Officers Bios

Shari S.
President
Shari and her family have been members of Oak Park Temple for more than 10 years. She has served as an at-large board member, she served two terms as the Treasurer, and she held the role of Executive VP before taking over as President. She has been actively involved in various committees, including most recently finance, human resources, communication, worship, and Derech Eretz.

Shari became a Bat Mitzvah at Oak Park Temple as an adult.  Her son went through the Religious School program, Bar Mitzvah, and was confirmed at OPT.  Shari is active in a women’s Torah study group as well as a chavurah.  Shari is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, and she is currently a Supervisor who leads a group of highly specialized forensic accountants.

Liz Simon
Executive Vice President
Liz Simon has been actively involved with Oak Park Temple since 1990. She and her husband Jonathan met and were married at OPT. She and her three daughters became B’nai Mitzvah, and all three daughters worked as TAs in the religious school and at Camp Shalom. As a family, they have traveled with Cantor Yugend-Green to Israel, celebrated with other community members at the annual Temple Retreats, and contributed to many of the Temple’s social action initiatives. Liz is active in Rabbi Weiss’s Saturday morning Torah study group, and she sings with Zimrei Ha’am. She has been involved in several committees, including religious school, worship and HR. She currently serves as one of the co-chairs of Bikur Cholim, part of the Caring Community initiative.

Liz is an attorney with a mediation and arbitration practice focused on labor and employment law. She serves on three national dispute resolution boards and teaches at Loyola University Law School, where her students advocate on behalf of small businesses and low income clients.

Deborah H. Holdstein
Immediate Past President
Deborah Holdstein has been a member of Oak Park Temple since 1986, and, among other activities, she has served on the Board of Directors under several administrations.  She has also served on the Glasser Preschool Committee and for many years co-led the volunteers of the Shure Memorial Library of Oak Park Temple.  Deborah also had the honor of being part of the Rabbi Search Committee that brought Rabbi Weiss to OPT. She and her husband, Jay Boersma, are members of an OPT chavurah.
Professor of English and for seven years Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Columbia College Chicago, Deborah became bat mitzvah several years ago, studying with Cantor Green to accomplish this milestone.  Her children, Emily and David, now adults, attended preschool, religious school, and became B’nai Mitzvah at OPT, and late in life, Deborah’s parents became members of OPT after moving to the Chicago area.