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OUR BOARD

Bruce Schroffel, President  |   president@synagogueofthesummit.org 
Elaine Krantz, Vice President  |   vicepresident@synagogueofthesummit.org 
Richard Lepie, Treasurer  |   treasurer@synagogueofthesummit.org 
Amy Somers, Membership  |   membership@synagogueofthesummit.org 
Ruthi Manning-Freeman, Secretary  |   secretary@synagogueofthesummit.org
Donna Shear, Rabbi Liaison  |   liaison@synagogueofthesummit.org 
Nancy Held, Community Service  |  social@synagogueofthesummit.org
Ruth Kaplan, Events  |   events@synagogueofthesummit.org 
Marc Warshawsky, Past President  |   pastpresident@synagogueofthesummit.org   
Executive Assistant  |   info@synagogueofthesummit.org
Rabbi Ruth Gelfarb  |   rabbi@synagogueofthesummit.org

President, Bruce Schroffel

Bruce Schroffel grew up in Berkeley, California and has lived in New York where he was in graduate school at Columbia when he met his wife, Lorrie of 43 years, and in Colorado, his final stop, for the last 18 years. Lorrie is a therapist. They have two sons, Jesse who lives with his wife and granddaughter in nearby Golden and the other in London, where they go regularly to get away from the Colorado sun to visit with Jonathan, his wife and grandson. In between college and grad school Bruce helped start a kibbutz in the Southern Golan Heights overlooking the Sea of Galilee. He has served as CEO for academic hospitals/health systems, most recently for UCHealth and has served and chaired many boards including CoBiz Financial a Nasdaq bank, Emily Griffith Foundation, Craig Hospital, Project C.U.R.E., among others. He has traveled all over Africa, Asia and South America evaluating hospitals for Project C.U.R.E. and loves adventures and learning about and engaging with different cultures and people. These days he does executive coaching for physicians. More importantly, recently, at a relatively late age, he took up skiing and is trying to figure out how to ski in powder. 

Finding SOS is a great gift, and he has never found a warmer and more welcoming community. He wakes up every morning and looks at Mount Royal in front of his house in Frisco and feels like one of the most fortunate people in the world.

Vice President, Elaine Krantz

 

Treasurer, Richard Lepie

Richard Lepie is a wanderer by Nature. He lived in 5 states before the age of 5. Grammar school years were spent in Boston, Massachusetts. Not being allowed to escape to Europe for University, he compromised and attended McGill University in Montreal. He was seduced by Betsy Ross and spent the next four years in Philadelphia at Jefferson Medical College. Next it was off to Jewish Hospital of St Louis for a residency in Internal Medicine. The wind then blew across the Atlantic to Queens Hospital in London. The wind kept blowing east for a two year stint in Africa working for missionaries in Ethiopia and Malawi. He finally returned to the USA as Chief Medical Resident at Kern General in Bakersfield, California. . A change of mind led to a new start as a resident in Ophthalmology in Buffalo, NY. Arlyne appeared. He married. There were children and he is still in Buffalo. He has had a home in Summit County for over twenty years and has been a member of the Congregation for almost that long. The lore of the Mountain is calling to make Silverthorne more permanent. Not only does he still practice Ophthalmology, but he runs a Travel Agency, guides tours, manages an Office Complex, is Treasurer for his Buffalo Congregation, teaches skiing to youth at Keystone and dabbles in real estate.

Secretary, Ruthi Manning-Freeman

Ruthi Manning-Freeman and husband Michael Freeman met in Israel while traveling with USY Pilgrimage.  A “bashert” re-meeting two years later, in a subway station in Boston lead to their marriage some 45 years ago.  Children Solomon and Rachel started life in the Boston area, but as young kids we moved then to Dallas, and subsequently to Colorado Springs where they completed public school.   While in Colorado Springs we were active members of both Temple Shalom and The Air Force Academy Chapel Program where we sponsored Jewish cadets by providing home hospitality and a sense of Jewish life for holidays and shabbats.

Ruthi is a lifelong educator having taught in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, Texas and Colorado.  Ruthi currently serves as a consultant to the Colorado Department of Education in Gifted Education directly supporting seventeen front range school districts.

Michael and Ruthi have owned a vacation property in Breckenridge since 2007 and in 2020 we sold our home in Colorado Springs to come to Summit County for winters.  Our summers are spent by the bay in Hull, Massachusetts.  We have three granddaughters two in Kansas City and one in Silverthorne.    We love to travel!  The social aspects of the SOS community keep us very engaged and active.  We  have experienced a huge welcome here and plan to extend that same welcome to others.

