Investment Management

David Baskin has more than 38-years of experience in the finance, venture capital, and investment fields, having pursued a career in these areas shortly after being called to the Bar of Ontario in 1978. He is the founder of Baskin Financial Services Inc., which provides discretionary investment counseling and portfolio management services to investors in six provinces. The firm currently serves 800 families and not-for-profit institutions with more than $1.25 billion of assets under management. Baskin Financial Services Inc. has 24 employees and is based in Toronto. David is a regular commentator of the North American and global markets frequently appearing on BNN’s Market Call and other BNN programs as well as on CBC Newsworld. Additionally, he has been a frequent and popular guest on CBC Radio, 680 All-News Radio and CP4 in Toronto. He is quoted often in the business pages of the Globe and Mail, Financial Post and Toronto Star and was for several years a columnist for The Moneyletter, Investors’ Digest and The Investment Reporter.

David is a past president of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He holds an Honours B.A. with a major in economics from the University of Colorado and Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto, where he was president of the Students’ Law Society.

G. Leonard Teitelbaum currently serves as chair of the RPB Board of Trustees and previously held positions on the Union for Reform Judaism board. Len has a long tenure in the financial services industry in leadership positions, including as managing director at Merrill Lynch Global Securities and the global coordinator for food & agribusiness research for Merrill Lynch. Mr. Teitelbaum was associated with Bankers Trust Company and with Morgan Bank.

Prior to his banking experience, he was associated with Seidman and Seidman, Certified Public Accountants in New York City. Mr. Teitelbaum received his BBA and MBA from the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate, he majored in industrial relations and marketing and as a graduate student specialized in finance and accounting. Mr. Teitelbaum is a member of the New York Society for Security Analysts, past president of the Consumer Analyst Group of New York and a Fellow in the Financial Analysts Federation.

Senior Rabbi Emeritus Block retired in July 2018 after serving as senior rabbi of The Temple–Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, Ohio since 2001. Designated by Newsweek as “one of the top 25 pulpit rabbis in America,” Rabbi Block is a passionate, widely recognized advocate for Israel and the US-Israel strategic alliance. A prolific writer, he has been featured in numerous publications, including Time, The Jewish Daily Forward, Tablet Magazine, Huffington Post, The Times of Israel, The Tower Magazine, JTA, The Jewish Week, and Haaretz.

He has also been a leader in the community for many years. In addition to serving as president of many organizations—including the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and the Greater Cleveland Board of Rabbis—he also served as a member of RPB’s Board from 1982-2015, including two terms as vice chair.

Rabbi Block was ordained at HUC-JIR in 1982, where he received awards for academic distinction, writing, and sermonic excellence. He graduated with honors from the Wharton School and from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He was a law clerk to a federal judge and spent four years on active duty in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, including assignments as a special assistant US attorney and a faculty member of the Naval Justice School. He received an honorary doctorate from HUC-JIR in 2007.

Amy Brackett is a Senior Wealth Advisor at Revolve Wealth Partners, working with individuals, families, and non-profits to manage their investments and help clients build a path toward their financial goals. She has a deep-rooted commitment to helping clients in all areas of wealth planning including investment management, employee benefits, insurance coverage, cash management, and estate and tax planning.

Amy has worked in the financial industry for 20 years, most recently as a Senior Advisor at Klingenstein Fields Advisors (and before that at Solaris Advisors, which was acquired by Klingenstein Fields Advisors). Prior to joining Solaris Advisors in 2007, Amy spent several years as a Research Associate at TIAA-CREF and as an Investment Banking Analyst at CIBC World Markets. Amy received a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated magna cum laude. Amy is a CFA charterholder and holds the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) certification.

Julie is a member of the Union for Reform Judaism North American Board of Trustees, and currently serves on its Planning and Budget Committee. She joined RPB in 2020.

Julie is retired, after enjoying a career at a leading Human Resources Consulting and Outsourcing firm. As an Enrolled (pension) Actuary, she spent the majority of her career consulting with large organizations on the funding requirements, design and administration of their retirement programs. She also co-led their Asset-Liability Projection business which, among other goals, helped large organizations determine the appropriate asset allocation of their pension assets. She became on Officer of that firm and served on their Board of Directors.

Julie is a member of the Board of Trustees for North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, IL. She also is a member of the United Way of Lake County Board of Directors, and has previously served on other not-for-profit boards, including Junior Achievement USA.

Julie is a graduate of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, receiving a B.S. in Actuarial Science with highest distinction honors. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.

Rabbi Lisa S. Greene has served North Shore Congregation in Glencoe, IL since 1999. She is proud that her work creates small communities amidst the larger congregation as she teaches, creates experiential learning with lay partners, marks sacred time in innovative ways, and empowers people to learn and lead.

Rabbi Greene was ordained by the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 1995 and earned her BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. As a former securities analyst at Lazard Freres, she has brought her finance background to the CCAR as Budget & Finance Committee Chair, as well as a member of the Reform Pension Board.

Rabbi Greene was a Clal Rabbis Without Borders fellow and LEAP fellow. She has written for the Huffington Post, Wisdom Daily, Reform Judaism Blog, My Jewish Learning, and her own personal blog, Intersections, which reflects on the intersection of sacred and ordinary in daily life. She created an ELI talk, “Getting Ritual: Making Meaningful Jewish Moments” which speaks to her journey to create new Jewish ritual for divorce and to steps others can take to make their own new ritual to mark sacred times.

