HFL Leadership

Amy Krulik is the Executive Director of Main Line Reform Temple in Wynnewood, PA.  Prior to that, Amy was CEO of Kaiserman JCC. Amy began her career in the Philadelphia Jewish community as the Director of Communications and Cultural Arts Programs at Kaiserman. She then moved on to become the Membership Director and then the Site Director before moving from Kaiserman to the then JCCs’ central office as VP of Marketing for the JCCs of Greater Philadelphia. From 2007-2016, she was the Executive Director of the Jewish Relief Agency, the largest hunger relief agency supporting the Philadelphia Jewish community. Amy is known as an enterprising organizational leader with a proven ability in program and fiscal management, board and community engagement, fund development and strategic marketing. Her particular strengths include a commitment to best practices that foster sustainable programs and resource development, leading organizations through periods of transition, and creating a common vision that ensures viability and mission fulfillment for the future.

Amy holds a Masters in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Government and English from Hamilton College. When she’s not putting her OSHA forklift operator’s license to good use, Amy serves on the board of Healthy NewsWorks, a student journalism program for elementary and middle school aged students. Amy lives in Philadelphia with her husband Jeff and has two daughters who share her commitment to community engagement.

Marshal Granor has many job titles and licenses, all surrounding his love of real estate transactions. With his father, Bernard, Marshal practices law, concentrating in the areas of condominium and community association law, real estate residential and commercial sales and leasing. He was a principal author of Pennsylvania’s Uniform Planned Community Act, and is a member of the Montgomery, Pennsylvania and American Bar Associations, serving as Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Section on Real Property, Probate and Trust Law. In addition, he holds Pennsylvania and New Jersey licenses as a real estate broker and title insurance agent, as well as being a Pennsylvania licensed real estate instructor.

Marshal frequently teaches continuing education courses for attorneys, real estate agents, community association professionals and title insurance agents, and is an adjunct professor of law at Manor College.

Along with his wife, Tamar, Marshal is co-president of the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia, which was founded in 1984 by his parents, Marie and Bernard Granor. Marshal is proud to follow in the family tradition of giving back to the community, being able to help people needing temporary financial assistance.

Tamar E. Granor is the owner of Tomorrow’s Solutions, LLC, a software development company that specializes in database applications. She is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, and hundreds of magazine articles. She is also the technical editor of two books, and served as Editor/Technical Editor of the magazine, FoxPro Advisor, for more than a decade. Together with two partners, she organizes an annual conference for Visual FoxPro developers. She has spoken about software development throughout North America and Europe.

Tamar is a lifelong community volunteer. Her experiences include serving as co-President of the Cheltenham United Parents Group, the Cheltenham High School Parent Teacher Organization, and the Beth Sholom Young Marrieds. She was a trained Nursing Mothers Counselor. She served on the board of the Old York Road Little League for many years. For her volunteer efforts in her professional community, she received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award annually for 15 years and in 2007, received the Visual FoxPro Community Lifetime Achievement Award. Serving as co-president of the Hebrew Free Loan Society allowed her to combine her commitment to social justice with her professional expertise, as she helped HFL improve its uses of technology.

Tamar and her husband, Marshal, are longtime residents of Elkins Park, and members of Beth Sholom Congregation. They have two adult sons.

Jess Slutsky is Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the Digital Assurance & Transparency practice.  She is a self-starter with a demonstrated history of leading teams in consulting and assurance engagements over companies’ business and IT processes and controls. Jess is also an XBRL subject matter expert helping companies improve the quality and usability of their XBRL financial reports. Jess particularly enjoys finding creative, technology-driven solutions to problems and is a key individual in the firm’s digital strategy.

Jess was born in Moscow, lived in Israel, and currently lives in the Philadelphia area with his family. Jess enjoys cooking, baking, and playing with her three children.

Jess joined the board in January 2021 and is serving on the Finance committee.

Justin Bell is a Managing Director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, one of the world’s leading commercial real estate advisory firms, where he handles office and industrial landlord and tenant representation as well as end – user sales, relocations, expansions, lease renewals, lease diagnostics, broker opinion of values and financial analysis. A graduate of Upper Dublin High School, he has a degree in Finance from the University of Maryland.

Justin lives in North Wales with his wife, Lauren and their daughter, Charlotte.

Arik works as a Realtor and is a member of The Haupt Team at Elfant Wissahickon Realtors. Growing up in Southern California, he moved to Philadelphia to attend Swarthmore College. After gaining experience in an array of fields, Arik earned his JD at Temple University Beasley School of Law.

