Congregation Sulam Yaakov Appoints Congregational Program Director

The below is user-generated content submitted by Elisa Frankel at the Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont.

is pleased to announce that Glenna Lee is joining the synagogue as congregational program director and future principal of its religious school, slated to open in the Fall of 2013.

Lee will be working with members of the Congregation from ages 1-100, creating stimulating programs for adults, families and children. Based on the expressed interest of members of Congregation Sulam Yaakov to always retain a sense of community, Lee will find ways to bring the whole community together for learning, where people of all ages can learn together and bring joy to their lives, Jewishly.

Lee was born and raised in Larchmont, attending and working as a Counselor-in-Training and counselor at Westchester Summer Day. She graduated from Haverford College with a degree in anthropology and Jewish Studies. It was during her time at Haverford, when she studied abroad in England and France and traveled throughout Europe that she kept seeking out every Jewish community she could find.

As one woman from Mexico City told her on a Shabbat in Venice, finding a Jewish community abroad is like "home in your hand." After this experience, Lee knew that she wanted to pursue an actively Jewish life personally and professionally. She spent her last summer of college working at the Union for Reform Judaism's Eisner camp in Massachusetts, using her time there as a field worker to write her college anthropology thesis on creating a strong Jewish identity amongst Jewish youth. It was at Eisner that Lee first discovered prayer with music and how spiritually satisfying that could be. After that, she was hooked.

She then went on to become a Day School Leadership through Teaching (DeLeT) fellow, learning to teach in a Jewish day school setting and ultimately receiving her Master’s in education from the William Davidson School of Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. 

She taught first through fifth grades at both the Rashi School in Newton, MA and the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan. Lee served as the interim director of education at Congregation Habonim in NYC, as well as having taught religious school and volunteered as the editor of their newsletter.

Lee currently lives in Larchmont with her husband and two young children who are looking forward to participating in the soon-to-be-instated Religious School.

Please come meet Lee at the congregation dinner following Congregation Sulam Yaakov’s Kabbalat Shabbat this Friday, May 18th at 6:30 p.m. Please RSVP!