Director of Membership,
Amy Somers

Dreams of skiing the mountains of Colorado brought Amy and her husband, Andy, to Summit County after raising twins, Sasha and Noah (25) in Sherman Oaks, CA. Originally from Harrisburg, PA, Amy is a former TV and Film Casting Director and Talent Agent having worked at Disney, Universal and NBC. While living in LA, Amy was an enthusiastic member of grass roots congregation, NASHUVA, led by Rabbi Naomi Levy. In 2012, she experienced a transformative adventure to Israel- a kind of Birthright trip for Moms, sponsored by Jewish Women’s Initiative. Skiing, tennis, pickleball, theater, film. Mah Jongg, canasta, and Happy Hours are her passions. Amy is grateful for the warm welcome to the SOS community. She’s looking forward to learning more about the area and organizing fulfilling social action projects for the congregation. Amy came to ski but can’t wait to see and feel all the wonders of Summers in Summit.

Director of Events, Ruth Kaplan

Ruth is originally from the Washington, D.C. suburbs. She and her husband Larry moved to Colorado in 1980. She taught special education and later 4th grade in public schools for about 30 years.  They raised their two children living in Evergreen for 23 years.  Their daughter and her husband recently moved to Frisco where she will be the librarian for the Summit Middle School. Their son lives in Centennial with his wife and 15 month old precious daughter. Ruth and Larry moved into their vacation home in Frisco two years ago after finding themselves spending more time year round in Summit County than in Evergreen and the front range.  Recently they made the move to Breckenridge. After making Summit County their permanent home, they joined SOS,  and now feel like they have been members forever! They both love the warmth of the community, the services,  and enjoy all of the social and service opportunities as well.  They hope to meet and or see all of you at the annual meeting or in the near future.

Director of Community Service,
Nancy Held

Nancy moved full-time to Breckenridge in 2022 after enjoying many years skiing here with her family. As the saying goes, she came for the winter but stayed for the summers. She was raised in the greater New York City region but after graduate school at the University of Washington, where she met and married Garth, she returned to the East coast where she and Garth raised their children in Connecticut. Professionally, Nancy is a diabetes educator and worked in clinical research at Yale during the early period of the Insulin Pump approvals and subsequent clinical practice as a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator.

She and her husband have 3 children, Adam, an AMGA Mountain Guide in Leavenworth, Washington,  Sarah is an immigration rights attorney in Tucson Arizona, and Maia an engineer working as a project manager for Bloomingdales in NYC. Nancy loves hiking and skiing in the mountains and sharing this love with family and friends.  She also spends time reading, knitting and baking.

Rabbi Liaison, Donna Shear

Donna was born and raised in Baltimore but while a student at Rutgers College in New Jersey, met her husband of 45 years, Joe Weber. Joe’s career in newspapers and then Business Week led them all around North America including Dallas, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Chicago. In 2009, Donna’s career in scholarly publishing led them to a dual hire at the University of Nebraska where Donna was director of the University of Nebraska Press until her retirement in 2021. She is most proud of the collaboration she brokered with the Jewish Publication Society, assuring its continued ability to publish the finest in Bible and Bible Commentary. Donna and Joe have three children, all married, and eight grandchildren. Because their children live in three different places—currently Denver, Philadelphia, and Stuttgart, Germany—they travel constantly. They’ve been full time in Summit County since 2022 and members of SOS for nearly a decade.   

Immediate Past President,
Marc Warshawsky

Marc grew up in the NYC area and met his lovely wife Rebecca in Cambridge, MA where they were married 38 years ago. With 4 kids and 8 grandkids, some in Highlands Ranch and some in Dallas, life is busy. Marc spent over 25 years in the computer industry as an engineer and a manager, working first in Massachusetts and later in Texas. After the crash in 2008, Marc launched a new career in Real Estate in Austin which he successfully migrated to Summit County. With a 2nd home in Summit County for many years, our dream was to figure out how to relocate and be in the mountains full time. That dream became a reality in 2019. We love Summit County and everything it has to offer and plan to be here for a very long time. Once we arrived, we immediately discovered SOS. We love the progressive informality of it all. Rebecca jumped in virtually immediately with both feet - because that's what she does - and she started volunteering at SOS. 

Fri, October 11 2024 9 Tishrei 5785