As a licensed attorney and real estate agent, Arik focuses his professional and volunteer efforts on supporting the growth and resilience of the community throughout Philadelphia.

Doug Leavitt is a partner at Danziger, Shapiro & Leavitt, P.C., with more than 20 years’ experience guiding businesses through all aspects of corporate life, including company formation, acquisition, divestiture, contract negotiation, litigation, bankruptcy, and other forms of business dissolution. He blogs regularly at http://www.philadelphiabusinesslawyerblog.com/, providing guidance for both clients and other business lawyers.

After growing up in Yardley, PA, and attending University of Rochester, Syracuse Law School, and Georgetown Law, Doug began his legal career at a small Philadelphia firm before moving on to the Philadelphia offices of Saul Ewing and Pepper Hamilton. By the time he joined Danziger, Shapiro & Leavitt in 2003 he had become adept in the handling of sophisticated business transactions and litigation.

Doug is married, and the father of three. He is active in a number of local charities and organizations, including offering free legal services to all of Horsham, Pennsylvania’s police officers and their families, as well as coaching his children’s various athletic teams. He is a member of Congregation Beth Or and serves on its legal steering committee and also serves as one of the congregation’s representatives on the Hebrew Free Loan board.

Bara comes from a background in EdTech and currently works as an Onboarding Customer Success Manager at Verbit, an Israeli company focused on media accessibility. In her role she guides leadership from college, universities, non-profit organizations and corporations in providing more accessible content to their stakeholders.

Since moving to Philadelphia in late 2019 she has jumped into involvement with the community including serving as a volunteer tax preparer, completing the Leadership Development Program with Federation and as a soon-to-be zoning committee member for her local civic association.

Bara lives in South Philadelphia.

Harold F. Marcus recently retired after a 40+ year career with Development Corporation for Israel/ Israel Bonds serving for 30 years as a registered representative in the Pittsburgh office before being promoted to the position of Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Region in 2011 which brought him to Philadelphia. During Harold’s tenure, the region more than doubled its annual sales of Israel Bonds.

In Pittsburgh, Harold also was a 45-yr member of the professional faculty of Temple Sinai Religious School where he taught Judaic Studies to 6th, 7th and 9th grades. At the age of 23, he was the youngest person to be elected to the Temple Sinai Board of Trustees. The congregation honored him for his years of service and ZOA honored him for his service to the State of Israel. He also served as Vice President and Development Chair of Heritage Community Initiatives, a community foundation in Braddock, PA dedicated to improving the lives of those living in the Mon Valley.

Harold and his wife, Maureen, married in August 2011 the day before they permanently moved to Philadelphia. They have 4 children and 6 grandchildren. They are members of Old York Road Temple- Beth Am where Harold serves as Co-Chair of the Israel Connections Committee.

A native of the Washington, DC area, Mindy Muchnick Oppenheimer completed her undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and her MBA at UCLA. After working on Wall Street and in private enterprise, she currently operates her own consulting firm, Oppenheimer Resources Inc., and has a long-term working relationship with Maguire & Partners Property Group, where she performs due diligence for new acquisition opportunities while managing all aspects of marketing their commercial real estate portfolio.

Mindy lives in Wynnewood with her husband David Oppenheimer, and is the proud mother of Natalie, Jenna and Rachel. An active member of Hadassah, Mindy has served as a Group President, Education Day Chair and Philadelphia Board Member. She is also active in the HUP Chaplaincy/JFCS challah delivery program.

Martin Roffman is Visiting Assistant / Adjunct Professor of Business Intelligence at St Joseph’s University, Haub School of Business. He is a people-oriented professional with a track record of increasing corporate profitability by applying strategic planning and optimization tools to grow revenues while reducing risk. He has served as visiting assistant professor, program manager (JP Morgan Chase), project manager, and hands-on senior analyst in financial services, transportation (Conrail and USAirways), and manufacturing industries (Merck & Company and US Army). He has a strong interest in improving operations in marketing, risk/fraud, sales, revenue management, and information systems.

Martin has served in various board positions at Bustleton Somerton Synagogue in Philadelphia, including president of the congregation. He developed a program for adult torah reading in the Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, PA., chavurah. He staffed technical educational positions (Computers, Astronomy, Amateur Radio) at Camp Ramah in the Poconos.

