Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz
Rabbi
Welcome to our community!
Have you ever dreamed of living in a vibrant, bustling college town with every amenity at one’s disposal and only a stone’s throw away from the beautiful cornfields of Iowa? The Iowa City/Coralville area has provided a welcoming community with a high quality of life for our Jewish community for over a century. A hidden gem of the Midwest, our area is culturally diverse, is known for excellent schools and hospitals, and balances the charms of a university town with the opportunities for outdoors escapes.
More
Rabbi Jeff Portman
Rabbi Emeritus
Rabbi Portman was named rabbi of Agudas Achim Congregation and Hillel director in 1974. He left Hillel and became full time rabbi of the congregation in 1994 and retired in 2015. During his tenure he was active in the community chairing the Iowa City Human Rights Commission and serving on the Board of Fellows of the UI Religious Studies Department. He helped the congregation transition into a new building in 2013, after about 50 years in its downtown location. In retirement, Rabbi Portman continues to serve the Agudas Achim Congregation community including teaching and occasionally leading services. Rabbi Portman was born in South Bend, Indiana, and graduated from Indiana University. He received his rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in 1973. Jeff and his wife Gail reside in Iowa City.
John Wertz
Administrator
John has lived in Iowa City his whole life and spent a lot of time at Agudas Achim growing up. He’s the nephew of Rabbi Emeritus Jeff Portman. He has bachelor’s degrees from the University of Iowa in double bass performance and French. He started out as secretary and transitioned to the administrator role.
Sonja Spear
Religious School Principal
Sonja loved history and comparative mythology as a child, a passion that led her to earn a Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Indiana University. After living the glamorous life of an itinerant academic, she settled in Iowa City, where she is Religious School Principal at Agudas Achim Congregation. On any given day, she might be hiring a petting zoo, trying to get a shy thirteen-year-old to sing, training college students to teach, or holding a workshop on making Hamantaschen. Sonja’s first book, Cats and Honey Cake won the Sydney Taylor Award for unpublished manuscripts in 2021. Sonja and her husband have one daughter.
Hannah Sandler
Administrative Assistant / Outreach Coordinator
Officers (Executive Committee)
David Lubaroff
President
David is professor emeritus from the UI Holden Comprehensive Cancer, where he taught classes in immunology and investigated the use of vaccine immunotherapy for prostate cancer. He also was the director of a summer cancer research training program for underrepresented college students. Both research and training continue. David and Martha, along with Saul, Scott, and Matthew, moved to Iowa City in 1973 from Philadelphia. He is blessed with a wonderful wife, three sons and daughters-in law, five grandsons and one granddaughter. David has been involved with Agudas Achim in various roles for most of his life in Iowa City. He enjoys exercising, reading, cooking, gardening, and, most of all, his family.
Lori McMann
President Elect
Lori was happy to return to her Midwestern roots when moving to Iowa City a few years ago, and even happier to find such a warm, vibrant, and welcoming Jewish community! After growing up and living in Michigan, she moved with her husband and son to Atlanta, Georgia, for several years. She spent many years teaching college-level French language and literature at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and at Agnes Scott College, a womens’ liberal-arts college in Decatur, Georgia. At Agudas Achim, she enjoys working with her fellow Social Committee and Board of Trustees members, and pursuing study of Mussar, a traditional framework of ethics and spirituality. The time she spends painting, exploring museums, and traveling to new places with her family is deeply rewarding. You will always find her willing to talk about the most recent memoir she has read, beautiful destinations in Michigan, Detroit Tigers baseball, backyard chicken-keeping, art and architecture, or what to serve at the next party.
Jayne Sandler
Vice President
Mindy Russell
Treasurer
Originally from a small town in southwest Virginia, Mindy and her husband Gary have lived in a number of cities, including Chicago, San Francisco, Nashville, and Toronto. They moved to Iowa City in 1996 with their two daughters, Sarah and Rebecca. Mindy has worked at a variety of jobs as a CPA and is currently doing accounting for a local jewelry store. She was active in the Sisterhood for many years, serving as its treasurer and as co-president. She has been serving as the treasurer of the Agudas Achim congregation since 2017. In her free time, Mindy enjoys reading, playing bridge, going for walks and spending as much time as possible with her two daughters who live in Los Angeles and Indianapolis.
