TJ Casser, President

T.J. is a husband and father of two teens, including a son with Autism.

Born in Baltimore, but raised in New Jersey and having lived in a few other places besides, he's been living again in Baltimore since 2002. By profession, he's a software engineer, though clearly that does not keep him busy enough as he finds other things to occupy his time. He has served as a board member of the Baltimore Jewish Green & Just Alliance since 2003, as a member of the Parents and Community Advisory Board to Baltimore City Schools from 2014 to 2018, and in various roles at Beth Israel since joining in 2005, including Torah reader, gabbai, board member, and most recently as the current Executive Vice President of the board. (Clearly, someone needs to learn to say 'no' to things.)
In his infrequent spare time, he's a home brewer, a Certified Cicerone®, and a competitive curler, including having represented Israel in the 2015 World Winter Masters Games.

Phil Rabin, Executive Vice President

Jennifer Freese, Co-Vice President

Saundra Madoff, Co-Vice President
Saundra is a retired Jewish educator and administrator who worked at Krieger Schechter Day School for 24 years and at Beth Israel Religious School prior to that.  She earned her BA in Hebraic Studies from Rutgers University and her Masters in Jewish Education from the Baltimore Hebrew University.  In addition to serving as a co-vice president, Saundra is the chair of our “Lifelong Learning Committee”. She grew up at Beth Israel and she and her husband David were married at the synagogue.  Saundra and David are the proud parents of five grown children and nine grandchildren. 

David Hecht, Treasurer 

Phil Rogofsky, Recording Secretary

Diane Gensler, Corresponding Secretary 
Diane Gensler is a diehard member of Beth Israel Congregation and a native of Baltimore. She and her husband Scott were married at Beth Israel. Scott is a Past-President and has held numerous positions. Diane was Co-President of the Parent's Association for several years and the Purim Carnival Chairperson for five years. She has assisted with other projects and initiatives in the synagogue throughout the years as well. Their three children grew up at Beth Israel, beginning with the preschool and presently working in the Learning Lab. 

Diane is a certified English and Special Education teacher. She also developed educational software, tutored online and wrote and managed online curriculum. Diane's book, Forgive Us Our Trespasses: A Memoir of a Jewish Teacher in a Catholic School, was published by Apprentice House Press in 2020. She leads the Baltimore Jewish Writers Guild, a group of writers who share their work and provide support to each other. She is a blogger for Haddasah and can be found online at TimesofIsrael.com. She is a member of the Beth Israel Sisterhood and the Beth Israel book club.  She put her computer skills to use as webmaster for the Franklin Middle School PTA and created montages for simchas of family and friends. She is a member of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland and researches her family history when time allows. She is an avid scrapbooker and has led  scrapbook classes at the Jewish Community Center, so please contact her if you are interested!
 

Jeff Blum, Financial Secretary

Jeff is a new business account executive for Johnson Controls, where he helps customers find the right fit for their commercial security needs. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Jeff has lived in the Baltimore area for the past 25-plus years and has extensive experience in sales and account management. Jeff also serves on the boards of The Hearing and Speech Agency as well as the Baltimore County Police Assistance Relief Fund. Jeff and his wife Karen have two children and live in Owings Mills. 

Hy Luft, Board Representative to the Executive Committee 

Aliza Rothenberg, Immediate Past President

Having grown up at Beth Israel in the 1960s and 1970s, and then rejoining the congregation with her own family after moving back to Baltimore from Philadelphia in the mid-1990s, Aliza Rothenberg considers Beth Israel her second home. As a child, Aliza's home life centered around Beth Israel with her father having risen to the role of President and her mother teaching in the religious school and then becoming its principal. Aliza's own active involvement in the congregation dates back to her teenage years when she was the first female to have an aliyah and read Torah as the shul embraced egalitarianism in the early 1970s. In the mid-2000s, Aliza led Beth Israel's V'Zot HaTorah congregation-wide Torah-writing project which included a fundraising component that created the shul's largest endowment. In addition to her Board position, most recently, Aliza chaired Beth Israel's strategic planning process to create and implement a plan that would enable the congregation to continue to thrive well into the next decade. Aliza is also actively involved in the congregation's religious life as a frequent Torah and Haftorah reader, gabbai, and weekday minyan leader.

Professionally, Aliza's expertise is in strategy development, business planning, marketplace/competitive analysis, and market research. She retired in 2019 as Vice President of Strategy and Planning for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield  where she led the development of the $12B company’s corporate and division-level long-term strategies and annual operating plans, and served as the "right hand" to its CEO. 

Aliza's husband, David, served as Beth Israel's executive director for 18 years (1997-2015) and two of their three sons celebrated their b'nai mitzvah at Beth Israel. With two young granddaughters and one grandson, one of Aliza's favorite activities is "grandparenting." Aliza also enjoys travel, gardening, reading, and exercising