As a board member of Philadelphia Hebrew Free Loan Society, Martin has provided analyses of current HFL operations as well as strategic plans for improving future effectiveness of the organization. He has also applied his background of commercial loan practices obtained at a major multinational commercial bank to improve loan policies for the HFL.

Evan Segal is President and CEO of Segal Financial, LLC, a commercial loan advisory firm located in Blue Bell, PA. Segal Financial consults and arranges financing for business owners and real estate investor throughout the region.

Evan is board chair of Federation Early Learning Services (FELS), a non-profit early childhood education organization; board trustee and treasurer of Congregation Beth Or; and board member of Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia.

Evan’s personal interests include spending time with his family, sports, music, and vising the Jersey Shore.  He currently lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his wife and two children.

Neil Shupak retired from the industrial real estate business in December 2019 after working as a broker his entire career. He started with Lanard & Axilbund in 1975 and spent 25 years with Zalesne & Herd Realtors. He was with Newmark Knight Frank/Smith Mack since 1998. Neil is well versed in all facets of commercial and industrial sales and leasing – he has sold or leased over 20,000,000 square feet of space with an aggregate value in excess of $1 billion. Neil was Newmark Knight Frank Smith Mack’s Broker of the Year in 2006, 2007 and 2011. Neil served on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Board of Realtors and as Chairman of the Commercial & Industrial Division. He is also a charter member of the Tri State Realtors Commercial Alliance.

Neil is a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area and an active member of the Jewish community. Born in Philadelphia in 1952, he grew up in Abington Township. He graduated from Abington High School and attended Montgomery County Community College and successfully completed Temple University’s Real Estate Institute. Neil is a an active lifelong member of Beth Sholom Congregation. He was a Bar-Mitzvah there in 1965, married there in 1975 and his three children had their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and were confirmed at Beth Sholom. Neil has served on Beth Board of Directors and as President of the Men’s Club. His wife, Helen, is a past President of the Sisterhood and they served as presidents of the two auxiliaries at the same time, only the second husband and wife in the history of Beth Sholom to have served as presidents of the Men’s Club and Sisterhood simultaneously.

Neil has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2004. He and Helen reside in center city Philadelphia and have three married children and five grandchildren.

Steven Stone is an attorney in private practice in Montgomery County, PA. He has a wide range of experience in banking, finance and transactional matters, having served as an attorney in the banking department of White and Williams, LLP, as Vice President & Resident Counsel of Provident National Bank (now PNC Bank), as Vice President-General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of Blue Cross of Greater Philadelphia (now Independence Blue Cross), and as Senior Vice President & General Counsel of Advanta Mortgage Corp USA.

Steve is a honors graduate of both the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is a member, Trustee and Past President of Congregation Beth Or, Maple Glen, PA. Steve is also Chairman of the Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission and a member of the Upper Dublin Open Space Advisory Group.

After Law School and military service as a Captain in the US Army Finance Corps, Steve moved to Center City, Philadelphia where he became a Director and President of the Washington Square West Project Area Committee, Director and Vice President of the Washington Square West Civic Association, Chair of the Seger Recreation Center Advisory Council, President of the Washington Square Homeowner’s Association, Secretary of the Washington Mews Condominium Council, a founder and Director of Washington Square West Parkers, Inc, Director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children & Youth, and a member of the Committee of Seventy.

Steve formerly served as Vice-Chair of the Upper Dublin Township Civil Service Commission, a Board Member of the Bux-Mont Jewish Federation and the Bux-Mont JCC WithOut Walls, and a member of the Upper Dublin School District’s Policy Review Committee. He has received a number of awards, including membership in the Order of the Coif (Honorary Legal Society), Omicron Delta Epsilon (Honorary Economics Society), and a Community Service Recognition Citation from the Philadelphia City Council. He is particularly proud of his selection as Man of the Year by Beth Or’s Brotherhood in 1999.

In December, 2013, Steve was appointed by Congregation Beth Or to serve as one of its two representatives to work with the newly-formed Business Loan Committee of the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia, in the oversight, management and administration of the initial and subsequent contributions from time to time made to the R&B Business Loan Fund. He is a resident of Upper Dublin Township.

Max Tabak is a Vice President of Commercial Banking Division at Fulton Bank. Fulton Bank is a regional bank located in the mid-Atlantic region with $19 Billion in assets. Max possess over twenty years of experience in commercial and retail banking with a successful background in sales management, risk management, commercial credit, financial planning, and portfolio management. Besides the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia, he also serves on the board of Russian-Speaking Professionals Network and is involved in The Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia and The Enterprise Center, as well as, wide variety of civic and charitable organizations in the Philadelphia area. Max resides in Collingswood, New Jersey with his spouse and child. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with concentration in Risk Management and Human Resource Administration from Temple University.

