Board of Directors

Rena Cohen
A native Montrealer who started her family in Calgary prior to moving to BC. Rena arrived here in 2000 and was immediately drawn to the warmth and community of Temple Sholom.
Rena is happily married to Rick Parnell with whom she is raising two teenage sons, both of whom attended Temple Sholom Religious School.
Rena has served on Temple's Security committee, co-chaired the Religious School Parents Committee and chaired the Strategic Planning Committee, mapping the Temple’s strategic plan to 2015. Rena is proud to serve this organization, which has provided her family with innumerably rich Jewish experiences.
Rena began her professional life as an award-winning theatre director, teacher and critic before discovering a latent talent and inclination for innovative arts administration. She currently manages the theatre company Realwheels and is a speech and presentations coach to select corporate and individual clients. She practices hot yoga, plays bass, skis, gardens, cycles and enjoys family time.

Horatio Kemeny
Horatio Lived in Vancouver most of his life, and has been a member of Temple Sholom since 2000. As well as serving as Temple Sholom's treasurer, Horatio has also served on the Strategic Planning Committee since its inception. He is married with two children, and enjoys skiing and biking.

Elliott Lipsey
Elliott Grew up in Montreal and moved to Vancouver in 1982. He and his family have enjoyed being members of Temple Sholom for more than 17 years and he is currently on the Executive Committee as Second Vice President. He has previously served as Third Vice President and Treasurer of the Synagogue as well as President of the Men’s Club, Chair of the Security Committee and Chair of the Gift Shop Committee. Elliott is currently President and CEO of Stockgroup Media Inc., a provider of financial content and software solutions to media, corporate, and financial services companies. He has been married to Loren Plottel for 23 years and has two children, Benjamin 20, and Alannah, 15. Both children attended Temple’s Religious school, and Benjamin went on to become a teaching assistant for two years. Benjamin had his Bar Mitzvah at the Temple, and Alannah had her Bat Mitzvah in Israel on Mount Masada during one of Rabbi Bregman’s family trips to Israel. Elliott is an avid runner, and enjoys tennis, scuba diving, golf and mountain biking in his spare time.

Joyce Gordon
Joyce is a native of Chicago. While completing her Ph.D. and post-doctoral work in Microbiology at the University of Wisconsin, she met her husband Norman Dalley a Vancouverite who introduced her to the amazing beauty of our city. Moving here to teach at the University of BC, she experimented with different synagogue communities before choosing Temple Sholom as her Jewish home. Over the years, Joyce has keenly appreciated the ethos of the Temple and after enjoying the moving experience of her daughter Juliana’s Bat Mitzvah in 2003, joined the Board to try to “give back” to the Temple. Joyce has enjoyed many wonderful experiences with the Temple community, including her own adult Bat Mitzvah at Masada in 2005 and daughter Arielle’s Bat Mitzvah in 2006. Joyce continues to appreciate the many wonderful people that make up the Temple membership and hopes to actively promote a strong sense of community as we move forward. When not teaching at UBC and Vancouver Community College, Joyce enjoys dancing and acting with the Kol Halev Performance Ensemble, engaging in photography and graphic arts, and, on rare occasions, sitting in the Vancouver sun, reading.

Daniel Feldman
Daniel is originally from Calgary and has lived in Vancouver for over 7 years. His days are filled as an entrepreneur in the business of hot tubs and landscape construction. His family is a strong supporter of both Israel and the Federation. A synagogue has been the back bone of his Jewish existence throughout life. Their story with temple began 5 years ago with a brief visit to Rabbi Bregman with his girlfriend at the time, Sarah. So here we are 5 years later, Sarah (his wife), Benjamin (their son) and their new daughter Lyla - "what can I say we are kvelling". They have celebrated their conversion, wedding, brit, and baby naming with the Temple Sholom family. They look forward to many years of bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings, and maybe even another brit and baby naming in 30 years if they are so lucky. In the past year Daniel was a member on the Strategic Planning Committee and he looks forward to a great year serving the community with the board.

Abbe Chivers
Abbe was born in Vancouver but grew up in Calgary. In 1979, after obtaining her Bachelor of Commerce degree at The University of Calgary, she moved back to Vancouver where she completed her Chartered Accountancy requirements, and where she has been in practice for 27 years. Abbe works mostly with private enterprises, but also deals with a number of Not For Profit societies and foundations. Her knowledge base in both of these areas will enable her to deal with all aspects of the Temple’s financial situation.
Abbe and her husband Simon joined Temple Sholom in 1988. This was the synagogue they knew was right for them. All three of their sons attended Temple Sholom Religious School and had wonderful experiences having their bar-mitzvahs here. She served four years as trustee from 2005 to 2009, two years of which she was also co-chair of the Endowment Committee.
As for other activities, Abbe enjoys running and spending time with her family . . . especially watching all four of her guys on the soccer field.