Become a Leader in Our Community
Together we are building a congregation of thought-leaders, spiritual seekers, and engaged Jewish change-makers. Temple Emanu-El is infused with the dedication and hard work of its members.
Executive Committee
Edye Disner
Edye Disner is originally from Memphis and has lived in Atlanta for over 30 years. Here at Temple Emanu-El, Edye sounds the shofar at High Holidays for our several services, has served on the Membership Committee, the Ritual Committee, the Board of Trustees, and the Executive Committee as the First Vice President. She has participated in leadership programs with both Hadassah and The American Jewish Committee and is a Florence Melton Mini School graduate. She has served as a board member for the Georgia Association on Young Children, chair of the Jewish Early Childhood Council of Atlanta, and board member of the Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism. She volunteered with the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival for over 10 years including many years on the Film Selection/Evaluation Committee. Edye is a life-long early childhood educator and is the Director at Dunwoody Prep. Edye and her husband, Rob, were married by Rabbi Spike in 2016. She enjoys time with her Temple Emanu-El Chavurah, playing mahjongg, reading, cheering on the Vols during football season, and spending lots of time with her niece and nephew (Diamond Family Religious School Students).
Bill Kellert
Bill grew up in Hollywood Florida where he met his wife Elyse. He moved to Atlanta to go to school at Emory and has never left. Out of college, he joined The Temple and was active with the young adults group there. In 1993 Elyse and Bill, along with their two boys Greg and Bryan joined Temple Emanu-El. Both Greg and Bryan had their bar mitzvah and confirmation at Emanu-El.
As a member of Temple Emanu-El, Bill has, among other things, participated in the leadership training program, served as a Jr. TEFTY advisor, gabbai, board member, Brotherhood treasurer, financial secretary, vice-president and treasurer.
Bill has been a CPA for 35 years and has had his own practice for 20 years. Outside of work, Bill enjoys running, horses and as of March 3 – spending time with his first grandchild – Collin Kellert.
Dana Neiger
Dana and her husband, Dustin, and son, Deagan, are new members of Temple Emanu-El, joining in January of 2020. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Dana relocated to Gainesville, Georgia in 1994 with her family. She is a graduate of the private women’s college, Agnes Scott, and remained in the Greater Atlanta area where she was an active young adult, involved heavily with Atlanta Jewish Federation through various volunteer efforts and donor opportunities.
Dana has remained active in Atlanta Jewish life through remaining an avid donor, as well as volunteer work with Federation Innovation Wisdom Pairings events and JFF, the Jewish Fertility Foundation. She sits on the Federation Innovation Advisory Committee as a member and mentor.
Within the Atlanta community, Dana is a successful business owner, cofounding HIVE Talent Acquisition Firm, in Sandy Springs, GA, where she is the CHRO, Chief Human Resources Officer, currently. Dana's recruiting and human resources experience covers a wide range of industries such as accounting and finance, transportation/infrastructure and construction, engineering, light industrial and warehousing, sales and marketing, with a specialty in legal recruiting. Her human resources consulting background includes, training, payroll, sponsorship, HRIS, networking, social media and branding. Dana looks forward to assisting the Board and Temple Emanu-El with long term goals and best interests for a long time to come.
Evan Altman
Wendy Frank
Wendy is a clinical social worker and has had a psychotherapy practice for 20 years in Sandy Springs. She and her husband, Nick, have been married 17 years and have 3 sons who have all gone to Schiff preschool at Temple Emanu-El. They have been active members at Temple Emanu-El for over 15 years.
Ellen Lindemann
Ellen Lindemann and her husband Bruce have been Temple Emanu-El members since 1989. They are both Chicago natives but have been in Georgia since 1978. Ellen retired from Southern Company after 30 years and currently works as the Assistant Director of Lekotek of Georgia; a nonprofit providing adapted toys and technology for children with disabilities. She also is the owner of LN Consulting, an HR consulting business. Ellen has experience in various areas of line and executive management with Southern Company. She has held line positions in engineering, human resources, marketing, construction and supply chain. Most recently she had served as Senior Vice President of Environmental Projects and Construction with responsibility for a $6B construction program. Just prior to that, she was the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Southern Company, responsible for strategy, planning, design and implementation of all Human Resource services for the corporation. She has served on the Board of Directors for 21st Century Leaders, a Georgia high school leadership program and the Girl Scout Council of Northwest Georgia. Ellen has co-chaired the Temple Emanu-El Family and Religious Education Committee, is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta and has been actively involved in disability issues. She currently is a Board member for IVP Plastics manufacturing company. Ellen holds a BS in Architecture from the University of Illinois and an MS in Civil Engineering from Michigan State University. Ellen and Bruce have three grown children; Carla, Andrea and Mark and live in Dunwoody, Georgia.
