Roger Mendelson has been a member of Congregation Beth Israel for over fifty years and was in the confirmation class of 1967. He previously served on the Temple board from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2007 to 2009. He has participated on multiple CBI committees and was chairman of the Caring Community Committee. Dr. Mendelson is a retired physician who was in the private practice of Obstetrics and Gynecology for 24 years in Austin. He delivered many of our Temple members. Currently, he works part time, doing general medicine and gynecology at the Austin State Hospital. His son, Ben, is an Eagle Scout, honor student, CBI Bar Mitzvah and member of the confirmation class of 2008. His wife, Shirley, is also an active Temple member. Dr. Mendelson’s mother, Margery, has been a busy participant at the Temple since 1957. Dr. Mendelson has many interests. He holds a leadership position in Boy Scout Troop 3, is past president of the Austin Model A Ford Club, and enjoys hiking, fishing, and hunting with his son. In addition, Dr. Mendelson devotes himself to the restoration of his hill country ranch to its native condition.
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Brooklyn-born and raised, Steve and his family moved to Austin in 1996 and joined CBI shortly thereafter. His daughter, Alexis, attends Khabele High School and his son, Jesse, attends the Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy at LBJ High. In addition to his recent participation in CBI's Leadership program, Steve has served as Operations Co-Chair of the Austin Macabee games, is currently working with a non-profit startup organization geared toward helping at-risk teens and occasionally volunteers clumsily at The Austin Yellow Bike Project, where there are no dangerous power tools.
Professionally, Steve is an enterprise portal and human resources technology strategist who is passionate about the impact and influence of the user experience in all its manifestations. He has worked with Dell, General Motors, American Express and other corporations, both large and small.
Steve loves movies, talking (especially hearing himself talk) and is an avid fitness enthusiast who teaches Spinning classes (on stationary bicycles) at the JCAA.
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Mitzi is a third generation Texan from Houston who found her way to Austin via New York. She was endeared to Beth Israel when Rabbi Folberg did the naming for her grandson, Brayden. She enjoys the warm, caring community at the Temple and unwinding at Friday night services with her husband Nelson. Mitzi is Austin’s only Jewish funeral director and is proud to serve at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home which is locally owned and operated. She is a member of the temple Sisterhood and is chairing the Empty Nesters’ dinners. She and Nelson have two wonderful daughters; Rachel and Valerie and a very lovable a chocolate lab, Stogie. Mitzi enjoys theater, Jewish studies, and the arts and is active with Hadassah.
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Forrest is a native Austinite, whose family has been involved with CBI for four generations. He is married to Kit Belgum. Their daughters, Morgan and Mariah, attended the CDC, became B’nei Mitzvah, and currently serve as Madrichim. Forrest has participated in the CBI Leadership Development Program. His professional work focuses on special education, delinquency and juvenile justice.
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Jeff is originally from Rochester, NY and came to Austin via Orlando, FL. Jeff moved to Austin in 1993 to work for Motorola and now works as a software consultant. He married his wife, Andrea, and they joined CBI in 1995. They have two daughters; Alexandra, a recent bat mitzvah who attends school at Westlake High School and Téa, who attends Barton Creek Elementary. Before Austin, Jeff worked for 15 years in show business on Broadway, touring and in film and TV as a sound engineer. Jeff has degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and works as a software engineer. He keeps his hand in theatre working with local theatre groups and schools. Jeff and family have been members at CBI for 16 years.
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Mike was born in Houston, Texas, did a brief stint in Waco while attending Baylor University, and then returned to Houston upon graduation to practice public accounting. However, his dream was always to live in Austin--he just needed a reason to be there. So, in 2002, he left Houston and public accounting to attend law school at UT. He was lucky enough to find employment in Austin after passing the bar, and is now a partner at Martens, Seay & Todd, a tax litigation firm here in town. In 2005, in the midst of his last round of law school finals, Mike met his wife-to-be, Jennifer, owner and president of an art consulting firm. Engagement and marriage lead to Mike and Jennifer joining CBI in 2007. The birth of their first child, Jude, followed in February 2009, and their second child, Joy, was born in December 2010. Jude is currently attending the CDC and is loving it, and Joy will follow soon. All of the Seays have very much enjoyed the CDC and CBI, and look forward to both becoming a bigger part of their lives here in Austin.