Lisa is proud to be a second-generation Rabbi Greene and the mother of Noa, David, and Talia Polish, all of whom greet the world with curiosity, compassion, and creativity.

Elliott is a member of the URJ Board, as well as the URJ Investment and Audit Committees. He also served on the URJ Oversight Committee and chaired the URJ Budget Committee from 2011 to 2015 and the Executive Committee from 2004 to 2008.

Elliott retired from professional accounting and auditing as a partner in Deloitte & Touche, LLP in 2010. He is a graduate of the Director’s Education Program sponsored by the Institute of Corporate Directors (Canada).

He is a past president of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto and current chair of the Holy Blossom Temple Foundation. He has served as chair of the Canadian Council of Reform Judaism and is currently the treasurer of the Canadian Council for Reform Judaism. He is on the Governance Committee of the Canadian Reform Pension Board.

Elliott is a graduate of Dalhousie University and Queen’s University at Kingston (Ontario). A Canadian Chartered Accountant/Chartered Professional Accountant, he is a member of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario.

Daryl Messinger is the chair of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Board of Trustees. She is a dynamic leader with a track record of sustained involvement and success in the Reform Movement and in business. Daryl served as chair of the Reform Pension Board from 2010-2015 before becoming the first woman to chair the URJ.

Prior to retiring in 2009, Daryl had various roles in both communications and investment management organizations. In 1999, she opened an investor relations consulting firm, and in 2004 merged the firm with WeissComm Partners, Inc., an integrated marketing and communications agency, where she served as executive vice president and strategic consultant. From 1983 to 1999, Daryl was an investment manager and partner of various funds managed by Glynn Capital Management, an investment advisory firm. She began her investment career as a research analyst at Rosenberg Capital and Oppenheimer & Co. after completing her MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

In addition to serving as Executive Director at Temple Judea, Rabbi Bruce Raff was its Director of Education from 1986 to 2021, save a brief hiatus from 2012-2017. He began his career as a public school teacher, and after a short stint with the Los Angeles public schools, he became a full time Jewish educator. He is known as an innovator in the field of Jewish education, and has been at the forefront of introducing new models of education that have spread across the Jewish landscape.

In addition to his teaching and his extensive work as a school administrator, Rabbi Raff has mentored over 100 Jewish educators and rabbis as a member of the Clinical Faculty of Hebrew Union College. He holds Master’s Degrees in Jewish Education from the University of Judaism (Now American Jewish University) and in Jewish Letters from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained as a rabbi in 2001.

Rabbi Jason Rosenberg is the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Am in Tampa, Florida. He was ordained at HUC-JIR in 2001. Raised in New Fairfield, Connecticut, Rabbi Rosenberg majored in computer science at Brown University and worked for several years as a software engineer before entering rabbinical school.

Rabbi Rosenberg served as an Associate Rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto from 2001 to 2007. In addition to his time serving as a chair of the Tampa Rabbinical Association, Rabbi Rosenberg has also served on the board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Tampa Jewish Federation, and is currently a member of the Florida Reform Jewish Leaders organizing team at the Religious Action Center, the Reform Movement’s political advocacy wing. He also serves on the boards of Faith In Florida and Faith In Florida’s Hillsborough County Chapter.

Rabbi Benjamin D. Sternman is the spiritual leader of Adat Chaverim in Plano, Texas. Rabbi Sternman received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell, followed by his MBA. He entered the world of corporate finance and soon found that while he loved solving the mathematical puzzles required for his work, he didn’t feel it was completely fulfilling. Rabbi Sternman had always been active in the Jewish community. In his junior and senior years at Cornell, he led Reform Shabbat services, and during his finance years he served on the board of his temple in various positions. He finally decided to trade the world of high finance for the life of a Reform rabbi and he has never looked back.

After being ordained at Hebrew Union College in New York in 2003, he served as associate rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Austin from 2003-2008 and at The Community Synagogue, Port Washington, New York from 2008 to2011. Rabbi Sternman joined Adat Chaverim in 2012 and is thrilled to have found his own spiritual home within the congregation. In addition to serving as the rabbi at Adat Chaverim, Rabbi Sternman has served on the Clergy Advisory Board of the Child Advocacy Center of Collin County and is a founding member of the Frisco Interfaith Alliance.

Phyllis Tabachnick is a Managing Director and co-founder of the Tabachnick Oskin Group at J.P. Morgan Securities, a wealth management division of J.P. Morgan in Chicago. She has provided investment management services to individuals, families and business owners for almost 30 years. She has held leadership roles in many philanthropic organizations both locally and nationally, and has been on the Investment Committees of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Jewish Council for Youth Services, Foundation for Jewish Culture, and Executive Service Corps of Chicago.

Additionally, Phyllis served as co-chair in 2015 and 2017 for the Investment Institute for Jewish Federations of North America. Phyllis regularly speaks to board members and students of all ages about fundraising and development (Presentation titled: “Fundraising is not an F Word”), leadership, career advancement and investment management. A native of Akron, Ohio, Phyllis graduated from Northwestern University and currently lives on the north side of Chicago. In her spare time she enjoys reading, cooking and traveling.