Who's Who in our Head Staff

Rosh Agam/Waterfront Director
Estelle Lajmer Gomolka
Estelle is a 5th grade teacher at The Greater Boston Solomon Schecter Day School. She is a graduate of Maimonides in Brookline, MA.This is Estelle's 33rd summer at Yavneh (K’ 79).She has held many positions at Yavneh including Rosh Banot/ Head Girl's Counselor. Estelle has well over 20 years experience teaching swimming and holds her WSI, Lifeguard instructor, CPR and First Aide Instructor. She is married to Guy and has 2 children.

Rosh Tochnit/Program Director and Assistant Director
Lisa Rubins
Lisa has been coming to Yavneh for 32 years as camper (K’85), counselor and she has held a variety of Rosh (head) positions. During the school year Lisa is a youth advisor at a synagogue in NY and teaches at the Heschel School in NYC. She holds a masters degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in education. Lisa comes to camp with her husband Scott who is Security and Facilities Supervisor at Yavneh and son, Jack.

Rosh Chinuch/Head of Education
Rabbi Dov Lerea
Rabbi Dov is the Dean of Judaic Studies at the Heschel School in NYC. Dov is the past director of the Prozdor of Hebrew College. Dov received his ordination from both The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and Yeshiva University. He comes to camp for his 14th summer. He and his wife Nancy have 4 boys 2 of whom still come to Yavneh.

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Rosh Banot/Head Girl's counselor
Davida Amkraut
a graduate of Columbia University Teachers College teaches at The Solomon Schechter Day School in Cleveland, Ohio where she lives with her husband Brian and 3 children. She has served as a principal of a Hebrew School and has taught 5th-8th graders in public school. This is her 13th summer at Yavneh as Head Girl’s Counselor. Davida recently won the Gross Schechter Day School teacher award which is designated by the administration. Additionally, Davida is the recipient of the Jewish Cleveland community day school teacher award called the the Steiger Award for Teaching.

Rosh Banim/Head Boy's counselor
Meir Deutsch
Meir grew up in Gush Etzion, Israel and has served as a Lieutenant Commander in the Israeli Army in charge of 150 soldiers in the Givatti Brigade. He has extensive experience with children including the youth groups B’nai Akiva and Shalva. He is currently working in “National Protectional Trust”. Meir comes to camp with his wife Adina and their daughter Maayan.

Rosh Musika:

Benzi Thee
Benzi comes to Yavneh for his third summer from Israel with his wife Yonina, and 4 children. Benzi holds a B.A. in music and a masters in Music Therapy and plays in a simcha band.

Nurses
Teri Aronowitz, RN
Teri is an Assistant Professor of nursing at Northeastern University’s School of Nursing. She has been a Family Nurse Practitioner working with adolescents for over three decades. She teaches health promotion, physical assessment and adolescent health. Terri is a Kinsey Institute Fellow. This is her 9th year at Yavneh. She has 1 daughter who attends Yavneh.

Suzi Polirer, RN
Suzi works as a community nurse in the off-season and has been an RN at for Yavneh 17 years. She is married to Rabbi Richy, also on staff, they have 4 children, all of whom have attended Yavneh.

Debbie Forman, RN
Debbie has been an RN at Yavneh for 20 years. She and her husband Jonathan have 3 children all products of Yavneh. She is also a Yavneh alum.

Foodservice Directors
Jeff Weisberg
Jeff comes to us from many years as a chef at Camp Lavie. Additionally, Jeff works during the rest of the year as a chef a Ner Moshe yeshiva in Jerusalem. Jeff will be joined at camp by his wife Rivi who will be co Gan Director and their son.

Devorah Schechter
Devorah joins us from Israel where she is famous for catering functions for everyone we know. We are looking forward to our campers and staff enjoying the food that has made her a household name in Israel.

Director of Facilities and Security
Scott Rubins
Scott, a teacher for twelve years, received his Masters from Teachers College, Columbia University and teaches Forensic Science at New Rochelle High School in New York. He works as a consultant to Court TV as well as other high schools interested in forensic science. Scott comes to camp with wife Lisa and son Jack (Kerem 2016)

Plant Manager
Charlie Comtois
This is Charlies 4th year at Camp Yavneh. Charlie is a professional mason who is skilled in all aspects of contruction and facilities management. Charlie is married to Janice and has 5 children, many who work at Camp Yavneh.

Assistant Director, Dir of Operations
Jeff Weener
Jeff is on his eighth summer at camp. He manages all business aspects of the camp as well as camp technology and the website. Jeff has an MBA from Babson college and has held various marketing and technology positions in the business world for the past 20 years. Jeff is married to Barbara and has 2 children at camp.

