I’ve been married to my best friend Paul Konigstein for 35 years. He has been everything a best friend could be: mutual support, rock, sounding board, sparring partner, my everything. Starting when he was in graduate school, I talked him into a career in the not-for-profit world. He is now the CFO of Alcoholics Anonymous, a position of which we are so proud and grateful. We have two children, Harry and Shira, and a new son-in-law Elias. We are still recovering from a Purim wedding.

 

My philosophy in life is to “Pay It Forward,” as I interpreted it by watching my maternal grandparents who always helped their elderly neighbors with errands, and my grandmother who literally took the coat off her back to give to someone more needy.

 

In my early childhood, my parents were founding members of Manetto Hill Jewish Center so participating in the shul was part of my earliest days. My observant life began in college, where I became kosher and then vegetarian, while actively engaged in the Jewish Student Union and the Kosher Kitchen, a food cooperative at SUNY Binghamton. 

 

Volunteerism began in earnest when our son’s special needs made my job as an attorney for New York City’s Child Protective Services difficult to sustain. Once Harry received preschool special education services, I became a parent member of the Committee of Special Education in our district, and a member of SEPTA (Special Education Parent Teacher Association). I attended more than a hundred CSE meetings, and served every position in SEPTA for many years where we helped advocate, educate and support families affected by special needs. I learned about a plethora of challenges from other parents, like reading and writing challenges, helped them as best I could to navigate through the school system, and assisted in finding further resources. Thank you Google and research skills. I was actively involved in Asperger’s groups as librarian and phone support for parents and those with individuals on the spectrum in their lives. I remained an active participant in PTA in our daughter’s school as well, running the Parents as Reading Partners program (PARP) several times, looking for unique ways to encourage a love for reading for both children and their parents.