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Professional
Staff
Sherry Gutes - Religious School Principal, sgutes@shjc.org
South Huntington Jewish Center
welcomes Sherry Gutes as the Principal of our Religious School.
Sherry is a good fit for our school and for our congregation.
In fact, she may be something of a ‘poster child’ for
Conservative Judaism. She grew
up in Temple Beth El in Poughkeepsie, NY (the same synagogue where Hazzan
Joseph Wieselman z’l, beloved father of Suri Jacknis, was the cantor for
many years). She attended Camp
Ramah for five consecutive summers, forming what would become a lifelong
love and appreciation for the importance of informal Jewish educational
experiences as a key to leading a meaningful Jewish life. Throughout high
school, she was active in USY on the local, regional and international
level.
Following college, Sherry married her husband Greg, a sports copy editor
for Newsday. Their two sons
Adam and Joshua attended the Solomon Schechter Day School of Suffolk
County, where Sherry served several years on their Board of Directors.
The family joined a local Conservative synagogue, and Sherry became
active in the synagogue, in the Sisterhood, and in Eastern Long Island
Branch for Women’s League for Conservative Judaism.
She was also among the first group to be inducted into Kolot
B’kdusha, a group of women recognized by WLCJ as being capable of
leading Shabbat, holiday and midweek services.
Sherry came to Jewish education as a second career.
(For 15 years she ran her own Jewish cultural arts business,
representing Jewish performing artists – singers, comedians, bands,
etc., and managing numerous concerts and other special events. For more
than 25 years she has been a freelance comedy writer.) Sherry began
working for SAJES, the central agency for Jewish education, in 1998, where
she served as the Director of Communications. She is also a graduate of
its three professional certification programs: Morasha Teacher Preparation
Institute, Principals Leadership Institute, and Jewish Family Educators
Training Institute. As part of SAJES Mentor and Protégé Program, she has
been trained to provide ongoing support to new and novice teachers. Her
two trips to Israel with SAJES, as part of a group of Jewish educators,
have been highlights of her career.
Sherry taught religious school at synagogues in Huntington and Commack
(she admits to missing being a classroom teacher) and served as the
Principal of Temple Beth Sholom of Smithtown for four years before coming
to SHJC.
Sherry is
a person of great energy, and she is passionate about her work on behalf
of the children and families of SHJC.
She sees her position as Principal as multi-faceted:
teacher, learner, administrator, convener, role model,
consensus-builder, conversation starter.
She finds great joy and satisfaction in living life Jewishly, and
understands the challenges that face Jewish families today.
Sherry believes that her work in Jewish education is holy work –
a sacred responsibility that she takes very seriously.
She also loves to schmooze and share a good laugh.
SHJC looks forward to many years of holy work and great laughs with
Sherry.
Visit
the SHJC Religious
School.
 Randi
Alexander -
Nursery School Director, ralexander@shjc.org
Randi
joined our staff in the summer of 2005 as Nursery School
Director. Raised in East Meadow, she received her
Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Hofstra
University. Randi holds New York State Permanent
Certification in Early Childhood Education, Kindergarten and
Elementary Education.
Randi is a member of the Board of Jewish Education (BJE),
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
and the Suffolk Association for Jewish Educational Services (SAJES).
Before coming to SHJC, Randi was a Nursery School teacher at
the Mid Island Y - JCC in Plainview for twelve years before
moving up to the administrative level where, for five years,
she was the Assistant Director for the Early Childhood
Department.
Randi has been married to Jeffrey for the past 29 years.
They are the proud parents of three wonderful sons: David,
Steven and Howard.
Randi is dedicated to providing our nursery school children
with a nurturing environment that will offer many
age-appropriate experiences for emotional, intellectual,
social and physical growth, in addition to developing a
positive Jewish identity and to instill in them a love for
Israel.
We are very fortunate to have Randi in our synagogue
family!
Read
more about the
SHJC Nursery School.
Phyllis
Hilf-Pellman - Family Educator, ppellman@shjc.org
 Phyllis
has been the Jewish Family Educator at SHJC since 1998, and
is responsible for Religious School student-parent workshops
and congregational family programming. She received a
certificate in Jewish Family Education from JFETI, the
Jewish Family Educator Training Institute at SAJES (the
Suffolk Association of Jewish Educational Services) and
attended the Whizzin Institute of Family Education at the
University of Judaism. She brings great enthusiasm and deep commitment to
her programs, and is continuously refining them and looking
for new and even more exciting ways to instill an even
greater understanding and appreciation of Jewish teachings
in her students, both children and parents alike.
Previously
a social work supervisor at the Day Hospital at Queens
Hospital Center, Phyllis received her Masters Degree in
Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Roslyn with her husband Elliot and
daughters Rachel, Danielle and Emily.
Learn more
about SHJC Family
Ed program.
SHJC
Building Staff
With facilities that serve
as many different functions and host as many different
programs as ours do, we couldn't do without the assistance
of our fine Custodial and Maintenance Staff. We
greatly appreciate the efforts of Head Custodian Don Stanton
and his incredible staff.
Emeritus Clergy
Cantor
Emeritus - Saul Rubenstein
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habaim!habaim!