JxJ Council

Sara Cohen is a native Washingtonian and practicing dentist in a 50+ year old D.C. family practice founded by her father and grandfather. Her grandparents were active members of the EDCJCC in its early days. Inspired by the combination of art and science in her work, she believes art and film in particular are the perfect emissaries to give voice to the Jewish experience. She is an active fundraiser for Jewish education and culture, working with the development office of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and the Capital and Endowment Campaign Committee of the DCJCC. She is married to Norm J. Rich, Vice President of the DCJCC and with four grade school children, is doing her best to create Jewish leaders of the future!

Janet Abrams is Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Smithsonian’s central digital technology group, working to share the Institution’s vast collections, research, and educational resources with the world.  An Atlanta native, Janet earned her B.A. in History at Harvard and an M.B.A. at Stanford.  She serves on the EDCJCC Board of Directors and also holds leadership roles with the White House Fellows Foundation and Association and Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capital.  Janet is excited to be part of the JxJ Council because she believes in the power of music and film to inspire, inform, and bring people together.

Debbie Berger Fox currently works as a Senior Producer at CNN on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

A native Washingtonian, Debbie attended Georgetown Day School. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, she moved back to DC and had her first run at CNN DC as a producer where she worked on shows including Crossfire and Burden of Proof. Debbie then went to help launch the Center for American Progress as its first Director of TV and Radio.
Debbie moved to London from 2005-2015 to be with her British husband. While there, she had three children and worked as a communication consultant.

Debbie now lives in Chevy Chase with her family. She is an active supporter of her local schools and town. She has served on the Somerset Elementary School Foundation, the Westland Middle School PTA, the Somerset Town Pool Committee. Debbie and her family have been members at Temple Sinai for decades, and have held all their major milestones there.

Charles recently retired from the fulltime practice of law, where he was a principal partner at Yablonski, Both & Edelman, a Union-side Labor Law Firm, which he founded in 1975. His practice was on behalf of working people and their organizations and included international human rights and political work in the former Soviet Union, primarily in Kazakhstan. He is an active member of Adas Israel Congregation, a previous Board member and committee chair. He fondly remembers swimming at the “J” while attending Georgetown Law Center between 1965-1968. He currently volunteers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Ilana Drimmer currently serves as Javelin’s Director of Strategic Development and Literary Agent. An Emmy award-winning producer with over 20 years of experience in the field of television journalism, she has been a producer at NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, first with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts and then with George Stephanopolous, at ABC’s Nightline, at CNN’s Larry King Live, CNBC, and PBS. She is lives in Chevy Chase Maryland with her husband and two children.

Morgan is the managing partner of Verdehouse, which she originally founded by finding underutilized real estate for artists, events and pop-ups in DC. Today, Verdehouse has evolved to offer creative solutions to real estate development challenges. Prior to exploring ways to connect creative and corporate communities, Morgan held diverse roles within architecture and interiors at Gensler, a global architecture and design firm. She is a LEED-accredited professional, on the advisory board for the Dupont Underground Arts Coalition and active with the ADL’s NextGen. Along with a variety of past roles within Young Leadership, Morgan is currently on the Board of Directors for the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.

Dan Glickman is a well-recognized leader in the fields of agriculture, nutrition, hunger, bipartisan politics and public policy following a long career in the federal government, advocacy, the private sector and non-profit arenas.

Glickman is a senior counselor and chair of the International Advisory Board at APCO Worldwide and is a long-time board member and former lead director and Chair of the Governance Committee of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group), senior advisor to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, and recent past chairman. He is a distinguished fellow in Global Food and Agriculture at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and an adjunct professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston. Glickman also serves as a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a D.C- based think tank that fosters bipartisanship; and a strategic advisor and counselor at The Russell Group.

Dina Gold was born and raised in the UK and is now an American citizen living in Washington, DC. She is on the board of the EDCJCC and a council member of JxJ. She began her career at the Investors Chronicle in London as a financial journalist after postgraduate studies at London University and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. She later worked as an investigative journalist and television producer at the BBC.

Maya Hyman‘s life has been a blend of professional dedication and personal interests, influenced by diverse places she’s called home. Raised in the running town of Eugene, Oregon and spending her summers at Jewish Summer Camps in California and New York she developed a love for nature and a deep sense of belonging.

Maya’s quest for knowledge (and a deap pull to the East Coast) led her to Washington, D.C., where she pursued her college education and further cultivated her passion for advocacy and delving into complexities.

