Siona Benjamin has an MFA in painting from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Ill., and an MFA in theater set design from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign. She has exhibited in the United States, Europe and Asia. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 to India, and a second Fulbright fellowship in 2016-17 to Israel. As not just a Jewish artist but also as one who crosses cultural boundaries, she’s received praise in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Financial Times, The Boston Globe, Art in America, Art New England, Art and Antiques, ArtNews, Moment magazine, The Times of India, The Mumbai Mirror, Marg Magazine, and other publications. Hermulticultural arthas also been featured in The Jewish Week in New York City and New Jersey, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, and other publications.
Rabbi Sarah Berman joined Central as Rabbi and Director of Adult Education in the summer of 2020 after serving the Central community for two years as a rabbinic intern. Her teaching focuses on Jewish art, history, and material culture, as well as on text and prayer. Growing up as part of a strong Reform community in Madison, Wisconsin, Rabbi Berman was active in Jewish life from an early age. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s in archaeology and art history at Brown University, where she was also active in the Reform chavurah. She then worked for more than a decade at the Seattle Art Museum, researching the museum’s broad permanent collections and serving as curatorial lead for the collections of Ancient Mediterranean and Islamic Art. While in Seattle, she also developed and taught courses for children, teens, and adults in Jewish communal settings. She is a recipient of fellowships from ARZA, the UJA-Federation of New York, and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, as well as the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Tisch Fellowship. She is a docent at the Museum at Eldridge Street in New York City, and has worked with the Women’s Prison Association Hopper Home and Hour Children, organizations serving women transitioning from incarceration to independence. She served as rabbinic intern at Temple Sinai of Bergen County in New Jersey and Central Synagogue, and was a Tisch Intern at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York and its Streicker Center for public programming and community education.
Rabbi Janet Marder, a Los Angeles native, graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz and was ordained in 1979 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Following ordination, she pursued graduate studies in the Department of Comparative Literature at UCLA, specializing in Modern Hebrew and Yiddish. In 1983 she became the first ordained rabbi of Beth Chayim Chadashim, a Los Angeles synagogue with special outreach to lesbian and gay Jews. During her five years with that congregation, she founded NECHAMA, a Federation-funded program of AIDS education for the Jewish community. From 1988 to 1999 Rabbi Marder served the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, providing leadership and guidance to Reform synagogues in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas. In August, 1999 she became Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, CA. She has a special interest in creating meaningful, joyous and participatory worship services, and in helping to make Beth Am a warm and welcoming community. Rabbi Marder’s articles have appeared in Reform Judaism magazine, the Reconstructionist, Sh’ma and several anthologies. She was part of the core editorial team for Mishkan HaNefesh: Machzor for the Days of Awe and contributed to Divrei Mishkan HaNefesh: A Guide to the CCAR Machzor. She is also co-editor of Mishkan HaLev: Prayers for S'lichot and the Month of Elul, a companion prayerbook to Mishkan HaNefesh. She has served as President of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, the first woman and the first non-congregational rabbi to be elected to that office. In 2003, she became President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the national Reform rabbinic organization, the first woman to serve in that capacity in the CCAR’s 114-year history. Rabbi Marder is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, having recently completed a three year course of study through the institute. She is married to a colleague, Rabbi Sheldon Marder of the Jewish Home in San Francisco, and they are the parents of two daughters, Betsy and Rachel.
Rabbi Sheldon Marder earned a BA in English from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1971 and an MA in Hebrew Letters from the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institution of Religion in New York in 1975. He was ordained by HUC-JIR in 1978 and received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from HUC-JIR, Los Angeles, in 2003. In 2007, he completed a four-year curriculum of Jewish studies and graduated with the title of Senior Rabbinic Fellow from the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Israel. He is currently the Rabbi and Department Head of Jewish Life at the Jewish Home of San Francisco. Rabbi Marder is the co-editor, translator, writer, and commentator of
Mishkan HaNefesh: Machzor for the Days of Awe, published by CCAR Press in 2015, as well as the co-editor of
Mishkan HaLev: Prayers for S'lichot and the Month of Elul, a companion prayerbook to
Mishkan HaNefesh. He is also the contributor to other publications, such as
Divrei Mishkan HaNefesh: A Guide to the CCAR Machzor, published by CCAR Press in 2016; and
CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Summer 2013 issue. Rabbi Marder developed several programs of note at the Jewish Home of San Francisco, such as the Art as Therapy program: a weekly art program in which short-term psychiatric patients reflect on great works of art; and Torah Talk: a gathering in which people with Alzheimer’s and related diseases explore Torah, poetry, and art for personal spiritual meaning. He was honored as Mentor of the Year by the Association of Jewish Aging Services in 2008.
