Biographies

Tom Sudow

Tom has been involved with the FJMC on the international level since 1995. HeS lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife Michele and is the father of three children and three granddaughters.   He is the Director of Business Development for Cleveland Clinic Innovations and the Director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Ashland University.  He also serves as an Advisor to eHealth Ventures a venture capital firm investing internationally in the digital health space; as a member of the Due Diligence Committee for the Akron BioInnovation Fund (Fund 1 and 2); and as an advisor to SCI a Chinese investment firm investing in the United States and Israel.   He has made over 40 trips to Israel on business (and a few for pleasure)Tom is a member of Park Synagogue in Cleveland and served as President of the Men’s Club.  He has served the FJMC as a member of the Executive Committee in various leadership capacities  and as President of the Cleveland Subregion and Vice President of both the Great Lakes and KIO Regions.  He was the founding Chairman of the FJMC Foundation for Jewish life and continues to serve on the Foundation’s Board.  Tom is committed to the community and has served in leadership for a number of organizations in the Jewish and general communities For his work, he has been recognized with awards from many economic development and community organizations.  As a student on Young Judaea Year Course in 1972/73, he helped formed a morning Minyan.  Later, as a joke, the morning Minyan crew had Synagogue titles bestowed on them.... Tom was named, by his peers, as President of the Men's Club..... even back than they had him pegged as to where he would spend much of his adult life involved in Men's Club and the FJMC. 

Allan Kahan

Allan Kahan, First Vice President, has served as Leadership Development and Training, Regions and Club Services and Communications, was born in Bethesda, Maryland, and raised in Silver Spring, MD, where he continues to live with his wife of over 37 years, Helene, and is father of Ariel (Washington, DC), Shira (Washington, DC) and Jared (Brooklyn, NY).  After graduating from the University of Tulsa law school, Allan got involved in United Jewish Appeal Young Leadership in the Washington, DC area, where he met Helene.  Allan retired from the federal government in June 2017.  He was an attorney for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 15 years, then went into private practice, and finally as an Analyst with the Department of Agriculture and then Transportation Security Administration for a total of 18 years.  Allan continues to practice small business collection law.

Allan has been involved in both his synagogue (Ohr Kodesh, Chevy Chase, MD) and the Federation of Jewish Men’s Club (FJMC) for over 25 years.  Allan helped reestablish the Men’s Club at Ohr Kodesh, was President of the club for three years, then went on to be Treasurer and then President of the Seaboard Region, FJMC.  Allan has held numerous positions with the FJMC, including Torch Award Chairman, Editor of The Advantage (newsletter for club leaders), webmaster for the FJMC, Secretary.  For five and a half years he worked with Captain Ruach, Burt Fischman, providing Leadership Development training for the Executive Committee.

Alan Budman

Alan Budman, Vice President (Training) was born and raised in the Philadelphia area.  He is married to Susan and they are the proud parents of Heather (married to Chris) and Traci (married to Dustin).  He is now retired and was previously an attorney.  He also taught at Penn State University for 28 years.  He has served as President of the Associated Alumni of Central High School, a Big Brother volunteer with Jewish Family Services, Vice President of Melrose B’Nai Israel and Chair of the Development Committee of the American Heart Association’s Philadelphia Office.  He was President of the Temple Sinai (Dresher) Men’s Club and the Middle Atlantic Region. He is the past Co-Chair of the Keruv Initiative of FJMC, a Senior Consultant, past Co-Chair of the Yellow Candle Program, past Program Convention Chair, past Vice President for Programs and past Vice President for Regions. He is a fellow of the Foundation for Jewish Life.

Stephen Dix

Steve Dix was born in London, England and emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 7.  He grew up in Houston, bounced around in undergraduate school, went to law school at the University of Texas at Austin, joined the Navy in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps where he spent time in Newport, Rhode Island and Long Beach, California, moved back to Houston when he finished his active duty in the Navy, and finally ended up in Marietta, Georgia, where he has managed to stay put for the last 32 years.  After a long career as an in-house lawyer with two tech companies, he is now Of Counsel to the law firm of Bodker, Ramsey, Andrews, Winograd & Wildstein in Atlanta, Georgia.  He is the very proud father of Josh and Monica, and he is now blissfully married to Bonnie.  Steve has been a member of Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta since moving there in 1987.  Over the years he served in various positions in the shul’s Men’s Club including serving as its President, then moved on to become President of the Anshei Darom Region. In 2015 he was honored to join the FJMC International Board as a Presidential appointee, working most closely with Allan Kahan with the Club Services portfolio, then in 2017 he took on the role of Treasurer of the FJMC, and finally in 2019 he ascended to his current role as Vice President for Programs.

Elliot Feldman

Elliot has lived in the greater Boston area his whole life.  He and his wife Marcia have four children Joshua, Amanda (husband- Jon), Adam (wife- Alison) and Sarah (husband- Adam). Professionally, he has worked with elders throughout his entire career.  For the past thirty-five years, he has been working to help low vision elders increase their independence.  He founded his own company, Visions of Independence, fifteen years ago.  Elliot loves to bake, particularly a weekly challah for Friday night dinner. 

