Board of Directors

Nicki Weiss and her husband Mike Fox have been members of the DJC, off and on, over the past 20 years.  As longtime Riverdale residents, we feel it is important to be part of our local Jewish community.  Since our family’s sabbatical to Jerusalem in 2000, we enjoy attending shul regularly & celebrating Jewish holidays.  Nicki is a member and currently co-chair of DJC’s Membership Engagement Committee.  Nicki and Mike are both active volunteers and participants in the broader Toronto Jewish community, including the Downtown Jewish Day School, UJA, Toronto Jewish Film Society, and the MNJCC. Professionally, Nicki is the Founder and President of SalesWise, a training and coaching company dedicated to helping business leaders and their teams become more functional to achieve the results they’re looking for.  She brings this “tribal leadership” perspective to the DJC Board.  In her spare time, Nicki is a beekeeper, an avid walker, kayaker and general fitness devotee, bridge and Maj Jong player, and traveler.

Kathy Glazier joined the DJC fifteen years ago. She feels very much at home with its egalitarianism and inclusive values and is uplifted by the music and meaningfulness of the services. On the DJC’s Social Justice Committee for two and a half years, Kathy has been integrally involved with our sponsorship of a Syrian refugee family as Project Lead.  She is also part of the DJC’s Threads Project which created the Yahrzeit tapestry.

Now retired from the Ontario Public Service, she worked in areas such as employment equity, disability issues, domestic violence and services for at-risk youth. In her early career, she was an occupational therapist and worked in international development education. Kathy has volunteered actively in front-line and policy roles with non-profit agencies, including six years on the Board of Family Service Toronto, where she served as Vice-President and chaired the agency’s Access and Equity and Social Action Committees.

Kathy is step-mom to her partner Max’s five daughters and loves to spend time with her seven grandchildren. She belongs to two book clubs, enjoys travelling, is learning Spanish and dabbles in painting.

Sarah first joined the DJC in 1996, as a teacher with the brand new Jewish Studies program.  She and her husband Bob have been members for 15 years, and first joined while living in Riverdale. They moved to the west end just in time to enroll their children in the east end DJC Jewish Studies program on Thursday afternoons, during rush hour.  They’ve made the cross-town journey (almost) every Thursday since, and their son Elijah joyfully became a Bar Mitzvah as part of the Bnei Mitzvah program.

Sarah loves the DJC for its warmth, inclusiveness and persistent curiosity.  She’s been involved in several committees over the years, and is committed to supporting the growth of this welcoming, progressive Jewish community.

Professionally, Sarah runs a training company focused on helping leaders and employees make powerful connections through inclusive communication. In her spare time, she loves theatre, potato chips and early morning running.

Marlene and her husband live in Riverdale and have been members of the DJC since 1997. Both their daughters attended the DJC Children’s Jewish Studies Program and participated in the B’nei Mitzvah Program.

Marlene has a graduate degree in Community Nutrition and over 27 years of working experience as a program and project manager in cancer prevention, working in collaboration with clinical and community partners with a focus on reaching populations that are disadvantaged.  She is honored to assist the board in serving the DJC community.

Juliet and her husband James Rolfe have been members of the DJC since 2014, when their daughter Miriam joined the B’nei Mitzvah program. As an intercultural family they value the deeply inclusive spirit of the DJC and feel blessed to have found a welcoming and progressive spiritual home. They’ve been grateful for community support as they deepen their Jewish learning and for the creativity and curiosity that underpins the DJC.

Juliet was raised in New Zealand, Singapore and the UK. Before moving to Canada in 1998, she lived and studied in the New York area for seven years. Juliet is a composer and interdisciplinary artist whose work spans music, dance, theatre, video and architecture. Reaching beyond boundaries is intrinsic to her work in the wider community as mentor, facilitator, educator, gardener, artist and volunteer. When it’s not raining, she loves the bicycle ride to the DJC from her home in The Junction and enjoys wintertime skiing in the city’s ravines and river valleys.

Diane Swartz has been a member of the DJC for over 20 years. Her children attended the DJC’s Jewish Studies program, beginning in kindergarten and staying through the B’nei Mitzvah program. During that time, Diane was an active member of the DJC Education Committee.

Raised in British Columbia, Diane grew up attending Habonim Dror’s Camp Miriam, where she learned to appreciate the many links between Judaism and egalitarian values.

She has lived in Toronto since 1987, except for two years doing an MA in feminist philosophy at Dalhousie University. Diane has been a high school teacher in the Toronto District School Board for 24 years and now works as the department head of Special Education at Victoria Park Collegiate Institute.

Diane enjoys yoga, hiking, weightlifting and ocean beachcombing.