Eric Warshal
Eric and his family have been members of Temple Emanu-El for 12 years. He and his wife Stephanie have lived in Atlanta since 1995 and in Dunwoody since 2005. They have a daughter at the University of Georgia and two sons at Dunwoody High School, all of whom attended religious school and had their B’nai Mitzvot at Temple Emanu-El. Eric graduated from University of Florida with a degree in Marketing, and earned an MBA from Emory University. He spent 12 years with Cox Enterprises before starting a hedge fund administration services firm, Fund Associate, more than 10 years ago. He also started a second company, Emjan Services, a merchant credit card processing firm, in 2015. Eric grew up in South Florida, where his father was a Rabbi and Jewish Federation Director and instilled in him the importance of involvement in the Jewish community.
Perry Walter
Perry grew up in Virginia Beach, VA and moved to Atlanta (with his then fiancé at the time, Deb) from Tampa in 1996. He and my family have been members of Temple Emanu-El since 2003. Perry’s wife, Deb, and he have three children, all of whom had their B’nai mitzvahs at the Temple.
Perry served on the Board for four years between 2011 and 2014 and the Executive Board from 2014 t0 2017. He has been active in several committees and the religious school over the years.
Perry has a long history of working in finance – as a securities analyst, venture capitalist, and business valuation expert. Currently, Perry works for the Capital Group Private Client Services as a Private Wealth Advisor.
Perry also serves on the Board of Directors of the Southern Capital Forum, a forum for venture capitalists and private equity firms to discuss ideas and network. He is also a volunteer diver at the GA Aquarium and has over 2,100 hours of service. With fellow volunteers, Perry participated in Reef Restoration Foundation trips where the team literally rebuilt coral reefs around the world.
Perry is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a degree in Economics and Communications and has an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill. Perry is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He loves to travel with his family and is an avid Atlanta Braves and UVA basketball fan.
Mickey Rosner
Mickey has been a member of Temple Emanu-el for the past 20 years. She is married to Noah Rosner who was at one time on the executive board of TE as well as past president. They have four children, all who have been bar and bat mitzvahed and subsequently confirmed at TE. Two of their children, Casey and Allie, were madrichem in our religious school.
In the past, she has served on different committees and recently helped to chair our 40th anniversary celebration. To commemorate our anniversary, she built and created our Tova and the Traveling Ark program and helped to create a coloring book for our kids in religious school retelling the story of our beginnings.
She has volunteered in our gift shop every Friday, for the past five years. On any given Friday you will see her there. She also served as co-chair of our Koleinu committee which strives to ensure that all members with disabilities feel included. To that end, she has adapted a prayed book so that everyone might feel included in our services.
Professionally, Mickey is a speech therapist who works solely with nonverbal and low verbal children to help them acquire and learn to use electronic communication devices. She has worked at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for the past 32 years. She also works part-time at the Center for Rare Neurological Disorders where she evaluates and treats all types of children from all over the world for the purposes of communicating using communication devices. She used to teach the graduate class in alternative and augmentative communication at UGA.
Her roots run deep at TE. Her brother, Aaron Silverman and his family as well as her father, Bernie Silverman, and cousins, Nathan and Laurie Slaff are all members.
