Our Leadership

Kol Hai was founded in 2014 by Rabbi Shir Feit, one of this generation’s most prolific and creative Jewish composers. Shir created a musical legacy in the lineage of their teacher Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, founder of the Jewish Renewal movement.

Kol Hai continues today with this musical vision, under the leadership of its board of directors. 

Board of Directors / Kol Hai Visioners

Andy Izenson has been a member of the Kol Hai community for three years and lives with their partners in a queer commune on unceded Lenape/Esopus land in the Hudson Valley. On the clock, Andy can be found providing legal support to non-traditional families and transgender community members at the Chosen Family Law Center and fighting for prison abolition with the National Lawyers Guild, and off the clock, their time is spent crafting, doing aerial silks, singing show tunes, and perfecting their vegan challah recipe. Andy grew up Reform and has been overjoyed to find a spiritual home in Kol Hai, from which they can explore the spaciousness and depth of community and Jewish practice as a pantheist transsexual time-traveling anarchist weirdo.

 

 

Rachel Swersey has loved Kol Hai and been deeply involved in the community since its beginning in 2015. She spends her weekdays as an art teacher, facilitating art experiences and helping to foster belonging amongst middle school students in Kingston, NY. She is mom to two teen/young adult children, and a furry dog son and lives in Highland. Whatever free time she has is spent making art, cooking, celebrating through movement, and hanging out with her partner. She is very honored to help to steer Kol Hai at this exciting phase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie Rose Bifolco (Board Chair) has come to depend on Kol Hai's heart-opening music and prayer as a soothing balm for her sometimes aching soul at the end of a long work week.  As a member of the Board of Directors, she is on a mission to help strengthen and grow Kol Hai while keeping the "small village" vibe alive.  Stephanie has dedicated her professional life to social medicine, and is currently working as a licensed clinical social worker in a community mental health clinic in Newburgh, NY.  In her free time, she can be found playing, dancing, and singing outdoors with her two young children and life partner at their home in Esopus, NY.  
Felisa Sheskin grew up in the Washington, DC area surrounded by a wonderful family and grandparents from the old country. While she enjoyed her Jewish education, she grew disconnected from organized Judaism for quite some time. dabbling in  nature-based spirituality and yoga, she spent some months at Isabella Freedman, cooking food produced by the Adam’s farm interns. She then moved to Ulster County and was present for the formation if Kol Hai. The ecology, feminism and all-inclusiveness of the prayers spoke to her. 

 

 

 

 

Francine Glasser was proud to join the board of Kol Hai after retiring from her career in human services and as a private psychotherapist. Upon reaching retirement, she was looking for meaningful work and was glad to join the board to fulfill her desire to see Kol Hai and its unique community thrive.