Rob has been a member of the DJC for about 13 years, and during that time has been joined by his wife Jill and their two children Ben and Charlotte, who are both students in the DJC Jewish Studies program. Rob started attending High Holiday services at the DJC after moving back to Toronto in 2002 and wanting to find a progressive Jewish community close to his family’s home in the Beaches. After starting the kids in the Jewish studies program about 5 years ago, Rob joined the Education Committee. Last year, he was recruited to the Fundraising Committee, and continues to serve on both.

Professionally, Rob has spent most of his career in a variety of roles within the pharmaceutical industry, primarily sales, sales management, training and marketing. In recent years, he has gained a much closer than desired view of the gig economy, doing sales effectiveness consulting within pharma and also teaching part time for the Centre for Business at George Brown College. The upside of inconsistent work has been an opportunity to get involved in various volunteer activities, including the DJC, Charlotte’s school’s parent council, where Rob is treasurer, and an organization that was set up to provide handsewn cloth facemasks to people in need during COVID. Rob is looking forward to contributing his skills to the ongoing success of the DJC.

Eli Fellman, his spouse Liz Scanlon and their two sons, Isaac and Sam, have been DJC members for over 10 years. Both Sam and Isaac participated in the DJC Education Program from kindergarten onwards and recently had wonderful Bar Mitzvahs through the B’nei Mitzvah program at the DJC. Eli and Liz were delighted to learn about the DJC shortly after they moved into the Danforth area and appreciate the DJC’s progressive values and embrace of interfaith families.

Professionally, Eli is a lawyer with the Ontario Government and practices in the areas of administrative, landlord-tenant and human rights law. Eli has also served as an adjudicator on several different tribunals. Eli’s prior volunteer experience includes serving on the Board of Directors of a not-for-profit organization that provides translation services and on the research ethics board at a major hospital network. When not working, Eli enjoys attending theatre and cooking, especially using his smoker.

He looks forward to giving more back to the community that has given him so much joy and inclusive Yiddishkeit for the last 22 years.

Deborah’s draw to The DJC was her desire for an inclusive, diverse and welcoming Jewish community. This became ever more important as her interfaith and interracial family grew to include her partner Tim McNab and two kids, Isaac and Jonah. The DJC has come to be an important anchor of community and support for Deborah and her family who have been members for approximately 10 years. She has been involved as a volunteer on the Social Justice Committee where she helped welcome and settle the Mohammed family in Canada, the Family Committee where she helped organize events to bring families with young children together, as well as at a variety of other DJC events. Her eldest son, Isaac, completed the B’nei Mitzvah Program in 2020 and continues to be a member of the teen group and volunteer in the Jewish Studies Program. Her youngest, Jonah, will become Bar Mitzvah with The DJC in 2023. 

Deborah and her family have been grateful for the incredible support from Rabbi Miriam and the B’nei Mitzvah team when it mattered most. At this transitional moment for the DJC, she sees sitting on the Board as an opportunity to contribute to strengthening and shaping its future.

Deborah has a background in adult education and a Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy. She has over 25 years of working experience as a program manager and clinical occupational therapist. She currently works for Sunnybrook Health Sciences providing collaborative leadership and clinical care. 

Saara Greene has been a member of the Danforth Jewish Circle since 2003.  Her children, Sam and Rebecca, have been faithful students of the DJC Jewish Studies program and the DJC B’nei Mitzvah program. During this time, Saara was a member of the Education Committee starting in 2006, taking on the role of chair from 2007-2017. As a youth and young adult, Saara sang with the Chai Folk Ensemble based in Winnipeg and feels very lucky that her love of Jewish music continues to be fulfilled through her participation in the DJC choir, which she has been a part of since 2009. Her favourite DJC activity is the annual Earth Hour Havdalah service and coffee house.

In her professional life, Saara is a Professor in the School of Social Work at McMaster University where she teaches in the areas of Feminist Approaches to Social Work and Social Justice and Community Based Practice and Research. Her research focuses on the health and social care needs of women identified individuals who experience marginalization along multiple axes of identity with specific attention to women living with HIV and women who consume cannabis. In partnership with the communities and women that she works with, Saara engages in arts-based approaches to research, education, knowledge mobilization and advocacy.

Daniel and his wife Jessica recently moved to East York from midtown along with their two kids, Levi and Micah. Looking for an inclusive and approachable congregation where they could meet friends, Dan and Jess joined the DJC and enrolled Levi in the Jewish Studies Program immediately. Dan holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is currently the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Hillel Ontario where he manages the finances and operations of the head office as well as the nine campuses that fall under the Ontario banner. Prior to his time at Hillel, he lived in New York City with his wife where he gained experience managing startup and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) software
companies as they scaled. Most recently, Dan was the Founder and CEO of Bald Baker, a sugar-conscious treats company in Toronto. He brings considerable finance and operations expertise from this background in the private and not-for-profit sectors and looks forward to leveraging his
background while working with the Board to usher in the next chapter in the DJC’s story. If the stars align and the opportunity presents itself, Dan enjoys a well-aged, single malt scotch, poured neat, and preferably with a good friend.