David Singer

David P. Singer is the Vice President of Communications.  David lives in Framingham, MA with his wife Randy.  He has two sons, Daniel who just stated his first job working for Qualtrics in Provo Utah doing internal sales and Noah who lives in Waltham, MA and works for National Grid.  David has worked Raytheon for 31 years as a software engineer on air traffic control systems, weather radar systems, and Navy radar.

David founded his club at Temple Israel of Natick, MA in the year 2000 and served as president for 5 years.  He then became involved in the New England Region and held positions as TheRetreat co-chair and Membership VP ultimately holding the position of Regional President (2015-2017).  As Regional President, he created a leadership database to improve membership involvement and he ensured that each event had a program guide for use by future program leaders. He brought the organization into the next century using Dropbox and Google Drive.

David’s current project is bringing a unique mindfulness prayer service called, Tefilat HaNeshama, Prayer of the Soul to congregations across the country.

In addition, David created the Divrei Hashavua, weekly parasha Hebrew word program for use in Shabbat fliers and weekly email blasts at Temple Israel.  This program has since expanded to other congregations across North America.

Benny Sommerfeld

Benny Sommerfeld (a native Swede) is a firm believer in FJMC’s simple but powerful mission statement, “Involving Jewish Men in Jewish Life”. This has guided Benny to be actively involved in Men’s Club on a local and regional level since 2005. He has held many positions and was elected Club President 2012-2014. Three years later in the summer of 2017, he became president of the Western Region. On an international level, Benny has presented at several LDIs and served as Religious Chair in 2015. Benny lives with his wife Irma and their two daughters in Thousand Oaks, CA. Benny belongs to Temple Etz Chaim where he enjoys being a layman “davener” with a lot of ruach.

Bruce Tomar, Vice President, was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa and now lives in Cherry Hill, NJ with his wife of 41 years, Marcia. Bruce is the father of Jennifer, David (married to Bree), and Heather (married to Andrew) and the grandfather to Zachary and Harvest. Bruce is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy. He currently works as a vice president at Garfield Refining Company. Bruce has been involved in men’s club for over 30 years, first at Oxford Circle Jewish Community Center and then at Congregation Beth El in Voorhees, NJ. It was at Beth El that Bruce rose to the position of Men’s Club President. From there Bruce moved up to the executive board of the Middle Atlantic Region and became its president in 2008. Bruce has also served as the training chair for LDI, overall chair for LDI, training chair at convention 2013 and program chair at convention 2017. Bruce is currently the vice president for programming for the FJMC, and spends his weekends at the Jersey shore.

George Nadas

George, Executive Committee (appointed), is a Chartered Professional Accountant in the province of Ontario. He is a partner in accounting firm of Reiter & Nadas, Chartered Accountants and is also a principle owner of a bookkeeping and tax services company, Tax Team Work, Inc, both in Toronto, ON. George grew up in and still lives in Toronto. He and his wife of 40 years, Janet-Lee, have a son in Toronto and a married daughter living in Israel from whom he has two Israeli grandchildren.

Mark Givarz, Secretary, was born and raised in Salisbury, MD.  After graduating from the University of Maryland – Baltimore County (UMBC), Mark moved to Tampa, FL, where in 1984 he met and married Alyce.    Mark & Alyce are the parents of Erin (married to Lee) of Austin, TX, Glen of Las Vegas, NV, and Steve of Tampa, FL.  In 2001, Mark accepted a job with SBC (now AT&T) in St. Louis, MO, where he is a Quality Assurance Team Lead.  Mark joined Congregation B’nai Amoona’s Men’s Club, and became its president in 2007.  From there, Mark moved up to the executive board of the Midwest Region,  and became its president in 2017.  Mark  served as the Program Fair chair at the 2015 convention in Miami Beach, and is a long serving member of the HMV Committee.  Mark & Alyce enjoy traveling to new destinations, as well as to the beach every summer.

Norm Katz

Norm Katz, Board Member (Appointed), was born in Elkins Park, PA and moved to San Diego, CA in 1985 after graduating from Temple University with a BS in Computer Science.  Throughout Norm’s early career, he was a software developer, working on signal and image processing and artificial intelligence algorithms for the defense and healthcare industries.  More recently, Norm has been a software architect and engineering executive.  He is currently the VP of Software Architecture for a small startup that is developing methods to reduce health risks by combining fitness, diet, medical records and genomic data in novel ways using crowd-sourced digital health data.  Norm and his wife Roxanne have identical twin daughters, Shannah and Nicole, who live in Los Angeles.  Norm has served as Ritual and Executive Vice President at Tifereth Israel Synagogue and is a past president of TIS Men’s Club.   He currently serves as an at-large member of the FJMC Executive Committee and chairs the IT Committee.  At Convention 2017, Norm was a recipient of the Presidential Award.

