Our 2025-26 Board of Directors
In July 2024, Shtetl 2.0™ became a "Service Group" of Mt. Airy Community Services Corporation ("MACSC"), a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation. Subject to the ultimate authority of the Board of Directors of MACSC, Shtetl 2.0™ is directed by a self-selecting Board of Directors.
Shtetl 2.0™ is guided by the six- to fifteen-member Board, including an Executive Committee that will include a Chair, one or more Vice Chairs, a Treasurer and a Secretary. Starting in the first year, approximately one third of the members will serve 1-year terms; one-third will serve 2-year-terms; and one-third will serve three-years terms, to set up a rotation. Subsequent terms will be three years each, to a maximum of six consecutive years.
A three-person Nominating Committee, created by the 2023-2024 Planning Team*, began seeking diverse Board Members beginning in June 2024, and is still seeking to expand the Board, below.
Meet our Board Members
Kathryn Borgenicht is a recent transplant to Philadelphia from Montana. She grew up outside New York City, then moved to SF and Montana and is now back to her east coast roots. She is a retired geriatrician and palliative medicine physician. She has had extensive experience with developing programs and was responsible for setting up a Palliative Care Program at Bozeman Hospital. She also was medical director of a hospice for 20 years. In her work with palliative medicine, she emphasized symptom management and communication with other doctors and patients. For 30 years, she has taken care of patients living with dementia, helping them and their families understand the uniqueness of this disease. She has always been active in every community she has lived in. Part of her establishing her roots here is being active in Shtetl 2.0, especially as it addresses aging in place. She is also an abstract artist who finds great joy in just painting. In her extra time, she walks the Wissahickon with her dog Lula, takes care of her grandchild, and works out regularly.
Sherri Cohen returned to Philadelphia six years ago, after 30 years in New York, Connecticut and California. She was attracted to Mt Airy for its strong community, proximity to the Wissahickon, as well as being closer to her family. Professionally, Sherri is a Leadership Coach, Organization Development Consultant and Meeting Facilitator with over twenty-five years of experience designing workplace solutions that positively impact people as well as business performance. She has extensive expertise coaching leaders, from emerging managers to senior executives. She focuses on effecting behavior change through greater self-awareness, discovery and learning through practice. Sherri has worked in a variety of industries including Non-Profit, Technology, Consumer Products, Publishing and Consulting. In her free time, she loves to walk the neighborhood with her dog Jesse and to travel, most recently to France and Italy. She is a life-long learner and currently enrolled in a year-long coaching program focused on positive intelligence. She is passionate about creatively thinking about positive aging, and is excited to contribute to Shtetl 2.0™ and our Mt Airy community.
Meryl Crean, Treasurer, is a Reconstructionist Rabbi (Reconstructionist Rabbinical College 1996) and a certified Chaplain (Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains) serving elders at a Senior Living Community near Philadelphia, PA. She is a member of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, the NAJC, the Philadelphia Board of Rabbis, and the Rabbinic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace. Meryl also holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MSE in Systems Engineering from Penn Engineering. Before rabbinical school, Meryl worked at Morgan Stanley in New York City. She is currently serving on the board of the Rabbis and Cantors Retirement Plan as Treasurer. She is also a board member of Christian-Jewish Allies Working for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine. She has two grown children and two young grandchildren living in Mt. Airy. [Photo of Kai and his grandmother, courtesy of Meryl]
Karen Forman has been a resident of Mt Airy since 1987. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, she moved to Philadelphia in 1981 to attend law school. Karen has been a member of Folkshul since 1993, where she taught migration of the Jewish people, focusing on immigration to the US and the labor movement. She served as the teacher representative to the Board when her two children (now adults) attended Sunday school. Karen has spent the majority of her career as public interest lawyer and served on the boards of Community Legal Services, Philadelphia Legal Assistance, and the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project. Now, as an attorney for the City of Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, she works to enforce the City’s civil rights laws. Karen brings a deep understanding of how community infrastructure impacts its residents and looks forward to helping launch and build Shtetl 2.0™. [Photo courtest of Karen]
Josh Goldblum has been an active leader of Germantown Jewish Centre, serving as president, officer, and board member for many years. He has also served as a Board Member of A Woman's Place, the domestic violence program in Bucks County for over twenty-five years. Recently, Josh was named as a Board Member of Childspace, the day care program that provides support for children in Mt. Airy and Germantown. Josh has retired as an attorney. He had his own practice for over thirty years in Bucks County and more recently, served as a managing attorney for Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania. In his law practice, Josh specialized in representing individuals in bankruptcy, landlord-tenant issues, and family matters. Josh is looking forward to many more years as an active participant as Board Member of Shtetl 2.0™. [Photo courtesy of Josh]
David Rosenberg, Secretary, is a nonprofit executive and geriatric care manager with over 25 years of experience in the field of aging, focusing on program development, implementation and evaluation, as well as working with seniors and their loved ones and caregivers to develop care plans and advocate for them in home and residential settings. David is currently a Care Manager for Kith Elder Care. Prior to that, David focused his career working for aging service nonprofit organizations, including Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Philadelphia and the Wilf Campus for Senior Living. He has secured multiple grants to help older adults safely age in their communities, including the collaborative Rhawnhurst NORC program, a federal NORC demonstration project grant, and multiple grants to provide trauma-informed care for Holocaust Survivors and other older adults affected by trauma. [Photo courtesy of David]
David Thalheimer was raised in the Philadelphia suburbs and has lived in Mt Airy since 1988. He is an attorney specializing in representing families of special needs students in educational matters. He has served on the Boards of multiple nonprofits and community associations. David and his wife Brigitte, who was raised in France and Israel, are long-time members of the Germantown Jewish Centre, where Brigitte can be found volunteering at the Little Shop and David recently led a successful campaign to install solar cells on the roof of the school building. They have twin daughters, one living in London and the other in Society Hill. David is a dedicated gardener and cross-country bicycle rider. He also enjoys frequent hikes in the Wissahickon with his dog Uma. [Photo courtesy of David]
Rivkah Walton, Chair, moved to Mt Airy in 1978, attracted by the vibrant progressive Jewish community and an opportunity to attend Tyler School of Art to create Jewish ceremonial art. Having spent a formative year as a volunteer at Koinonia, a Liberation Theology community in southern Georgia, she has an abiding interest in both intentional community and Tikkun Olam (healing the world). Rivkah has been instrumental in building community in the GJC Minyan, National Havurah, and Jewish Renewal movements since 1978. She been a program and project director for diverse progressive Jewish and interfaith organizations, including the Institute for Contemporary Midrash, which she founded in 1995 - and where she trained hundreds of participants in the improvisational art of Bibliodrama. She recently was the Administrator of Northwest Village Network (NVN), another local senior Village, and was a member of the Shtetl 2.0™ Planning Team in 2023-24. When not applying her creative problem-solving skills to building Shtetl 2.0™, she indulges her introverted side with long walks in the Wissahickon, a camera in hand. [Photo by Sharon Gershoni]
