Administrative Staff

Senior Rabbi
Rabbi David Kornberg
858.481.8454

Rabbi Kornberg lives in Carmel Valley with his wife, Debbie, an accomplished educator and Director of Judaic Studies for Golda Meir Lower School of the San Diego Jewish Academy, and his two children, Michael and Rachel.

Assistant Rabbi
Rabbi Matthew Earne
858.481.8454

Rabbi Matthew Earne lives in Carmel Valley with his wife, Elizabeth, a teacher at the Golda Meir Lower School of the San Diego Jewish Academy.

Executive Director
Michael Moskowitz
858.481.8454
ext. 13

Michael lives with his wife and daughter in San Diego, and their son attends New York University.

Program Director
Debra Clemens
858.481.8454
ext. 22

Originally from Long Island, Debra is a graduate of Western New England College with a Bachelor’s degree is Sociology and United States International University with a Master’s degree in Psychology.  She has many years of volunteer and professional experience in event planning and marketing.

She lives in San Diego with her daughter.  Her 2 older children attend San Diego State University.

Creative Designer
Susan Schaffer-Mualim
858.481.8454
ext. 20

Susan Schaffer-Mualim, Creative Director, has been working at Congregation Beth Am since March of 2002. Susan is responsible for creating the look for all our advertisement, invitations, flyers, and our weekly Shabbat Shalom newsletter. As well, Susan is the design and layout editor for our monthly magazine, HaKesher, and our website.

Susan was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. She graduated from Concordia University in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in Judaic Studies. After graduation, she moved to Israel where she met her husband. Susan worked as a teacher in Israel teaching English to children in preschool. Susan and her husband lived in Israel for 8 years and had 2 children before joining the rest of her family in San Diego in February of 2002.

Accounting Manager
Victor Ding
858.481.8454
ext. 23

Victor Ding, Accounting Manager at Congregation Beth Am, is responsible for all accounting related activities including bookkeeping, coordination of annual auditing and financial reporting.  Originally from Shanghai, China, Victor is a graduate of Shanghai University of Technology with double Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Foreign Trade, and Brigham Young University with a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA) in finance/accounting.   He has many years of experience in corporate finance and accounting.  

Victor lives in San Diego with his wife, while their daughter attends Harvard University.

Accounting
Kate Stordahl
858.481.8454
ext. 17 

Donations
Shirley Efron
858.481.8454
ext. 13 

Shirley Efron, has been working at Congregation Beth Am since May, 2002 as administrative assistant in the Preschool. However, when class is over, she works in the administration office with all of the donations.

Originally from Cape Town, South Africa where she received a teaching degree at The University of Cape Town. After her four children where older she ventured into a career in travel, which she pursued till emigrating to the States in 1999.

She has three children and five grandchildren living in San Diego, and one son & one grandchild living in New York.

Choir Leader
Elisheva Edelsohn
858.481.8454

Elisheva Edelson is originally from Monterrey, Mexico and has performed Jewish music from a young age. Internationally acclaimed, she has performed all over the world in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino, English, and Spanish. Elisheva graduated from the Yiddish-Hebrew Teachers Seminar in Mexico City and has taught Jewish history and music, Yiddish and Hebrew. Her teaching excellence has earned her the Advanced Pedagogic Award from the San Diego Agency of Jewish Education, the nationally prestigious Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for excellence in Education and she is a Feinstein Fellow for Jewish History in America. 

Elisheva has a daughter and 2 grandchildren who also live in San Diego. 

Rabbis'  Assistant
Bonnie Cohen
858.481.8454
ext. 11

Front Desk
858.481.8454
ext. 10

Jewish Learning Center

Harriet Wolpoff is serving her eleventh year as Education Director of our Jewish Learning Center, and has been a member of the Congregation for 13 years.  She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in education from Brooklyn College. Additionally, she has studied in Judaic Studies departments in NYU, Hebrew University, and the New School. In total, Harriet has worked for the San Diego Jewish community for 28 years, following a teaching career in a New York City public school.

Harriet is the co-president of the AJE’s Principal’s Council and has professional membership in the Jewish Educator’s Assembly and CAJE. 

Members of the San Diego Wolpoff clan are all Beth Am congregants, and include Harriet’s husband, her 2 sons and their wives, Harriet’s dad, and her sister and brother-in-law.

Elisheva Edelson is originally from Monterrey, Mexico and has performed Jewish music from a young age. Internationally acclaimed, she has performed all over the world in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino, English, and Spanish. Elisheva graduated from the Yiddish-Hebrew Teachers Seminar in Mexico City and has taught Jewish history and music, Yiddish and Hebrew. Her teaching excellence has earned her the Advanced Pedagogic Award from the San Diego Agency of Jewish Education, the nationally prestigious Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for excellence in Education and she is a Feinstein Fellow for Jewish History in America. 

Elisheva has a daughter and 2 grandchildren who also live in San Diego.  

Preschool

Tammy Fischman is the director for Beth Am Preschool’s Synagogue Campus, serving students ages newborn through three years.  Tammy has worked at Beth Am since 1996 where she has held several positions. Prior to directing the Synagogue Campus, Tammy taught in several Preschools including Beth Am as well as directed our Youth Department.

Tammy emigrated from Israel to the United States in 1991.  She has lived in Los Angeles and San Diego.  Tammy holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Southern California.  Over the past 12 years Tammy has enjoyed working in both formal and informal education with children of all ages (infants through college students).

Shirley Efron, is the administrative assistant in the Preschool. She has been in her staff position at Beth Am since May, 2002.

Originally from Cape Town, South Africa where she received a teaching degree at The University of Cape Town. After her four children where older she ventured into a career in travel, which she pursued till immigrating to the States eight years ago. She has three children and five grandchildren living in San Diego, and one son & one grandchild living in New York.

Denise Neifeld has been responsible for directing the Satellite Campus of our preschool which serves the 4-5 year old student population, for the past five years. Denise is in her 10th year of working at Congregation Beth Am where she began with the responsibility of Preschool Admissions during the time that her daughter Stephanie attended our school.

Denise was born and raised in Johannesburg, South AfricaU.S. with husband Grant and older daughter Katherine in 1988. Her family lived in AlabamaTexas before moving to San Diego in 1993. and moved to the and

Denise holds a social work with honors degree from the University of the Witwatersrand.  She specialized in Pediatric social work and ran a preparation program for hospitalization and surgery for preschoolers and peer counseling groups for parents and children with chronic disease.  She later worked at Texas Children’s Hospital in the Nurseries and G.I. and Liver transplant units.  Denise completed additional coursework at UCSD pertaining to Preschool Administration.  Denise enjoys the opportunity of working each day with children and their families whilst keeping abreast of new and innovative programs for the preschool age child.

The Neifeld family have been members of COngregation Beth Am since 1993 and feel priviledged to have been apart of the history of our wonderful community. 

Youth Department

Coming Soon!

Maintenance Staff