Chuck Friedman
Board Secretary
Chuck and his family moved to Iowa City in 1992. Now retired, he was a psychometrician at ACT, assisting organizations in the development of national certification and licensure examinations. Prior to moving to Iowa City, he taught applied linguistics and was director of Camp Young Judaea in Texas. Chuck grew up in central New Jersey, studied and lived in Israel for about 18 months, and has lived in Bloomington, Indiana, Houston, McAllen, and San Antonio, Texas. He is a former president of Agudas Achim. Chuck has one daughter living in Iowa City and four sons and their families who live in Seattle, Austin, and Minneapolis.
Chairs of Standing Committees
Lisa Heineman
Adult Education
Karen Lipman
Membership
Sonja Spear
Education
Bernie Miller
Corvin Greene
Lori McMann
Social Co-Chair
Sue Weinberg
Social Co-Chair
Sue grew up in Ottumwa Iowa, and is one of many people who came to Iowa City as a student who ended up staying. She did spend 5 years in California but still thought of Iowa City as home so she moved back, accompanied by her now husband Robert Armstrong and her first two cats, Justa Cat and Jasper.
Her degree is a Bachelor of General Studies with emphasis in computer science, book arts, and physical education. Prior to her retirement in 2021, she spent most of her career working the UIHC business office, although when she lived in California her career took a different path; she drove a horse carriage in a tourist area, and exercised harness horses as a side gig.
She is passionate about animals, residing with two cats as well as fostering kittens for the animal shelter. (Talk to me if you want to adopt a cat or kitten!)
She enjoys reading, candy making, traveling, and playing Dungeons and Dragons. She has been active at Agudas Achim since 2006, participating in an adult B’nai Mitzvah, serving on the Sisterhood board, organizing a Synagogue Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and attending services and synagogue events. She served two terms as Tikun Olam chair, and served as President in 2019-2021. She is currently an at-large member of the board as well as a member of the Social and Tikun Olam committees.
Mallory Hellman
Tikkun Olam
Mallory Hellman was born into the tiny but mighty Jewish community of New Orleans, where she developed a taste for jazz and funk music and a hearty appetite for spicy cuisine. She did most of her growing up in South Florida, then went to Harvard to study English and American Literature and Language. After a brief and harrowing stint in the New York publishing industry, she moved to Iowa City in 2012 to get her MFA in fiction from the Writers’ Workshop. Since 2015, she has served as the director of the Iowa Youth Writing Project. When she’s not directing troops of undergrads or perusing junior high students’ novel excerpts, Mallory enjoys yoga, cooking, grassroots activism, outdoor sports that involve mountains (a slight geographic pity), and spending time with her partner Charlotte. Most of all, Mallory loves teaching, which is why she is thrilled to teach at Agudas Achim Sunday school in addition to her role as Tikkun Olam chair.
Hannah Sandler
Youth
At Large
Sue Weinberg
Ruth Nathanson
Ruth was born and raised in Queens,NY. She attended the other Cornell (Ithaca, NY) and then earned her MSW from Syracuse University. She is a retired pediatric social worker. Since marrying Doug they have gradually moved west, spending 10 years in New Jersey, 30 years in Pennsylvania and arriving in Iowa City in 2023 to be near their son, daughter-in-law and grandson.
Since arriving here Ruth is a regular at services, participates in 2 synagogue book groups and is a member of the social committee. She enjoys exploring her new home and all the beautiful parks and trails here, as well as traveling, reading, theatre and most especially, spending time with her grandson.
Marcus Nashelsky
Appointed Committee Chairs
Alan Weinstein
Art
A former president and frequent board member at our synagogue, Alan moved back to town in 1980 with Nina and their family. The painter and print maker (BA, Princeton, MFA, University of Iowa) designed our Aron Kodesh and was part of the building committee for our new Agudas Achim Congregation building.
Teresa Weiner
Library
Teresa moved to Iowa City in 1989 with her husband and three young children and has enjoyed Agudas Achim’s many volunteer opportunities including serving as board president. She has lived in West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania but now considers Iowa City home. She is fortunate to have a son and daughter and their families right here in Iowa City and to travel often to visit a son and his family in Idaho. In an earlier life, she was a PhD biochemist but has been thrilled with her second life as a wife, mother, grandmother, and volunteer.
Rich Haendel
Cemetery
Kyle Fitzpatrick
Facilities
Myra Clark
Grounds
