Our Voices

What a journey this has been.

Serving as your Chief Community Officer for the past ten years has been one of the great privileges of my life. It’s been an honor to walk beside you—celebrating simchas, mourning losses, and helping build a community rooted in connection, compassion, and meaning.

We’ve shared so much together. We welcomed new clergy, weathered a global pandemic, and time and again came together to make PTS a shelter of peace—a place of belonging and resilience for all who enter. I leave this role inspired by your strength and your steadfast commitment to one another and to our beloved synagogue.

Being a Chief Community Officer is a funny thing—it’s part strategist, part shepherd, and sometimes just making sure there’s enough challah. On any given day, I might be drafting a message to the congregation, solving a logistical puzzle, planning a program, or offering a quiet hug to someone in pain. What makes PTS so special is that we embrace all of it—the mundane and the sacred—as essential threads in our communal fabric.

I want to especially thank Rabbi Dan Feder for his vision, partnership, and friendship, and the six remarkable presidents with whom I’ve had the honor of working: April Glatt, Lauren Schlezinger, Heidi Schell, Jon Herstein, Arlene Rosenberg, and Jason Pollard. Each brought unique wisdom, dedication, and heart to our community. To our current board and staff—thank you. With your leadership and this community’s support, PTS will continue to thrive.

As we conclude one book of the Torah and begin the next, we say chazak chazak v’nitchazek—be strong, be strong, and we will be strengthened. That blessing feels especially fitting now. As I step into retirement, full of gratitude and anticipation for what’s ahead, I carry your strength with me. I hope, in return, I’ve left a little of mine with you.

And now, we turn the page. In July, we will welcome Keren Smith as our next Chief Community Officer. She’s warm, creative, and full of energy—and she gets things done. I know you’ll embrace her just as you embraced me.

I look forward to returning to the pews as a fellow congregant, proud to stand beside you in our caring community. May we continue to grow, to lift one another up, and to build a PTS filled with heart and holiness.

With warmth and friendship,
Karen