Terry Waslow, Executive Director

Terry Waslow was raised in a secular Jewish home. She became an active participant in the Jewish secular community in the mid-1990s when she enrolled her children in the Jewish Children's Folkshul. She began attending the annual CSJO conferences in 2000 and has attended regularly since. Terry was a board member of Folkshul and CSJO. She spent 4 years as the Chair of CSJO before becoming the Executive Director.

Terry has her Master's in Business Administration with a focus on nonprofits and her undergraduate degree is in Human Services/Counseling. She has worked for over 25 years with individuals and families impacted by physical, intellectual and/or economic challenges to build fully inclusive communities.

Sarah Waslow-Washington, CSJO Chair

Sarah Waslow-Washington has been a proud member of CSJO since 2001, starting as a teen when she was 13. Over the years Sarah has work diligently in her roles within the organization, having been teen and young adult conference coordinator, becoming the Vice Chair of the organization for 8 years before becoming the Event's Coordinator of CSJO and more recently taking on the role of Chair of the organization. Sarah is truly excited to take on this new rule and to keep moving the organization forward in a positive and strong way.

When Sarah is not working on CSJO activities she is a Teacher in Philadelphia who loves to travel. Sarah is currently working on completing her second Masters in Education.

Adam Beardsley, Co-Vice Chair

Adam has been going to CSJO Conferences since 2008. He started on the board as Teen Representative to the Board, and was the Young Adult Representative to the Board before being elected co-Vice Chair. He attended Jewish Children's Folkshul in Philadelphia. He now lives in Washington, DC, where he is trying to get into political work.

Karen Knecht, Past Chair

Karen has been an active member of CSJO since 1985, when she attended her first conference. She became a board member as the delegate for her organization in 1987. From 1989-2012, Karen served as the Teen Young Adult Liaison for CSJO. She was the Vice Chair of CSJO from 2000-2002, and then the Chair from 2002-2012.

Karen has been a board member of the International Institute for Secular Humanism since 2002, and has been a certified Madrikha since 1987. She truly believes in what CSJO represents and will continue to be an active member as long as she can.

Joan Kurtz, Treasurer

Joan Kurtz has been the CSJO treasurer and conference registrar for more years than she can remember. She also held the position as the first CSJO membership chair as well as the delegate from her Long Island affiliate. Her identity as a secular Jew continues to be strengthened with her attendance at CSJO conferences as well as her membership in the Council for Secular Humanism, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Society for Humanistic Judaism and American Humanist Association. She hikes with the Appalachian Mountain Club every Tuesday and plays Scrabble at her community center.

Joan and her husband, Sandy, live in western Massachusetts with their sixth dog rescue, Ziba. They have two children: Robert, who is also active in CSJO and lives outside of Boston, and Andrea, who lives in Seattle with her husband, Marc, and their seven-year-old son, Elijah.

Jordan Shuster, Recording Secretary

Jordan Shuster has been attending CSJO conferences since 2010 and is a graduate of the Jewish Children's Folkshul in Philadelphia, PA. Jordi will graduate from Drexel University in June 2018 with B.S. degrees in Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering, and she plans to transition into a career as an engineering librarian. She is also currently an executive board member of Alpha Omega Epsilon, a professional sorority for women in STEM fields. Jordi can be found reading, rock climbing, singing, and petting dogs in her spare time.

Madeline Burns, Youth representative to executive committee

Madeline Burns’ first conference was at Arcadia University in Philadelphia when she was 13 and she's been coming to Conference ever since. Madi attended Jewish Children's Folkshul in Philadelphia when she became a Bat Mitzvah. She continued to be involved with Folkshul as a post Bat Mitzvah student, and then as both a community and teaching assistant. Since being involved with CSJO, she has served on the Board in four capacities: as alternate teen rep to the board, teen rep to the board, youth rep to the executive committee, and currently as an adult member at large. She has also served as a youth representative of CSJO on many occasions, most recently to speak to members in Chicago about the 2017 CSJO Conference.

Madi is now a senior at the University of Pittsburgh as an accounting major and theatre minor. On a more personal level, she enjoys raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, as well as pina coladas and getting lost in the rain.

Dana Lowi-Merri, Member at Large

Dana Lowi-Merri is thrilled to take on the role of Member at Large for the CSJO. After attending her first conference three years ago, she immediately recognized the value of the CSJO in the secular, humanistic Jewish community. Dana looks forward to reinstating the CSJO's Social Justice Committee. In addition to her involvement with the CSJO, Dana also sits on the Executive Board of the United Jewish People Order (UJPO) in Toronto, Ontario, her hometown. She is involved with organizing the New Generation contingent of the UJPO.

A social worker by profession, Dana works with the Canadian Red Cross as a Case Worker for Disaster Management in Fort McMurray, Alberta. She appreciates, and takes advantage of, advances in communication technology to support her ability to be involved with all other organizational commitments remotely. Dana likes attending cultural events, television, hiking, brunch, and coffee. Having lived in Vancouver BC, and now Fort McMurray Alberta, she prefers Ontario autumns over rain or freezing temperatures.

Sam Ruben, Member At Large

As an accomplished entrepreneur, Sam Ruben brings a sustainability and innovation focus to everything he does. He is passionate that today’s organizations consider sustainability as a core aspect and a moral obligation. This passion is paired with a deep understanding of the public, nonprofit and private sectors honed through professional experience and his learning as a graduate of the Presidio Graduate School with a Dual MBA/MPA in Sustainable Management to complement his BA in Political Science/Economics from Vassar College.

For Sam, his passion for helping create a better world is directly tied to his experience as a life-long Secular Humanistic Jew, having been raised as a part of the Jewish Cultural Society of Ann Arbor, MI and his continued involvement with the Cultural and Secular Jewish Organization. He currently resides in Sausalito, CA and is the Chief Sustainability Officer/Co-Founder of Mighty Buildings, Inc - an Oakland, CA based construction startup working to unlock productivity and sustainability in the housing sector.

Rifke Feinstein, Member At Large

Rifke Feinstein was born into a yiddish-speaking home in the Bronx, NY. She went to yiddish shule and learned to read, write and speak yiddish. She eventually moved to Cleveland, where she joined the Jewish Secular School in 1968. Rifke joined CSJO at the invitation of Harold Gales, its first Chair, in 1970. She rejoined the Jewish Secular Community (formerly School) in the early 2000s after a 25-year hiatus in Detroit (JSC is an affiliate of CSJO). Rifke was the Executive Director of CSJO from 1994 to August 31, 2016.

Anton Friedman, Member At Large

Anton has been involved with the secular humanist Jewish community in Vancouver, Canada his whole life, and a member of CSJO since 2005. 

Anton lives in Vancouver where he graduated with a Masters in Public Health and has been working in health research for the University of British Columbia.

Rebecca Ireland, Teen Representative to the Board

Rebecca (she/they) is a high school student. They have been the Teen Representative to the Board since 2019. They have also been the Youth Rep to their local group, TVCJ, as well as an aide for Jewish Culture School since her Bat Mitzvah. Rebecca is always looking forward to the annual conferences, but, outside of CSJO, she is insanely busy. They started a group called Youth Organize Unite, to motivate youth to take action, and is trying to begin a Secular Student Alliance at her high school. In her spare time, she loves to read queer novels, play piano, and watch her cats.