Mira has over 25 years of administrative experience. Previously, she worked in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Mira earned her bachelor’s in education from Hakibbutzim College in Israel.
Daniel Pensante is graduate of Bernard M. Baruch College, with a bachelor’s in accounting and over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Daniel has always preferred working in service organizations, and most recently worked for Alcoholics Anonymous Grapevine, which publishes a magazine for the AA community; and Camelot of Staten Island, a drug rehabilitation and social services organization. Daniel was born and raised in Brooklyn and lives in Marine Park with his wife Sheila, daughter Sofia and niece Elizabeth.
Ally joined Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in 2023 as our marketing copywriter and coordinator. She was born and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey. She attended Binghamton University, where she earned her bachelor’s in English literature and rhetoric and a minor in Judaic studies. She has been trying to read “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in Hebrew and loves listening to podcasts at the end of each day.
Nicole grew up in Manhattan where she attended The Marymount School and The Legacy High School before earning her bachelor’s from Metropolitan College of New York. She married her high school sweetheart and together they have two children. She joined Stephen Wise in 2016 and in her free time she enjoys designing fashion for Something Old Something New Vintage, a company she co-created.
Ali Worth was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. They began their career at Stephen Wise in 2021 as a religious school teacher and has expanded their role by joining us in 2023 as the Jewish programs assistant. Outside of work, Ali enjoys cosplay and collecting vinyl records.
Rabbi Rena Rifkin, RJE, received her master’s in Jewish education from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Rhea Hirsch School of Education in 2008 and was ordained by HUC-JIR in 2010. During her time as a student, she was a Mandel Fellow for clergy-educators and worked in various communities throughout Los Angeles and New York City, including Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills and Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York.
Following ordination, she served North Shore Synagogue in Syosset, New York, as the director of lifelong learning, and most recently was coordinator of faculty and family engagement at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.
Rabbi Rifkin grew up at and continues to have strong ties with the URJ Camp Eisner and she is member of the Association of Reform Jewish Educators’s board. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Scott, and their three children, Eden, Simon and Micah.