Board of Trustees
Jackie Beres
I was born and raised in Atlanta and a graduate of the University of Georgia. After my first trip to Israel on a singles mission, I wanted to get more involved in pro-Israel advocacy so I took a job with the Atlanta office of AIPAC. It was there that I started my career in nonprofit fundraising. After a few years, I packed up and moved to Washington, DC where I got my dream job working for the Saban Center for Middle East policy at the Brookings Institution. It was also in DC where I met my husband Keith, who is from Rockville. A year after we were married, we moved back to my hometown of Atlanta and four years later we had our amazing son, Morgan, who is now 6 years old. During that time, I was the director of development for the Atlanta office at ADL and most recently the Senior Director of Major Gifts for Make-A-Wish GA. In my spare time, I serve on my son’s elementary school fundraising committee and volunteer as much as possible for his classroom. Pre-Covid, I served as a fertility buddy for the Jewish Fertility Foundation. I am currently a co-captain for the Response and Caring committee for the TE initiative to combat antisemitism and I recently signed up for the TE pro-Israel advocacy group.
Matt Bernstein
Matt and Robyn joined Temple Emanu-El in the fall of 1979. As a family they were active as Robyn taught classes with Rabbi Tam and Matt got involved with the shows produced and directed by George Fox. Over the years, Matt served as President of the Mens Club and was a board member back in the late 1980s. Danny, Matt and Robyn’s son, was Bar Mitzvahed and confirmed at Temple Emanu-El. Matt is the Chief Planned Giving Officer for Jewish National Fund where he is responsible for the endowments, investments, trusts and estates, and all facets of lifetime and estate gifts.
Harvey Berss
I am a native Atlantan, and somehow managed to stay in Atlanta for college (Emory) and law school (Georgia State). For most of my career, I have worked in-house doing litigation for insurance companies. My wife, Beth, and I have a 15 year-old son (Charlie) and a 12 year-old daughter (Olivia). Both of our kids attended Schiff Preschool and Davis Academy. We have belonged to TE for about 10 years, and we love the culture and community that Rabbi Spike, Rabbi Rachael, Rabbi Max and Cantor Adesnik have developed and grown over the years. While I have dipped my toe in the volunteer waters at TE with activities such as High Holiday ushering for several years and helping with the Brotherhood Mitzvah for Welcome ATL program, I am excited to become more involved by serving on the Board of Trustees. In my spare time, I enjoy playing drums and guitar in a struggling garage band, and also play league basketball at the JCC.
Stuart Dunowitz
Stuart and his wife Ingrid joined Temple Emanu-El in 2015. Their children Alex and Sharla attend The Davis Academy, Camp Barney, and will be celebrating their bnai-mitzvah in 2020 at Temple Emanu-El. Stuart and his family were on the Emanu-el Israel trip in 2019, and Stuart attended his first AIPAC conference in early 2020. Stuart is co-owner of Southern Medical Linen Service since 2004, providing healthcare facilities throughout Georgia with linen, laundry, scrubs, and lab coats. Stuart grew up in New York, graduated from State University of New York at Albany, and moved to Atlanta in 1996.
Mark Feinberg
Mark E. Feinberg and his wife Robyn have been active members of Temple Emanu-El since 1997. Mark is President and Executive Producer of Fine Productions, Inc, a video production company that has produced a wide variety of videos on behalf of the synagogue over his many years as a member. Mark previously served on the TE Board of Trustees and has volunteered his time and efforts for many projects over the years. During covid, he organized and staffed the video streaming of all TE services and was instrumental in the realization of the present streaming platform now enjoyed by our members.
Mark and Robyn are the proud parents of two children, Joel 31, a resident of New York City and Amy 27, who resides in Atlanta’s 4th Ward.
Nora Floersheim
Nora grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and has been a member of Temple Emanu-El for over 40 years. She attended the University of Georgia where she met her husband, Steve Floersheim, and they will soon celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Her family includes her children, Amy and Philip Rubin and Jodi and Jeff Rosenberg, and her 5 grandchildren, Jake, Hailey, Zach, Tyler, and Maya.
She has a deep commitment to Temple Emanu-El and served on the board in the temple’s early years. Currently, she is president of Temple Emanu-El’s Sisterhood and also has served on several committees, such as the renovation of the temple’s lobby. As an active participant in Shabbat services, adult learning classes, and Torah Study, she loves all of the diverse opportunities that Temple Emanu-El offers its congregants.
