Rebecca Milder
Founding Director, Middle/High School
Rebecca Milder is a rabbi and veteran Jewish educator with a Masters degree in educational administration. Her extensive leadership experience spans across formal and informal Jewish education throughout the religious spectrum. Rabbi Rebecca’s professional work has focused on innovative approaches to Jewish learning and community-building. She has revitalized religious schools, reimagined family education programs, and created new educational tracks at camp. In addition, she worked for four years at a central agency for Jewish education, building collaboration among Jewish day schools.
She is honored to be building this Jewish Enrichment Center with the children and families of Hyde Park, and our outstanding professional team.
Sara Grossman
School Director, 1st - 3rd Grades
Sara is excited and honored to be stepping into the role of School Director of the Jewish Enrichment Center. For the last seven years, Sara has been the lead educator for first and second grade, a role she has treasured. As Assistant Director, Sara oversaw the Enrichment Center's Hebrew program, camps and Special Days, and learning for infant/toddlers through second grade.
Sara grew up in Memphis and earned a Masters degree in Child Studies from Vanderbilt University. Before working at the Enrichment Center, she designed family programming for the Country Music Hall of Fame and was a research assistant for the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations of Early Learning at Vanderbilt. Sara is a graduate of the Mandel Teacher Educator Institute, a two-year professional development program for Jewish educational leaders. In her spare time, Sara enjoys baking and spending time with her family.
Spenser Scheinman
Operations Manager
Spenser works primarily in the office taking care of the back-end side of our operation at the Jewish Enrichment Center. Spenser comes to us from the sunny and warm state of Arizona where he graduated the University of Arizona in Tucson with degrees in English and Judaic Studies. Thereafter he worked at a sports marketing firm in Scottsdale. During his spare time, he loves to spend time finding new places in the city, going to the beach with his golden retriever, and going to see live music.
Aliza Geller
Nursery & Kindergarten
Aliza has an MA in Jewish Education from The Jewish Theological Seminary, a BA in Jewish History, and has studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Aliza has taught children in pre-k though 12th grade in day schools, synagogues and camps. Aliza has worked as a resident advisor and a student life professional at a Jewish pluralistic boarding school, and has served as Jewish Programming Director at a JCC overnight camp. Aliza enjoys spending time in nature, baking challah and singing.
Molly Kulwin
4th & 5th Grades
Molly was born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey. In May of 2017 she graduated from UMass Amherst with degrees in Anthropology and Judaic Studies. The following March she moved to Chicago and has been working at the Jewish Enrichment Center ever since! In her spare time she enjoys biking around the city, swimming in any body of water she can find, and playing with her three guinea pigs!
Elisa Aranoff
School Day Program
Elisa (Morah Elisheva) Aranoff is excited to join the Jewish Enrichment Center team this year! This past summer she was Apachi Hyde Park Site Director. Prior to that she worked at Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School as After-School Program Director, Substitute Teacher Coordinator, and as a Hebrew teacher in the preschool and Kitah Alef (first grade). Elisa holds a Bachelor’s degree from Barnard College of Columbia University (where she sang and toured with the Jewish a cappella group Pizmon) and a Master’s degree in Elementary Education from National-Louis University. She spent her junior year of undergrad at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is fluent in Hebrew. She is a graduate of Music Together instructor training, which she used to co-found a children's Jewish music program called Zemer Emet. She spent two summers at Ramah Day Camp, one as Rosh Rikud (Israeli dance leader). She taught at Gan Shalom (Temple Sholom's early childhood program) and Akiba's preschool, which are both Reggio programs. She and her family are members of Congregation Rodfei Zedek.
Emily Branton
Curriculum and Jewish Text Consultant
Emily enjoyed four exciting, transformative years as an assistant and then lead educator at the Jewish Enrichment Center. She is now a doctoral student in Religious Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, but gets to stay engaged with the Enrichment Center community by collaborating on curriculum development and text translation with the education team, and by leading occasional micro-units exploring archaeology, the history of the ancient Near East, and texts from the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). She has a BA in Religion from Smith College and an MA from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. When not teaching or studying, she loves backpacking, bluegrass music, and craft projects.
Maisie Smith
1st - 3rd Grades
Maisie grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. In the spring of 2020, she graduated from Smith College with a degree in Sociology and Mathematics. One of her favorite aspects of her life at Smith was being a part of the Jewish student community where she often helped lead Shabbat services or songs. Maisie has taught Hebrew school at her local synagogue and has been a teacher at a homeschooling community program, and is now thrilled to be joining the Enrichment Center team. In her free time, she loves to draw, spend time with animals (dogs and hamsters are her favorite), and cook delicious food for herself and her friends.
Amy Schaeffer
Family Program
Amy Schaeffer is so excited to be back at the Jewish Enrichment Center for her sixth year after a year long hiatus! She lives in South Bend, Indiana where she works as a lead preschool teacher at the Early Childhood Development Center on campus at Saint Mary's College. This is her ninth year working as a preschool teacher. Her BA is in apparel design from Cornell University, and she has an MA in Early Childhood Education/ Early Childhood Special Education from UIC. When she isn't baking challah, finger painting or dancing with the children at JEC, she can be found baking or sewing.