Rosh Sport/Head of Sports
David Harris Gershon
David is living in North Carolina with his wife Jaimie (teacher at Yavneh) and 2 daughters. This is his third summer at Yavneh as Rosh Sport.
Elisheva Liebler
Elisheva is finishing her tour of duty in the IDF where she is a swimming and physical Ed specialist. This is her first summer at Camp Yavneh.

Rosh Amanut/Head of Art program
Jayne Miller & Sandy Weiner
This is Jayne’s 7th summer at Yavneh. Before Yavneh she worked in several other camps in the art department. She is skilled in and has taught spinning, quilting, enameling, jewelry and other subjects. She is married to Barry and has 3 children. Sandy Weiner was previously the Head of Art and ceramics at Camp Morasha. She has also worked at Camp Nesher and Gan Israel. Sandy has her BFA in Fine Arts. This is her second summer at Yavneh.

Rosh Drama/Head of Drama
Kristi Wivagg
Kristi is returning to Yavneh after a couple years away and we are excited to have her back on staff. Kristi Wivagg received a B.A. in theatre from Univ. of Denver and an M.A. in directing from Emerson College. She has been an actor, stage manager and director in such places around the globe as New York, L.A., Boston and Edinburgh, Scotland. She is the mother of Sara (Kerem 03, Na'aleh 04)and Jesse Schneiderman(Leviim 08).

Rachel Israel Davenport
This is Rachel's 2nd year at Yavneh. Rachel is the Early Childhood Family Educator at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, MA. Rachel has a certificate in Jewish Special Education and a BA in Jewish Education from Hebrew College. She is also a graduate of Prozdor. Rachel comes to us with many years of experience as a performer and storyteller. Plus, she is one of the few (perhaps the only?) adult staff members at Yavneh who can walk on her hands. Rachel comes to camp with her 2 sons.

Rosh Teva/Naturalist
Michal Levy
Michal was the manager of the national Israeli Scouting Center in Israel. She was also a shepard and farmer at Bat Ayala as well as being in charge of after school educational programs in four towns. This is Michal's first summer at Yavneh with her husband Noam and baby son.

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Roshei Ayda (Unit Heads)

Gurim: (grade 2-4)
Betty Bauman (K’03, N’04) is a voice major at Cornell University. This is Betty’s 4th year with Gurim and first as a Rosh Aydah. Betty has been at Yavneh for 12 years.
Ben Park (K’04, N’05) is a student at MIT. He’s been Rosh Video & sound previously. This is his 3rd summer with Gurim, first as a rosh and his 11th year at Yavneh.

Kfirim: (grade 5-6)
Yaffa Leah Biton was a teacher at Yavneh last summer. She lives in Georgia and comes from Israel. She teaches at Greenfield Hebrew Academy in Atlanta. This is her first summer as a rosh. Jonathan Newcombe has attended Jewish summer camp since 1994 although he just discovered us this year! He is in his fourth year at Hunter College in NYC and is President of Hillel.

Arayot: (grade 7) Ayelet Schieber (K’04) attends NYU and is majoring in Nutrition. This is her 9th summer at Yavneh and her first as a rosh.
Aaron Lyon (K’04, N’05) attends UMass Amherst and is majoring in Hotel management. He has been at Yavneh for 11 years. He loves cooking and is looking forward to his first year as a rosh.

Leviim (grade 8)
Ruth Dollinger made aliyah at age 7 from Kansas and has spent her last 2 summers at Ramah Darom. She has finished the IDF* and has worked with lots of youth groups. Currently she is working for the Jewish Agency in the education department. This is her first summer at Yavneh.
David Webber (K’ 04, N’05) is a student Univ. of Rochester and is taking a semester working for MTV in NYC. David loves drama and shared the Rosh video position at camp. This is his 11th summer at Yavneh.

Maalot: (grade 9)
Adina Zablocki (K’04) is finishing up her service in the IDF. She has been at Yavneh for 15 years. This is her first summer as a Rosh Aydah. David Bratspis lives in Jerusalem's Old City. He is a studying at Lifshitz College and in Yeshivat HaKotel. After a one season hiatus to serve in the IDF, David spent last summer with Naaleh (Yavneh's Israel trip) in the Holy Land. He is returning for his sixth summer on staff. It will be his third as a rosh aydah.

Kerem: (grade 10)
Itzik Shalem hailing from Holon, Israel sets a new Yavneh record for being the first Israeli Rosh Kerem. He also joins the 5 year member club at camp this summer. Itzik was a member of the IDF and is currently studying informal education in Israel.

(FYI: Newcomers to Yavneh: Kerem is our counselor in training program and Na’aleh is our summer in Israel program!)

** IDF - Israel Defense Forces

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