Nora received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Spanish from the University of Georgia. She taught high school Spanish in the DeKalb County System for 30 years and was honored twice as a DeKalb County Teacher of the year. She finished her teaching career at Chamblee Charter High School in 2010.
Nora has also been an active volunteer at the MJCCA in its pickleball program and in other areas. She is devoted to Temple Emanu-El’s Sisterhood and is excited to watch it continue to grow and thrive.
Ellen Gilmer
Ellen grew up in Charlotte, NC and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Mathematics. Ellen moved to Atlanta in 1984 where she met her husband, Jimmy. They have 3 adult sons and 3 grandsons. Jimmy and Ellen have been members of Temple Emanu-El for 22 years. In 2017, Ellen retired from a 40-year career in Commercial Banking having worked for Bank of America and BB&T. She has experience in sales as an account officer and in credit administration as a loan approval officer. Since retirement, Ellen has gotten involved in various Temple activities including the board, the choir and financial project planning. Since joining the board in 2019, she has worked on a committee to encourage member participation in the temple’s various programs. Ellen is the Treasurer for Sisterhood. She is committed to contributing further to the continued success of Temple Emanu-El.
Ben Halpern
As a new member of Temple Emanu-El, I’m honored to be nominated to this Board. I look forward to the opportunity to listen, learn, and offer fresh perspectives with the hopes of my engagement adding support to our beautiful community.
Growing up in Sandy Springs and having attended Jewish day school, Camp Barney for 11 consecutive summers and several trips to Israel, Judaism has always been central within my life.
I graduated from Tulane University in 2018 as a double major in Business Management & Marketing and enjoyed my involvement as a fraternity brother in the ZBT Sigma Chapter. Since then, I have been working hard with my father in building our family business, Farmers & Fishermen Purveyors, and we’re having fun doing what we’re doing. In my free time, I enjoy rollerblading, playing with my mini golden doodle, Nola, and working with people with special needs.
I’m excited to get more involved at Temple Emanu-El and get to know the people that help make it as special as it is.
David Jacobson
David and his wife, Lisa live in Dunwoody with their two kids, Adam, 13 and Rachel, 11. Originally from Miami, we’ve lived in Atlanta for 5 years, loving every minute of it. Adam recently had his Bar Mitzvah at Temple Emanu-el in February of this year and Rachel is excited for hers in 2 years.
David is a Marketing and Business Consultant, who currently works at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the national experience center developing brand experience strategies for clients. He previously worked at Shift7 Digital and Publicis Sapient.
Prior to joining the Temple Emanu-el board, David has been a Board Member of the Miami American Advertising Federation (Miami AdFed) and an adjunct professor at Miami Ad School. He is also involved in the community as a graduate of the Miami Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Miami Program and with many organizations and non-profits including the Miami and Miami Beach Chambers, Suited for Success and The National Foundation to Teach Entrepreneurship.
Hannah Patel
Hannah Patel grew up on Barboursville Winery in the tiny town of Barboursville, Virginia. She spent several years in Nashville, Tennessee before moving to Phoenix, Arizona where she graduated from Arizona State University. In 2015 she moved to Sandy Springs, Georgia and got married to Ketan Patel. In 2016 she had a daughter, Mayah, who now attend the MJCCA Weinstein School. In 2019 she had a son Malachi (Kai) who was born deaf, but with the aid of cochlear implants, attends Atlanta Speech School.
Hannah spent 9 years as a commercial interior designer in architecture firms before starting her own interior design firm in 2020. She and her family became members of Temple Emanu-EL in 2017 and she quickly immersed herself into the TE community. She has used her interior design knowledge to work on the TE2020 vision team, the Lobby renovation project, the social hall renovation project, and the terrace project. Her interests include gardening, power tools, painting and anything related to the water.
