THE GALA JOURNAL
ABOUT KARA JENNY GOLDSTEIN
Kara, along with her husband Daniel and children Molly and Max have been active members in the Woodbury Jewish Center since moving to the community in 2010. Kara’s initial involvement at the WJC started with her chanting Haftorahs. Her volunteer efforts expanded when she served on the Religious School Committee paralleling her children’s attendance there. She joined the Administrative Board in 2014 as a Trustee and in 2017 Kara joined the Executive Board as Treasurer and served until 2023.
As the Treasurer of the WJC, Kara created a roadmap for the financial success of the synagogue. In addition to instituting a rigorous budgeting process and establishing controls, she championed the migration to a cloud-based ERP solution. This enabled the WJC for the first time ever, to interact with its membership online. All aspects of temple business were automated enabling members to manage their accounts and register for events. The system has provided WJC with innovative reporting, cost efficient credit card processing and most importantly a tool with which to engage with its members. She refinanced the mortgages on both the synagogue and parsonage, has sat on Rabbi Retention and Selection and Bar and Bat Mitzvah Committees as well as served as the Chair of the Nominating Committee. Kara still serves as the Board Liaison with Regal Caterers.
In 2020, when Covid hit our community, she worked with the Executive Board to help create ways for our membership to stay connected to the WJC virtually, in a caring and meaningful way. Her dedication and creative approaches helped our synagogue weather the pandemic in a fiscally responsible way.
Kara’s parents, WJC members, Shirley and Eli Jenny raised her with a strong Jewish education, sending her to Solomon Schechter Day School in Jericho. She graduated from Jericho High School, received her BS in Accounting from Binghamton University, and spent the first eight years of her professional life at Andersen LLP’s Enterprise Group serving many Israeli technology companies which afforded her the ability to spend many years working in Israel. In addition to her active involvement in her family-owned construction company, she has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Bluefly, Inc., an online designer apparel retailer, Walker Innovation, a Patent Litigation firm and currently Paltalk, Inc. a Nasdaq listed software company. She is a Certified Public Accountant, a member of the AICPA and fluent in Hebrew.
In addition to her parents, Kara is grateful that her sister and brother-in-law Melissa and Scott Gerber and nephews Ian and Chad are also members of the Woodbury Jewish Center. She considers herself fortunate that together they are all part of her much larger Woodbury Jewish Center family.
Sat, December 21 2024 20 Kislev 5785
