Talk about returning to your roots!  I grew up in Wayne going to Shomrei Torah.  After I married and we began to start a family, we moved from the city back to Wayne.  I wanted to have my daughter's baby naming at Shomrei Torah, the shul I was raised in.  Rabbi Mark made it such a wonderful experience that we knew this was the shul for us.

My family consists of my husband Rob (we just celebrated our 12th anniversary) and two daughters: Marley is 9 and Lyla is 6.  They both attend Hebrew School.  In terms of hobbies, I don't really have time for any!!  The things I enjoy most are spending time with my family, working out and a nice glass of wine :-)  I went to Rutgers College and studied Communications with a double minor in Psychology and Judaic Studies.  I work for a Pizza Hut franchisee doing their local store marketing.  My favorite part of my job is that I work from home.  This enables me to pick up my kids after school, do homework with them and take them to/from various activities.

Defining what being Jewish means to me is a hard question.  Despite keeping a kosher home and lighting candles on Friday night, I do not consider myself a very religious person (sorry Rabbi!!)  to me, being Jewish is more about passing down the Jewish traditions to my girls, spending holidays with family/friends and being an active part of the Jewish community.  Millions of Jews were murdered because of their religion.  To honor my family members and so many others affected by the Holocaust, I teach my children the importance of being Jewish.

In terms of my participation at Shomrei Torah, I enjoy spending time helping to build a strong community at our shul.  I am a board member and co-chair of Chaverim.  I believe it's important to have fun monthly after-school events for the kids to foster friendships and their love of being at Shomrei.  I also helped start the Shomrei Torah Young Members Social Club which I'm extremely excited about and proud of.  I believe it's a great way to get "younger" members more active in our shul, build relationships, and even bring in new members (which our first event has already done)!  I also want to make sure everyone knows that ALL members are welcome at our events.  Even though it's called "young members" all members young at heart are welcome!!  It's a brand new endeavor and we are open to everyone's ideas.  Feel free to share your thoughts with me via email: m12marisa@hotmail.com.  And although I'm not officially part of the membership committee, I am ALWAYS actively recruiting new members  :-)