Gerri Penn
Gerri Penn grew up in a Conservative Synagogue in Philadelphia, PA. She was very active in USY as her Chapter President. Gerri completed her religious education as a senior in Hebrew High School. Gerri was an elementary school teacher for the School District of Philadelphia. Gerri and Roger moved to Cincinnati in 1977 when they got married. Gerri taught both at Yavneh Hebrew Day School and at her Temple’s Religious School. Gerri and Roger moved to Atlanta in 1981. Gerri taught at Temple Emanu-El’s Religious School for 10 years. Gerri and Roger joined Temple Emanu-El in 1998 after being members at B’nai Torah. Gerri has been on the Caring Committee since 2000 and has Co-Chaired it with Ann Fine for 16 years. Gerri is also on the Membership Committee. Gerri has been in the Sisterhood Book Club since it was established, and enjoys taking classes with our clergy.
In addition to Gerri’s Temple activities, Gerri has been involved in her community serving on the City of Dunwoody’s Zoning Board of Appeals as well as on Sounding Boards for the City. She is currently an Ambassador for the City of Dunwoody. Gerri has been on the Dunwoody Homeowners Association Board and Executive Board on which she is currently serving for the third time. Gerri was the President of the Dunwoody North Civic Association twice for a total of 12 years and is currently on that Board as a Member at Large. When Gerri was a member of the Dunwoody Woman’s Club, she was on the Sponsorship Committee for the Annual Home Tour.
Gerri and Roger have two children, Jennifer and Jason, and have six grandchildren. Jason is a member of Temple Emanu-El and Jennifer is a member of the Temple in Athens, GA. Gerri is passionate about football in particular the Philadelphia Eagles and Penn State Nittany Lions. Gerri loves to take pictures and enjoys sharing her photos on Facebook as good morning and goodnight greetings with hope that it brightens my family and friends’ days. She loves to crochet, read, and is taking up a new hobby of painting. Gerri is so excited to serve on the Temple Emanu-El Board so she can contribute more to her spiritual home.
Beverly Stahl
Beverly was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Miami, Florida. She received her B.S. in Nursing at the University of Alabama and a MSN at the University of California. She was always interested in education and focused her nursing career as a member of a teaching faculty and 30 plus years as a childbirth educator. She also taught these classes at Northside Hospital for 10 years.
Mickey and Bev have been married for 48 years. They lived in Miami, Columbia, SC and now in the Atlanta area for 25 years. Her main focus of community activity has been with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. She is retired and is an enthusiastic learner at the Marcus Jewish Community Center Adult Education for 20 years. She plays bridge and mahjong. Both of them are active with AIPAC. She and husband Mickey love to travel. They have a daughter and 2 grandchildren who live in Dunwoody and a son in Israel.
They are members of Temple Emanuel since 2000. She currently co-chairs the Sababa group and serves on the Caring committee and newly formed Chavurah Committee.
Julie Weiser
Julie is currently employed at The Davis Academy, where she has worked for over twenty years. Currently, Julie is serving as the first and second grade teacher in The Davis Learning Center. Previously, she worked with the fourth and fifth graders in The Davis Learning Center. Before joining The Davis Learning Center, she was a kindergarten teacher/grade chair, first grade teacher, second grade teacher, and assistant to the media specialist. While working in The Davis Learning Center, Julie was the recipient The Power of One award through the Greater Atlanta Jewish Abilities Alliance in January 2019.
Julie and has been married for twenty-five years and has three sons, Jake-23, Noah-21, and Eli-16, all of which attended Schiff Preschool. While her boys attended Schiff Preschool, Julie taught at Schiff. She has also participated in Temple Emanu-El’s Leadership class during their previous membership.
Julie and her family returned to Temple Emanu-El in August 2019. Julie returned to Temple Emanu-El to find comfort in Shabbat services; however, Julie has found a home and community for her family. Julie co-chairs the Backpack Buddy Program with her husband, David. She was a recipient of the Shirley Schiffer Volunteerism Award. Their youngest son is on the executive board of TEFTY, a participant in Confirmation Class, and member of NFTY.
Andrew Weiss
Andy Weiss has been a member of Temple Emanu-El since 1986 when his family joined. He and his wife, Diane, have three children all of which had had their b’nai mitzvah at the Temple and continued on through confirmation. His parents are still active members of the congregation. Andy was a member of the 2015 Senior Rabbi Search Committee. Currently, Andy works for Cox Communications as Executive Director of Enterprise Portfolio Management with responsibility for program and portfolio management of some of Cox’s most complex strategic initiatives. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Dunwoody Nature Center. Andy is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant. He loves to travel with his family, is an avid cyclist and an Atlanta Braves fan.
