Bonnie Dimun, Executive Director, brings a wealth of experience in the non-profit, corporate and university arenas. She founded and was president of Dynamics for Change, a management consulting firm focusing on client relations, business development, and alliance partnerships. Bonnie also served as National Director of Education and Public Policy at Hadassah, the world’s largest women’s non-profit organization. There she created and managed the Leadership, Education and Training Center. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of Organization Advancement for Middlesex County College. Bonnie holds an Ed.D from Columbia University as well as two degrees from Rider University, where she serves on the Board of Directors.

My favorite place: Next to new visitors as they walk into the synagogue for the first time and truly gasp with the magnificence of the place.  My other favorite is when the sun shines through the stained-glass windows and the magnificent reflection is on the walls, floors and halls. It takes my breath away.

Miriam Bader, Director of Education, works with Eldridge Street's growing school and family audience to maximize their museum experience. Miriam is a New York State Board of Education certified teacher and has taught in both the classroom and in the museum galleries of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Lower East Side Tenement Museum and the Jewish Museum. Miriam received her BA from Yeshiva University and her MS in Museum Education from Bank Street College. She holds a certificate from the Institute in Jewish Art at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Miriam is an alumnus of ROI120, a global community of Jewish innovators and is an editor and writer for PresenTense magazine.

My favorite place: The floorboards. Stepping into the grooves made by the footsteps of the Synagogue's congregants captures my imagination. They are a portal into history and a constant reminder of the people whose stories we tell everyday at Eldridge Street.

Eva Bruné, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, has more than 30 years experience in non-profit management and fundraising. As sole development staff person at the Museum at Eldridge Street, Eva was responsible for planning and implementing the organization’s successful $18.5 million capital campaign. Prior to joining the Museum at Eldridge Street, Eva served as Executive Director for The CityKids Foundation, Managing Director for INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center, and Director for Institutional Advancement for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Young Audiences, Inc., and the Big Apple Circus. She has served as a grant evaluator and/or panelist for numerous institutions and agencies including the Arts and Business Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the State Arts Councils of Alaska, Florida and New Jersey. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Irish Theatre Company, Origin Theatre Company, as well as an advisor to the Rural China Education Foundation. Eva is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts awards, a Visual Arts grant for her sculpture and a Fellowship for her arts management work. Eva received her BFA and California teaching credential from the California College of Arts, and is currently completing a Certificate in Global Affairs from New York University’s Continuing Education Program.

My favorite place: The historic tzedakah box is my favorite artifact, as it represents the original congregants’ deep commitment to the community in which they lived and worshipped. I believe that the Museum at Eldridge Street’s donors share the same commitment to the Jewish community by contributing to maintain the Eldridge Street Synagogue and support the Museum’s cultural and educational programs.

Nina Zoe Cohen, Education and Special Projects Coordinator, is responsible for creating and managing the Museum’s thematic walking tours of the Lower East Side neighborhood and our Traveling Docent Program. Prior to joining the Museum staff, Nina worked as an educator for the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and as an intern at MAES during college. Nina is a research assistant for a forthcoming publication from New York University Press on Lower East Side culture and religion. Her passion for education led her as far as Minsk, Belarus, where Nina created and implemented programming for teenagers living in the former Soviet state without any form of Jewish education. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Nina graduated Summa Cum Laude from Barnard College with a BA in History, concentrating in Religion and Society (February 2009).

My favorite place: The historic staircase leading from the main sanctuary level to the women’s balcony. The graceful, curving structure seems miraculously suspended in the air, without visible supports, like a connection between the synagogue and the heavens. As I ascend up the time-worn stairs, I can almost see the generations of women who have traced their hands lightly along the wooden banister, now smooth from their touch.

Hanna Griff-Sleven, Director of Family History Center & Cultural Programs, conceives, plans and runs the Museum at Eldridge Street’s concerts, lectures, readings, festivals, and other public programs. Prior to joining the Museum’s staff, Hanna was a Program Officer in the Folk Arts Program of the New York State Council on the Arts and, for one year, the program's Acting Director. She holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and American Studies from Indiana University. In the early 1990s Hanna directed Toldot Iowa, which collected oral histories of Jews in Iowa, and more recently served as Oral Historian for the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in Jackson, Mississippi. She has been a Senior Lecturer in American Studies at Grinnell College and was for two years Assistant Professor, Faculty of International Studies, Sanyo Gakuen University, Okayama, Japan, and Visiting Associate Professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. Hanna is an adjunct professor at NYU, CUNY and the Eugene Lang College at the New School for Liberal Arts. She has published in academic journals and has been a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars.

My favorite place: Upstairs in the women's balcony below the rose window: standing below it when the light shines through is a transcendent moment. The window is huge, I am so small and I feel strength and beauty of the place both as it once was and is again.

Sharon Stein, Visitor Services Associate,is a Chicago native with a love of the wonders of New York, including our pocket of the Lower East Side. She was educated at the University of Illinois and has lived in New York since the early 1960's, raising two children on the Upper West Side and spending her full time career in advertising as a Broadcast Traffic Manager and Vice-President at two agencies.  Sharon was a volunteer docent at Eldridge Street since the 1980s. In 2008, after the Museum re-opened, she was lured out of her retirement to serve as our first face to the public – orienting visitors, helping manage the gift shop, and otherwise creating a warm, welcoming experience. Come on a visit to Eldridge Street and you will likely meet Sharon.

My favorite place: The thing in the”gogue” that I find touching cannot be physically touched…unless you call our warm and heartfelt greetings and farewells physical. It is the friendship, camaraderie, interests and intellectual information that I share with our docents and our visitors.  Every day is different.  Every day I learn more and grow.

Amy Stein Milford, Deputy Director,has more than 20 years of experience in management positions for non-profit cultural institutions in New York City. She has worked at The Jewish Museum, the Writers Room, where she served as Acting Director, and the Museum at Eldridge Street, where she has been on staff since 1997. Amy oversaw all planning for the Museum’s 2007 re-opening, including re-opening exhibits, communications strategy, and government outreach. She is currently Project Director for the new Kiki Smith-Deborah Gans window, and conceived and is implementing “Ways We Worship” a new multi-faith initiative introducing Jewish practice and culture to a broad audience. Amy has been a speaker on museum practices and Jewish culture at special events and conferences, including for the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM), Museums Association of New York (MANY), SUNY Binghamton, and openhousenewyork.

My favorite place: There is a single hand-painted heart in one of the domes of the sanctuary. You have to look hard to find it. Perhaps one of the original artisans was in love. Or he didn’t feel like painting what he was supposed to. In any event, it reflects the hand-made quality of this sacred site and how important the human touch bas been from opening day to the present.

Sarah Verity, Director of Visitor Services, oversees the museum's volunteer docents and works to ensure that every visitor to Eldridge Street has a meaningful and welcoming experience. Sarah has worked for a variety of organizations in the Jewish community, including Hillels, summer camps, and, most recently, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun on the upper west side. A Los Angeles native, Sarah has always been drawn to New York City and is fascinated by its history, and has enjoyed visiting museums and historic sites all over the world. Sarah holds a BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and a MPA in non-profit management from NYU.

My favorite place: My favorite place: The site where the new Kiki Smith-Deborah Gans stained-glass window will be installed. I love that not only will the window brings added beauty to the space but it also contributes to a new chapter in the story of the building.