Ted Tapper is a semi-retired pediatrician as well as a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Jefferson Medical College. He is a recipient of multiple awards, including the “Dean’s Award for Excellence in Education from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Medical College. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School, he has served on a variety of committees aimed at improving medical care.

Rob Van Naarden began his technology career after earning bachelor degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering as well as masters degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. While enrolled in a PhD program in Electrical Engineering with specialization in Magneto-HydroDynamics, he was offered a position with Digital Equipment Corp. to design defense critical systems computers. He was on the original design team of the PDP 11 introduced in January of 1970 and holds patents for its major subsystems. The PDP 11 became the world’s most successful mini-computer. At this same time Rob was asked to become a guest lecturer at MIT at the graduate school level teaching Computer Architecture.

After migrating through various engineering and engineering management roles, he originated the idea to design and bring to market the world’s first microcomputer (the PDP 16) based partially on the successful PDP 11 design. He grew to be the youngest Profit and Loss Group Manager at Digital as well as managing its fastest growing business with all facets of the business (engineering, manufacturing, finance, marketing and sales) reporting to him. Having grown it to be profitable business he asked corporate management to allow him to take a role in the field sales organization as an experiment to find out why DEC had been so successful in every engineering and manufacturing organization but was still struggling in the “glass house” against one of its key competitors, IBM.

After a two year experiment in the Philadelphia area (then the largest concentration of Fortune 100 in the US), the experiment proved so successful that the learning experience was converted into a new training course for all new DEC sales people worldwide. While in Philadelphia he enrolled in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for an Executive MBA sponsored by Digital.

In 1979 he joined one of his former managers at Digital and based on an idea formulated on a paper napkin started a company called Convergent Technologies. CT became the fastest growing company in the computer industry and the darling of Wall Street upon its IPO in 1984. In 6 years sales grew from a cold start to $673M in annual revenues. In 1987 the company was purchased by Unisys then its largest customer.

Rob and his partner at Convergent once again started another company called Ardent Computer focused on the single user supercomputer space. After 4 years the company merged with its principal competitor Stellar Computer to form Stardent Computer. Two years later at Rob’s direction the company was sold by splitting it up into its four components/divisions.

Rob moved on to start and fix a variety of other companies always in executive management roles: Supermac, Firepower, Netframe, AMT, Sensar and Authentidate (where he started the company as its founder and CEO) always achieving improved value for its investors and shareholders. In 2004 Rob took a twist by taking his hi-tech business experience and applied it in an entirely different industry when he became CEO of Empire Kosher Poultry, Inc. When he arrived at Empire it was a distressed company very close to having its doors closed by the bankers and not having made a profit in 7 years. Rob was able to turn it into a profitable and growing company in 9 months while learning an entirely new business. After two years and having put Empire on an impressive growth path and profitability he decided to return to his roots in technology.

Rob currently serves on the boards of several technology companies as well as being an early stage investor while playing an active role with an emerging enterprise software company that is solving the problem of the threat of insider abuse and the potential leakage of critical data and intellectual property to outside the organization. This is global problem facing every company.
Rob continues to keep his hands in a set of diversified businesses including a feature film project currently in development.

Rob, a long-time member of Beth Sholom Congregation, joined the Board of Directors of the Hebrew Free Loan Society in 2010.

Philip Witman is a Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at GlaxoSmithKline, with a specialization in oncology and biopharmaceutical products. His career in the pharmaceutical/biopharmaceutical industry includes more than 29 years of clinical and regulatory experience in managing investigational and marketed products. In the past five years, he has led the regulatory activities that resulted in the approval of two new treatments for cancer in the US.

Besides the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia, he is an active fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and Livestrong. He and his wife are proud members of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park.

While a college and graduate student, the Hebrew Free Loan Society in Northern New Jersey provided Philip with interest-free loans that helped pay for his tuition. He was extremely fortunate that this program existed and became a donor once the repayments had been completed. When he learned of the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia, it was easy for him to volunteer to help provide other interest-free loans to those who could benefit from the assistance. As part of the HFLS, he has served as secretary and assisted with the issuance of loans.

