Seymour “Epi” Epstein
Dr. Seymour Epstein has been active in every aspect of Jewish education, formal and informal.  He worked at United Synagogue Day School in Toronto and helped to found an experimental high school there in 1971.  From 1973 to 1978 he was an assistant professor at McGill University where he directed the Jewish Teacher Training Program of Montreal.  He was actively involved in Camp Ramah and directed the Canadian Ramah for three summers.  In 1981 Dr. Epstein moved to Morocco to become the educational consultant for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Casablanca.  Since then he has been involved in JDC work in Morocco, Western Europe, and the Former Soviet Union.  He served the JDC as Director of Jewish Education and was responsible for community development in Siberia, Russia.

Epi has returned to Toronto and is the senior vice-president for Jewish Education and Identity for United Jewish Appeal-Jewish Federation of Greater Toronto, and the Director of its Board of Jewish Education.  Epi holds a Bachelor of Hebrew Literature from JTS, a BS from Columbia University, an MA from Brandeis University and an EdD from the University of Toronto.  He and his wife, Cheryl, have two children, Yoni and Sarit.

Cheryl R. Finkel
Cheryl R. Finkel is the Senior Consultant at PEJE, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education.  Her chief responsibility is to provide expertise to help North American Jewish day schools increase their academic and organizational effectiveness.  She took up this assignment in September 2002, after twenty years as Head of School at The Epstein School, Solomon Schechter School of Atlanta.  During her tenure Epstein grew from 100 students in a synagogue basement to a two-campus operation with 700 students in preschool through eighth grade and 150 faculty and staff.

For many years Cheryl has been a mentor for teachers and school leaders.  She frequently speaks and consults to schools, day school networks, central agencies, federations and foundations.  Cheryl holds an AB in English from UNC-Chapel Hill, an MA in Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has pursued her Jewish education in Emory University's Institute of Jewish Studies and in Israel.  The Covenant Foundation recognized her with its prestigious Award for Exceptional Jewish Educators in 1999.

Esther Kosofsky
Esther Kosofsky is the Director of the Resource Center for Jewish Education of Western Massachusetts, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.  The center provides professional development opportunities and a multitude of resources for educators in day schools, supplementary schools and early childhood settings.  As director, Esther conducts educator training and in-service programs at all of the educational institutions in Western Massachusetts and coordinates the Grinspoon Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education in Western Massachusetts. 

Prior to this position, Esther was a Judaic studies educator at LYA Middle School in Longmeadow, MA for fifteen years.  Esther is a graduate of Beth Rivkah Teachers Seminary in New York.  She and her husband Rabbi Noach Kosofsky are the proud parents of three sons and six daughters.