Walter and Marjory Tolub

Walter and Marj Tolub are members of long-standing at CSAIR, having joined CSAIR over 35 years ago.  Married over 45 years, they are the proud parents of Benjamin and Joshua, who attended the CSAIR Hebrew School, and each celebrated their bar mitzvah at CSAIR.  Walter and Marj are the proud grandparents of Eliana, Sammy, Hadassah, Jonathan and Tovah.  

Walter has provided years of distinguished service to our synagogue in various capacities, including his service as Chair of the Education Board of CSAIR’s Hebrew School, Senior Vice-President of the Board of Trustees (1981-1985), and President of the Congregation (1985-1989).  In addition, he served on search committees for the Rabbi and for the Assistant Rabbi.

Walter is a product of the Lower East Side.  Of no surprise to all of us who have the pleasure of davening with him, Walter spent many of his early years at the East Side Hebrew Institute, where he both studied and taught the art of praying. Walter attended Stuyvesant High School and New York University and received his law degree from the New York University School of Law.  He was elected Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York in 1989, where he served from 1990-1992.  From 1992 until his retirement in 2009, he served as Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. 

Marj’s early years were spent in Massachusetts, after which she came to New York and received her bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from New York University.  Until her recent retirement, Marj practiced in the Riverdale area for many years with the Visiting Nurse Service.  Marj has served CSAIR well as the manager of the synagogue’s gift shop and as an invaluable member of the Capital Campaign Design Committee, which was responsible for the recent renovations of the Sanctuary, the Social Hall and other areas of CSAIR.

Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield

Over the past decade as a member of CSAIR, Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield has served as co-chair of the Young Children’s Family Program, as a member of the Board of Trustees and, currently, as the chair of the Greenfaith Initiative, which she developed for the shul.  She lives in Riverdale with her husband, Paul, and their children, Maayan and Yonah.

Rachel is the director of the Jewish Greening Fellowship, a project of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.  The Fellowship provides grants, staff training and ongoing support to select Jewish agencies with the goal of generating a meaningful Jewish response to global climate change.  Rachel formerly served as director for program development and Jewish life at the Riverdale Y, where she developed innovative programming, including the annual Riverdale Jewish Festival of the Arts and an agency and community-wide greening initiative.  She is a graduate of the Muehlstein Fellowship for Jewish Professional Leadership and was awarded the Andrew Zucker Annual Jewish Community Service Award by the Riverdale Jewish Community Council in 2009. 

Rachel earned her M.A. in Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley with a focus on Hebrew literature.  Her training included three years in Israel, where she participated in Project OTZMA, a service-based leadership program, and studied at the Pardes Institute and Hebrew University. She has taught extensively, designed and developed curricula and served as the Judaic Studies Coordinator at Brandeis-Hillel Day School in Northern California.  

Mason Voit

Mason is truly proud of his “Southern boy” roots as a third generation Alabaman and he is delighted to bring all that is good about the ‘good ole South’ to his Riverdale community, and to CSAIR. His Southern roots run deep, however, and they have fostered a love for Alabama football – and he admits - when he grows up he wants to be a country music singer. If you get the chance, ask him about some of his musical performances at CSAIR…they are all memorable!

Fortunately for all of us, Mason joined the CSAIR professional staff in 2003. At CSAIR, he serves as our Director of Education and Jewish Family Life, and he supervises – and has been instrumental in developing - an extensive range of youth and family educational programming including a wide array of Shabbat morning programs for children of all ages and their families; a youth group for children in grades 2–5; a host of social and educational experiences for pre and post B’nai Mitzvah students; and programs for teens directed at social justice and volunteer opportunities. Mason also serves as the principal of the synagogue’s K-8 Hebrew School, and despite his Alabama roots, none of the children he so richly influences daven with a Southern twang. He is admired by the families of his students, deeply appreciated and respected by his colleagues and staff, and is considered “cool” by even the most difficult to please teens at CSAIR. He is an all around mensch, and all who know him feel lucky to have him in their world.   

Mason earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. He completed his graduate studies in Education Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on Urban Education at the University of Denver. He has studied at the Jerusalem Institute in Israel and at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.  Mason is a graduate of the first cohort of Educators in the Leadership Institute for Congregational School Educators, an intensive two-year professional development program of HUC and JTS sponsored by the UJA Federation and currently sits on the program advisory board.   In 2008-2009, Mason was a post-graduate fellow of the Melton Senior Educators Program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and to his great credit, he maintained a close relationship throughout the year with CSAIR and our Hebrew School, sharing his experiences with his students and bringing Israel home to the CSAIR Hebrew School community. 

Mason came to CSAIR with extensive experience in teaching and curriculum development. He began his career as a public school social studies teacher in Denver, Colorado. There, he also began teaching classes and creating curricula about Israel, Jewish history, and Jewish culture for the Colorado Agency for Jewish Education (CAJE).  A long-time active member of Young Judaea, Mason served as the Young Judaea Regional Director in Denver, a “madrich” (counselor) for the Year Course gap year in Israel program and in multiple staff positions at Young Judaea camps.