Harriet Zoller
Harriet and her husband, Norman, have been members of Temple Emanu-El since 1982, a year after moving to Atlanta from Cincinnati with their two sons, David and Drew. In those nomad days before TE even had a permanent address, she joined the Religious School Committee, ultimately chairing it. David was in an early Confirmation class, and Drew’s Bar Mitzvah was the first celebrated in the Spalding Drive sanctuary.
Harriet later chaired the Ritual Committee. During that time, she worked with Rabbi Emeritus Scott Colbert to create TE’s first healing services, which were held monthly on Sunday afternoons. Later she co-chaired Darchei Sarim (the Way of Leaders), TE’s leadership development program, and she has also chaired TE Talks.
A writer and editor, Harriet worked for almost 20 years in the communications and research departments at the national office of the American Cancer Society. Currently she helps edit TE’s Tikkun Olam Times that spreads the word about the synagogue’s social action programming.
In the larger Jewish community, she sits on the American Jewish Committee’s committee for Jewish-Catholic relations. She was the fourth president of the Davis Academy’s Board of Trustees, and before that, she served on the school’s first board, including five years as secretary. Subsequently, she was secretary of PARDeS, the national organization of Reform Jewish Day Schools.
Harriet is not the first Zoller active at TE. Norman was president of the congregation from 2007-2009.
Danny Summerfield
Danny and his wife Laura Beth have been active members of Temple Emanu-El since 2008. They have 2 children who are graduates of the Schiff Pre-School and currently attend the Diamond Family Religious School. Danny and his family look forward to celebrating their children’s B’nai Mitzvot at Temple Emanu-El and attending the annual trip to Israel that is hosted by the synagogue. Danny took the reigns of the Temple Emanu-El Brotherhood in 2017 and has enjoyed engaging the men of our congregation in a wide variety of events. He feels that bringing together the men of Emanu-El and fostering a sense of community has made leading the Brotherhood such a fulfilling experience. Danny has also served on a variety of committees over the years and feels lucky to be part of an extraordinary Chavurah. Danny grew up in Memphis, TN, moved to Atlanta in 1994, received his undergraduate degree from the University of TN and MBA from the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State. He currently works in sales at AT&T, enjoys spending time with his family and friends, doing projects around the house, boating, water skiing, tennis, racquetball, biking, working out, Tennessee Vol football, grilling out, good tunes and drinking great wine.
Nora Floersheim
Nora grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and has been a member of Temple Emanu-El for over 40 years. She attended the University of Georgia where she met her husband, Steve Floersheim, and they will soon celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Her family includes her children, Amy and Philip Rubin and Jodi and Jeff Rosenberg, and her 5 grandchildren, Jake, Hailey, Zach, Tyler, and Maya.
She has a deep commitment to Temple Emanu-El and served on the board in the temple’s early years. Currently, she is president of Temple Emanu-El’s Sisterhood and also has served on several committees, such as the renovation of the temple’s lobby. As an active participant in Shabbat services, adult learning classes, and Torah Study, she loves all of the diverse opportunities that Temple Emanu-El offers its congregants.
Nora received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Spanish from the University of Georgia. She taught high school Spanish in the DeKalb County System for 30 years and was honored twice as a DeKalb County Teacher of the year. She finished her teaching career at Chamblee Charter High School in 2010.
Nora has also been an active volunteer at the MJCCA in its pickleball program and in other areas. She is devoted to Temple Emanu-El’s Sisterhood and is excited to watch it continue to grow and thrive.
Past Presidents
Mark Young
Stephen L. Zisser
Arthur E. Katz
George M. Fox
Sandra Z. Ferko
Steven E. Marcus z'l
Harold E. Kirtz
Stewart I. Aaron z'l
Cary Rosenthal
Stephen E. Lewis
Ann Van Prooyen
Scott Walsey
Lynn Newport
Jane Schiff
Norman E. Zoller
Norman S. Cohen
Jeff Marcus
Scott Walsey
Noah Rosner
Art Katz
Rick Shapiro
Robert Wittenstein