Art Lashin

Arthur Lashin is a retired attorney, who was the managing partner of a Philadelphia law firm for more than 40 years, with experience guiding businesses through all aspects of corporate life. An avid gardener and musician, he enjoys playing the saxophone and guitar. He is active in a number of local charities and organizations, including offering free legal services. Art is currently Vice-President of the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Greater Philadelphia where he has served on various committees and been a member of the Board of Directors since 2000. He enjoys being a part of this charitable organization so that he can make a contribution to society while helping those less fortunate. The concept of giving back and shaping someone's life for the better is his ultimate feeling of satisfaction.

Art and his wife Eileen have two children, who share Art’s commitment of community engagement, and are the proud grandparents of four adorable grandchildren.

Jon Norton

Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Jonathan now cheers on his Cubs and lives near Wrigley Field. With his wife Chris they have two daughters, Elizabeth and Laila. Jon graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in Broadcasting and has been working for the City of Chicago’s video production team for over 20 years, including being the Station Manager for over 15 of those years. His family joined Anshe Emet Synagogue in 2005 and he has been on the Board of Directors for the past 7 years and he has been the Board Secretary for the past 3.  Back in 2009 Jonathan was instrumental in restarting the Anshe Emet’s Men’s Club.  Since then Jonathan has been very active in the Club, first serving as Membership Director before serving as club VP and then President.  Jonathan has also served as Co-Chair for the Emerging Leaders track at the 2018 LDI and is a VP of the Midwest Region.  In his spare time, Jonathan sings bass in “Shircago”, a Jewish a cappella group, sings bass in a barbershop quartet and sings tenor in the North Suburban Synagogue Beth El High Holiday Choir. 

Dan Granek

Dan was born in Brooklyn, NY, but the family soon moved to Lynbrook, NY. They joined Congregation Beth David, where he attended Hebrew School, became a Bar Mitzvah, belonged to USY and later married. At a dance at SUNY New Paltz, Dan met his future bride, Vicki. They graduated with education degrees; hers in art and his in social studies. They married and moved to Coram, NY, where their daughter, Amanda was born. 

They were unaffiliated Jews for several years but at the urging of their friends and neighbors, Sheri and Ron, they joined the North Shore Jewish Center. After Dan’s father passed, Dan become involved in Men’s Club. The NSJC Men’s Club’s support for those sitting shiva was phenomenal. The club provided a shiva chair, a box with siddurs, and a minyan leader to lead Maariv. Impressed by the Men’s Club support, Dan asked his friend how he could get more involved with Men’s Club. Soon he was on the board.

After serving in several board positions, he became the NSJC Men’s Club liaison to the New York Metropolitan Region. He represented the club at regional board meetings and reported back to his local club. This exposed him to the programs of both the region and the FJMC. Working with the region’s FJMC Consultants, Peter Gotlieb and Al Davis, he brought Hearing Men’s Voices to North Shore Jewish Center. Later, as Club President, he got the club more involved in the FJMC, earning successive Quality Club Awards. Under his direction, the NSJC Men’s Club won two Torch Awards for programming and community service.

Dan joined the New York Metro Region Board in 2011. He served concurrently as club president and 3^rd Vice President of the region. As the regional VP, he chaired, for four years, the region’s annual Man of the Year and Youth of the Year Honoree Dinner. During this time the dinner grew to almost 650 guests.

In 2015, he was asked to be an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) representative at the United Nations. As the FJMC’s main NGO Representative, Dan attends briefings and programs, works with other Jewish NGOs to advocate for Israel and the Jewish people, and prepares and submits the FJMC’s annual accreditation to the UN.

As the President of the NY Metropolitan Region, Dan took steps to support the region’s clubs. He subdivided the region into five districts so that neighboring clubs could talk, plan, and support each other. Working with the region’s corresponding secretary, he streamlined and improved communications within the district. He is reached out to recruit clubs in Manhattan.

Dan is a retired New York City teacher who spent his career in Far Rockaway, Queens. As a special education teacher, he taught social studies, science, and for many years, computer technology. He was also a staff developer for the community school district, which involved teaching both students and staff how to use computers.  In addition, he is a retired Army Reserve Officer. After 22 years of service, he retired with the rank of major. During that time, he served in several leadership and staff positions, including company commander and general staff officer. All of this was possible with love and support of his loving wife, Vicki, and their daughter, Amanda.

Stan Greenspan

Stan Greenspan was born in Trail, BC and raised in Toronto, ON, where he lives with his wife of over 40 years, Vanessa, and is the father of Nicole (Ramat Gan) & Jessie (Toronto). A graphic artist and internet developer, Stan graduated in the first baccalaureate class in Image Arts Programme from Ryerson Polytechnical University in Toronto. Stan has been involved in both synagogue organization and the FJMC for over 30 years, beginning at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue and at the Sunnybrook Hospital Jewish Chapel, which he worked to build. Stan helped form the chapel's Men's Club, and coordinated the Toronto Brotherhood Shabbat Programme. Stan served FJMC as the Great Lakes Region Vice President, as President of the Ontario SubRegion, as a founding member of the Lake Ontario Region, and is currently 1st Vice President of MERCAZ-Canada.