and Eithan, were born. The family moved to the Bay Area and joined the SPHDS community almost two years ago. Maly is currently working as a Pulmonary and Critical Care doctor for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Assaf Resnick, Director

Assaf Resnick is the CEO and co-founder of BigPanda.  Prior to founding BigPanda, Assaf was an investor at Sequoia Capital, where he focused on early and growth stage investing in software, internet and mobile verticals.  Assaf Holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He lives in Northern California with his wife and three children.

Daniel Sharabi, Director 

Daniel is a Bay Area native, raised on the Peninsula. His connection to Judaism was inspired by his father, an immigrant from Israel, who ran the Sephardic minyan at their local synagogue for decades. As the Co-founder and CEO of Livable, a successful technology company focused on the environment, Daniel is dedicated to making the world a better place. His extensive philanthropic efforts include serving as the vice president of Pathways for Kids and on advisory and event committees at Birthright, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the American Jewish Committee and more. He moved to the South Bay with his family in 2019, where his wife, Sophie, runs hospitality at her family's winery.

Oded Shekel, Director

Oded and his wife, Hagit, joined the SPHDS community six years ago. They are the proud parents of Yael (serves in the IDF), Yuval (high-school senior), Yaron (8th grader) and Yishai (4th grader). Oded was born and raised in Israel and moved to The US in 2001. He has a Computer Science degree and has worked as an Executive Product Manager for multiple software companies ranging from small startups to large enterprises. 

Shani Yogev Katz, Director

 

Shani is a Quality Assurance professional in the medical device industry. Shani was born and raised in Israel and moved to the Bay Area in 2012. Shani and her husband Ayal (CEO and co-founder of Anjuna) are the proud parents of two SPHDS students, and have been part of the SPHDS community for 8 years. Shani holds a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Tel Aviv University, and currently leads the Quality Assurance function at 23andMe, a leading consumer genetics and research company. Prior to this, Shani led Quality Assurance at Autonomic Technologies, a company focused on innovative therapies for neurological disorders.

 

 

PAST PRESIDENTS

1.
1972-1974
Dr. Martin Klughaupt
 
6.
1982-1984
Mr. Eliot Klugman (z"l)
 
11.
1991-1992
Mr. Martin Snitow
 
16.
1997(Mar)-1997
Mr. Lee Gavens
 
21.
2007-2008
Ms. Yvonne Boxerman
 
26.
2016-2022
Mr. Martin Handwerker
2.
1974-1976
Dr. Stanley Sussman
 
7.
1984-1986
Dr. Ronald Joelson (z"l)
 
12.
1992-1993
Ms. Lorri Lewis
 
17.
1997-2000
Mr. David LeVine
 
22.
2008-2011
Mr. Jonathan Novich
 
27.
2020-2022
Mr. Barry Berkowitz
3.
1976-1979
Mr. Robert Solomon
 
8.
1986-1987
Ms. Marcia Lepler
 
13.
1993-1994
Mr. Lee Gavens
 
18.
2000-2001
Ms. Sheri Robbins
 
23.
2011-2012(dec)
Mrs. Yonit Shemtob
 
28. 
2022-Present
Mr. Gershon Goldenberg
4.
1979-1980
Ms. Miriam Solomon
 
9.
1987-1989
Mr. Abraham Poznanski
 
14.
1994-1995
Mr. Morey Schapira
 
19.
2001-2004
Mr. Avi Kopelman
 
24.
(dec)2012-2014
Mr. David Mendel
 
 
5.
1980-1982
Dr. Saul Weingarden
 
10.
1989-1991
Mr. Jim Roberts
 
15.
1995-1997(Mar)
Mr. Yoram Rubin
 
20.
2004-2007
Ms. Sherry Solden
 
25.
2014-2016
Mrs. Nissa Johanix