Neil Gorchow was born in Sioux City, Iowa and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After receiving a degree in Business Administration from the University of Iowa, he returned to Sioux City to join his family business. While there, he served as a chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, as Commander of the Jewish War Vets, and as a member of the board of the Sioux City Federation.

Neil married the former Roslyn Wein in 1955, and in 1956, the couple moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where Neil began his career with Sperry Univac as a Software Systems Analyst. After assignments in Dayton, OH, and Washington, DC, in 1965, Neil was promoted to Vice President of the Systems Programming Division in Blue Bell, PA. While at Univac, Neil participated in developing software for NASA’s Gemini Space Program and attended as a guest NASA’s first night shuttle flight into space.

With the move to the Philadelphia area, the family joined Beth Sholom Congregation. Neil chaired several committees before serving as Congregational President from 1981 to 1984. He also served as co-Treasurer of Solomon Schechter and, along with Roslyn, was honored by Israel Bonds at Beth Sholom.

Neil is a founding board member of the Hebrew Free Loan Society, where he has often helped with granting loans. He has also served on the Advisory Board of Temple University’s Graduate School of Business.Neil also served as a member of the United States’ Emergency Management Agency from 1971 to 1986.

Neil and Roslyn have four married children and are the proud grandparents of 12.

Bernard Granor is the immediate past president of the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia and a past president of the International Association of Hebrew Free Loans. In 1984 along with Aaron Landes, then Rabbi of Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, his wife Marie Granor and other senior members of the Synagogue, he founded the Hebrew Free Loan Society. The group initially raised over $60,000 from a gathering at the home of Leonard and Madlyn Abramson.

Bernard is an Attorney, Realtor, and Home Builder. Since 1970 under the name of Granor Price Homes, over 4500 homes were built in the Greater Delaware Valley. He has been President of the North West Chapter of the Philadelphia Board of Realtors and President of the Home Builders Association of Bucks and Montgomery Counties. He taught Real Estate related courses in the evening school (Ogontz Campus) of the Pennsylvania State University from 1972 to 1982

Bernard was President of the West Oak lane Jewish Community Center from 1970 to 1972 and helped to arrange the merger with Beth Sholom Congregation in 1980, where he is a life member of the Board of Directors. He received the Man of the Year award from the Men’s Club of the West Oak Lane Jewish Community Center. For his Synagogue-related services, he was inducted into the Legion of Honor of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains in 1971. In 2010 Bernard and Marie were honored by the Men’s Club of Beth Sholom Congregation as Humanitarians of the Year for their work with the Hebrew Free Loan Society.

Bernard has been active in a number of charitable organizations including membership on the Board of Directors of the Lower Bucks County Chapter of the American Red Cross. He was named Citizen of the Year by the Chapter in 2004.

Bernard is married to Marie. They have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. His son, Marshal, and daughter-in-law, Tamar, were the co-presidents of the Hebrew Free Loan Society.

Marie Granor, now retired, taught elementary school and pre-school in the Philadelphia School District for 18 years. She has been a community volunteer throughout her adult life, including teaching English to immigrants through the Nationalities Service Center, and serving as both a Girl Scout leader and a Cub Scout den mother. She is a member of Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, where she volunteered for the Golden Years Resource Service for many years. She has 3 children and 4 grandchildren.

Along with her husband, Bernard, and several others, Marie founded the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia in 1984, and served as the group’s intake manager for many years. She enjoyed interacting with the group’s borrowers, and seeing how a small loan can make a big difference in their lives.

Carl A. Polsky is a retired Practice Professor of Accounting at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania .A member of the faculty for fifty years, he taught the graduate courses in Federal Tax and International Tax. He is presently Of Counsel to the Philadelphia Law firm of Diamond,Polsky and Bauer,a firm that he co-founded. Carl is a CPA and Attorney. He is a long-time member of Temple Sinai.

Cheryl Barish Erlick is a non-profit professional with expertise in outreach, project management, leadership development and fundraising. She creates a spirit of excitement through engagement. Cheryl served as Director of Institutional Strengthening and Community Engagement at Jewish Learning Venture where she empowered synagogue and institutional leadership to collaborate with colleagues across the region, creating powerful experiences in Jewish community building. Prior to that, she was Kehillah Director for Lower Merion and Delaware County at Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. She has served in several capacities in synagogues in the greater Philadelphia area, including Program Director and Manager of Member Engagement. Cheryl has been a Jewish educator for over 15 years, creating a kehillah kedosha in her classroom.