Sue Parker Gerson is a Senior Associate Regional Director for the Mountain States Regional Office located in Denver, CO and serves as director for the region’s Words to Action program. Sue’s community service portfolio also includes the Governor’s Holocaust Remembrance Program, the Catholic-Jewish Dialogue, the Summer Associate Research Program, and responding to discrimination complaints and incidents as they arise. Sue directs Words to Action (WTA) for ADL’s Mountain States Region, and has been a WTA facilitator since 2014. She has also trained new WTA facilitators from across the country. Prior to joining ADL, Sue worked in the field of Jewish Education and served for many years as the Colorado director of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning and for four years as a Melton Regional Director serving schools in the Western US and Canada. Sue also served as the principal of the Temple Micah Religious School in Denver and the Ahavath Israel synagogue religious school in Trenton, NJ. She earned her MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and is the co-author of Teaching Jewish History (Behrman House, 2006).

 

 

Mike Sosniak, Mike Sosniak has been a member of the Denver Jewish community since 2011. He has worked for the JCC for 6+ years as a trainer and manager in the fitness & wellness department. Mike was also a volunteer advisor to an AZA chapter of BBYO for 4 years and has been a WTA facilitator since 2018. Mike feels that ADL serves an extremely important role at this current time in history, when Jews are increasingly being targeted with hate, discrimination and violence. WTA serves as an important program to help provide students with actionable ways to combat and/or diffuse these difficult situations and feel empowered rather than helpless.

 

 

Ilana Steinberg, a Denver native, earned her B.A. in Math from Colorado College.  She received her M.A. in Jewish Communal Service from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California.  In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from HUC-JIR.  After working for Jewish federations in Denver, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C., Ilana moved into the field of Jewish education.  She has served as a facilitator in ADL’s Words to Action program since 2017 and in ADL’s A World of Difference program since 2021.  Among her previous education credits are Denver’s Hebrew High, Ayeka, Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning, Rosh Hodesh – It’s a Girl Thing, and Congregation Rodef Shalom’s Shabbat School.  Ilana is an active member of Congregation Rodef Shalom, where she volunteers with Rodfei Tzedek, the social justice team of the congregation.  She recently joined the board of the multifaith, multirace Together Colorado.  Ilana also serves on the board of the Denver Children’s Choir, for which she served as President for five years, and she recently completed six years of service on the board of Denver Jewish Day School.  Pursuing her passion for music, Ilana taught in the early childhood Music Together® program for eleven years.  She loves to sing, act, tap dance, swim, hike, and practice yoga, and she performs with the Englewood Summer Drama Program.

About her facilitation work, Ilana says: “Every time I facilitate a WTA workshop, I see the potential and passion that students have to make a difference.  We support them in believing that they can be brave and that they have the power to create a different world for themselves and their communities, based in love and mutual respect.  I truly believe that educating our youth is the way to a kinder, safer future.  And in this particular moment of increased vulnerability, we offer a safe and supportive space for both Jewish and non-Jewish students to process the scary times we are experiencing together, and to safely explore options for how to respond when they encounter anti-Israel and anti-Zionism bias along with antisemitism.”

 

Jerry Pinsker, earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from City College of New York and his Masters in Counseling from Queens College of the City University of New York.  Jerry spent 31 years as a middle school educator, 5 in the NYC public schools and 26 in the Aurora Public Schools (15 in the classroom and 11 as a middle school counselor).  Jerry was a member of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Education Association and is a current member of the Colorado Education Association Retired Council.  He is also vice president of the Boulder Valley Retired Education Association.  For the past 18 years Jerry has beena facilitator for the ADL’s World of Difference and Words to Action programs.  Jerry is chair of ADL’s Boulder Steering Committee and is past co-chair of ADL’s Education Committee.   He is a volunteer liaison between ADL and the Boulder Valley Schools, working with the student coalitions as they work towards meeting the expectations to become No Place for Hate Schools.

Jerry is a founding member of Congregation Bonai Shalom in Boulder, as well as past president of the congregation.  He was the facilities Director for the Boulder JCC and is currently on the programming committee for the Arts, Culture and Education Committee of the Boulder JCC.  Jerry was the recipient of ADL’s Community Service Award and the Colorado Education Association John & Gladys Bates Award for contributions in Human Relations, Multicultural Education and Diversity in Education.

We live in very challenging times, as incidents of bias, bigotry, antisemitism and hatred have increased exponentially.  Interacting with ADL student coalitions in both The World of Difference and Words to Action initiatives, helps the students to develop skills necessary to address these issues. Ultimately this is an important tool to help create a more inclusive society. Watching students work towards improving their school’s climate and seeing how they can address incidents of bias and antisemitism gives me hope for our future.

 

Sarla Thal, is a retired teacher and school administrator from Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek Schools.  Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Denver with a dual major in Education and Psychology, and her graduate work in Educational Administration was completed at the University of Colorado.  She joined the ADL in 2012 as a World of Difference facilitator for the ‘No Place for Hate’ initiative and in 2019 with ‘Words to Action’.  Her commitment to the ADL includes being a member of the Mountain States Regional Board, serving as a Co-chair for the regional Education Committee, and being a member of the ADL Jewish-Catholic Dialogue.  She also was an adjunct leadership coach with the Center for Creative Leadership and continues to coach with various governmental agencies, often around issues of equity, diversity and inclusion.

Thirty-five years ago, Sarla chose to convert to Judaism from her Christian upbringing primarily because the principle of Tikkun Olam, repair the world, reflected her personal value system.  Her work with the ADL and WTA is her way of fulfilling this commitment.  By encouraging young people to understand their own Jewish identity, and empowering them to challenge anti-Semitism and all forms of prejudice, she hopes to contribute to a more inclusive, equitable and the world.