Over the years, Maya has made her home in several vibrant cities, including San Francisco, Denver, and for over 25 years in the DMV with her current residence in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Each locale has contributed to her multifaceted perspective and enriched her desire to connect with people from diverse backgrounds.

After working in the corporate and then the nonprofit world, in real estate, Maya discovered her true calling – her profession for over a decade, that allows her to effect positive change by guiding people through the buying and selling of their homes. Her approach transcends mere transactions; she’s driven by the belief that the right home can ignite a better life and, ultimately, a better world.

Outside of her professional life, Maya’s interests span the spectrum from musical theater, movies, and reading design magazines, to a fascination with political and pop culture topics. She’s an enthusiastic participant in lively discussions on current events and is trying to read a biography every week. Maya also dedicates time to exploring a variety of engaging and silly podcasts.

Maya is a loving wife and mother to two children, Ellie (13) and Marc (11). She’s an active member of Adas Israel Congregation, the Somerset Elementary School Foundation, and cherishes moments spent close to the water whenever possible.

Bruce Levin co-founded MAC Realty Advisors with Andrew McAllister in 2010. Prior to MAC, Mr. Levin was a Principal and Executive Vice President at CIG International LLC, a national mezzanine debt and equity investment company. Bruce received his MBA with a concentration in Real Estate and his undergraduate degree in Finance from The George Washington University.

Jennifer Loew Mendelson, the daughter of a Survivor, has a passion for Holocaust education and Jewish community. She was founding staff member of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and currently serves on the Education Committee. Jen serves on the board of the Defiant Requiem, a foundation that honors the bravery and defiance of Terezin and shows the role that music and art play in confronting contemporary challenges. She also serves on the Charles E Smith Jewish Day School Strategic Advisory Cabinet.

Jen is co-leading a strategic initiative with 3G (grandchildren of Survivors) chapters in 9 states to build a national organization devoted to growing the 3G community and training 3Gs to tell their grandparents’ stories. Speakers are deployed into classrooms and organizations to combat intolerance and hate. Their experience and their unique moral voice help them become impassioned leaders devoted to Holocaust memory and education for the next generation.

Jen is married to Dan Mendelson and are very proud of their three daughters, Claire, Eliana, and Dora.

Dolores Siegel is a Jewish multiracial woman, creative at heart with a diverse background including performance and production. She comes to JxJ with a firm belief that film and music are powerful and essential tools in fostering expansive thinking. At this juncture in history, she is most enthusiastic to showcase underrepresented voices and celebrate their resilience and power with all of you.

A native of Havana, Cuba, Manny spoke Spanish and Yiddish when he arrived in the U.S. at the age of 3. He has forgotten nearly all of the Spanish but, growing up in a Yiddish-speaking home, he developed a love for the mamaloshen and Yiddish culture.

Manny retired in 2017 after a 44-year career in journalism, the last 30 of which were spent at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. Since 1981, he has been a member of Adas Israel, where he regularly leads weekday services, serves as a member of the Budget Committee and has twice chaired the synagogue’s Investment Committee.

Richard Solloway has worked with nonprofits as a grantmaker, consultant, board member and active volunteer for over 40 years. He is President of Solloway & Associates specializing in strategic planning and grants management with a foci on federal grants and international programs. He is a former Board Member of the EDCJCC. Richard has a particular interest in exploring Jewish culture throughout the world and is excited to bring his interests to WJFF. He is a retired Foreign Service Officer and has lived and travelled extensively outside the US.

Susan Rubin Suleiman is Professor Emerita of French Civilization and of Comparative Literature at Harvard University, where she taught for more than 35 years. She is the author of many articles and books about modern literature and culture, including the Némirovsky Question: the Life, Death, and Legacy of a Jewish Writer in 20^th-Century France and the memoir Budapest Diary: In Search of the Motherbook. Her book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Moment, The Atlantic, and other popular publications. In 2018 she was awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’Honneur.

Heidi L. Wachs, Vice President at Stroz Friedberg, an Aon Company, helps clients prepare for and respond to data breach and cybersecurity incidents and develop and implement data privacy and information security programs. Wachs, whose experience includes serving as a technical analyst and Chief Privacy Officer for a major research university, frequently speaks and writes on data privacy, information security, information governance, and best practices for data privacy and breach response. She is a co-founder of 3GDC, a DC-based group for grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and the WanderingJews, a project to document Jewish history, people, and places around the world.  She is an active member of Mesorah DC.