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Alex Paez-Gerstenhaber is a native of Mexico City. She holds a degree in Law from Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City, and practiced law (primarily criminal and corporate) in Mexico for more than five years before switching to marketing. Alex has 15 years of direct marketing management experience in Texas and Mexico and is a certified business coach. She is married to Gary Gerstenhaber, a New York native, and is the mother of Devon and Josh who attend Vandegrift High School, as well as stepmother to Tyler, Amber and Jason who are wonderful young adults pursuing their professional growth. The Gerstenhaber family recently moved back to the States, after living in Mexico for the last 13 years. The family is still new to Austin and they are very happy to be a member at CBI. Alex has participated in the CBI Leadership Development Program and is very excited to have the opportunity to serve as trustee to CBI´s board.
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Kent was born and raised in Austin. His parents, Rosalie and Danny Samuelson, moved here in 1946 and have been lifelong members of CBI, as has his brother, Scott Samuelson. Kent and his wife Janice are an inter-faith couple. After raising their son Sky in the First Universalist Church of Austin for many years, Sky walked out of Sunday school one day in his 12th year of life and announced he wanted to be a Jew, become a Bar Mitzvah and do all this at Congregation Beth Israel. The following Sunday Sky attended Sunday school and CBI and two years later he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. This was transformative for Kent’s entire family. Kent feels as if he is returning home, Janice feels welcome and has made many friends through shared community and Sky is filling his need for connection at CBI and ATT. A kick start for Kent and Janice was attending the Leadership Training Program offered at CBI and they recommend it to all congregants. In this course they not only learned quite a bit about the workings of CBI, but importantly they also developed and nurtured budding relationships with other congregants. Prior to being asked to be a trustee, Kent had never served on any boards nor worked in any corporate nor religious settings. When asked to serve Kent raised his personal bar and accepted. He hopes to be an asset to the CBI community and has no idea what to expect.
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Susan is a New Yorker who moved to Austin to pursue her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology in 1988. She received her degree in 1995, the same year she met her husband Bob. Susan is a practicing Psychologist, Bob is a software developer, and they have 2 children, Ellie, 13 and Paulo 10 who have been active participants in Zimriyah since Cantor Shpall days. Susan was the Zimriyah Parent Coordinator for 2 years, and takes pride in her development of CBI's "Inter-generational Yiddish Choir", which has performed at Chanukah services for the past two years. She has also served as a member of CBI's " Transformation Study Group". Susan loves CBI for its diversity as well as the intelligence, spiritual and emotional depth and whimsical sense of humor of its leaders, which is also reflected in its membership. She has been a member since 2004ish.
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John was born and raised in Minnesota, but came to Austin in 1987 with Andrea Abel to attend graduate school at UT. Andrea and John joined CBI in 1991, and subsequently John converted to Judaism after taking the basic Judaism course. Daughters Anna and Sydney attended the CDC, religious school, and Hebrew school at CBI. Anna became Bat Mitzvah in 2008 and Sydney is currently going through the process. John enjoys observance of the Jewish holidays and learning about Judaism. This past year he participated in the CBI Leadership Development Program. John is part of Austin’s high tech economy, and through his work has had the privilege of numerous trips to Israel some including his family.
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Eddy Eichner moved to Austin from McAllen in 1980 and graduated from UT in 1986. He has been a member of CBI since 1994. Eddy is married to Alice and their daughter Erin will be a Senior at Anderson High School and their son Sam will be Sophomore at Anderson High. Both Erin and Sam are proud alumni of the CDC. Alice is a licensed Interior Designer specializing in residential remodeling/design and has owned her own business for over 20 years. Eddy has 15 years experience as a financial analyst and has been involved with property management the last 10 years.
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