Renana and Bob are thrilled to celebrate Temple Israel Center at this year’s Gala together with the community that has been central to their lives since they joined the synagogue 26 years ago. Moving from New York City as new parents, they soon met the people who would become their lifelong friends and experienced TIC’s thriving community life. Their children, Nathaniel and Anna, attended TIC’s nursery school and grew up coming to shul on Shabbat and holidays, making friends at youth services. Renana’s parents, Rabbi Joel and Sandy Meyers, are also members of TIC, having moved to the area and joined the synagogue about a decade before Renana and Bob. It has meant so much to Renana and Bob to be part of the TIC family, be close to extended family, and to have found many opportunities in which to actively engage. 

 

Early on, Renana became involved in the nursery school and Shabbat youth programming and later served on the Board. When her children were young, she noticed that the formality of High Holiday services made it difficult for families with young children to enjoy the service, leading her to help establish the Tent service, which continues to this day—now nearly 20 years old. Renana has served on the Executive Committee for 16 years in a variety of roles, including Recording Secretary, Financial Secretary, Vice President, and President (2022-2024). She co-chaired two Cantor Search Committees, helped lead TIC’s strategic planning initiative, and played a key role in reimagining the Milstein Sanctuary seating for the High Holidays—work that ultimately supported a successful restructuring of TIC's membership dues. She has read both Torah and Haftorah, and takes great pride in seeing the deep bench of readers across all ages. Renana also has a special interest in writing and editing, contributing to projects such as updating the TIC website, refreshing the Hadashot newsletter, and editing many of TIC’s communications over the years. She currently continues to serve on the Executive Committee as Immediate Past President, chairs the Personnel Committee, and remains involved in fundraising as well as helping to select speakers for the Rabbi Gordon Tucker Fund.

 

Renana grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts and Rockville, Maryland. After earning her BA from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MA in English Literature from NYU, she worked as a book editor at Random House and John Wiley & Sons. 

 

Bob was born and raised in Rocky Mount, North Carolina—a small town that had once had an active Jewish community in his grandfather’s time but, by his childhood, left Bob and his sister as the only Jewish children in town. For his Jewish education, his parents schlepped him to any Eastern North Carolina town that had a Rabbi (often they were student Rabbis rotating through). Despite the challenges, Bob always felt a deep connection to Judaism. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in Anthropology, he spent a year in Israel in a development town, where he became fluent in Hebrew. He then moved to New York City to attend Columbia Business School, where he received his MBA—and, for the first time, experienced living in a vibrant American Jewish community. His strong modern Hebrew foundation enabled him to begin studying Jewish texts with his friends from Columbia, a practice he continues today with a group of friends, most of whom are fellow members of Temple Israel Center. 

 

In addition to being a regular at Shabbat and holiday services, Bob has devoted substantial time to modernizing TIC’s cemetery records for Sharon Gardens, ensuring that all information is accurate and accessible. Among his other skills and talents, Bob is a wiz at Excel spreadsheets, having spent his career in finance, principally at Black Diamond Capital Management. 

 

Bob and Renana met when they were both at Columbia University. They were married at TIC in 1992, and lived in New York City until the birth of their first child. Their two children, Nathaniel and Anna, are now grown—Nathaniel, his wife, Devorah, and their daughter, Ruth, live in Netanya, Israel. Anna, is a senior at Barnard College of Columbia University. 

 

Renana and Bob are grateful to receive this honor and owe so much to their parents for being an inspiration to them and modeling their commitment to the Jewish people. 

 

Over their years as members of TIC, Renana and Bob have deeply valued the efforts of so many to build an active and engaged community. They treasure the many friends they have of all ages. And they are grateful to the clergy, devoted lay leaders and volunteers, and professional staff who are caring, provide inspiration, and encourage experimentation and innovation. They are so pleased to share this honor with Jill and Jonathan Bohrer and look forward to their leadership for years to come!