Mark was born in Washington D.C., attended The Hebrew Academy to third grade and public school in Silver Spring, MD the rest of the way. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. After college Mark worked for nine months in Philadelphia at Dynaco, a hi-fi equipment manufacturer and then came back to suburban Maryland to work for the Federal Government, General Services Administration, in the areas of magnetic tape, secure telecommunications, computer networks, and systems programming, until his retirement in 2003.

 

Mark and his wife Debbie were married in 1982 and moved to Annandale, VA to be near the JCC and Congregation Olam Tikvah (OT). Mark volunteered at the JCC for 30 years maintaining their computers and networks, developed software for their fundraising events, for their program/class registration, and for their membership card scanning system, as well as serving time on their board. Mark received the JCCNV's first 'volunteer of the year' Manny Gale Presidential Award in 1991.

 

Following his first trip to Israel in 2003 with Rabbi Kalender, Mark became more involved in Olam Tikvah and Men's Club activities. Mark joined the Men's Club board in 2006 and helped lead Men's Club Shabbat, fundraising events, and 'Jews Rock' gala shows, Mark currently provide audio/video support for Men's Club, Sisterhood, and other Jewish organization events at OT, for all the High Holiday services in the Social Hall, and for OT's Purim "shpiel" for the last 12 years. Mark frequently leads weekday services and also helps the OT Torah readers as one of the gabbaim on Shabbat morning. And last, but perhaps most importantly, Mark shops every week for food for the Shabbat kiddush lunch after services and for other OT provided meals.