Who's Who

Rabbi Dovid Rosenbaum became the Rabbi of YISE in 2010 after having served as the Assistant Rabbi under Rav Gedaliah Anemer, zt"l, for the previous five years. In addition to his responsibilities at YISE, Rabbi Rosenbaum has played an extensive role in the broader Greater Washington Orthodox Jewish community, serving, among other positions, as President of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Washington from 2013 to 2015. Rabbi Rosenbaum is currently the Beth Din Administrator for the Vaad, supervising get and litigation procedures. He also acts as a halachic resource for a number of organizations in the community.

Before coming to YISE, Rabbi Rosenbaum was the Rabbi of Am Hatorah Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland for five years. His first love was Jewish education and he taught Judaic studies at the Yeshiva of Greater Washington – to levels ranging from seventh grade to post-high school in the Boys, Girls, and Yeshiva Gedolah Divisions – for ten years. He still enjoys numerous opportunities to connect to the youth of our community, including YISE's popular Dor L'Dor program and weekly visits to the YISE Nursery.

Rabbi Rosenbaum's greatest joy in the rabbinate is the opportunity to forge meaningful connections with individuals of various ages and backgrounds. Having joined the YISE community as a child in 1984, he enjoys the unique opportunity to deepen relationships with some congregants he has known for over 30 years.

Rabbi Rosenbaum gives both weekly and periodic shiurim within our shul, in addition to a popular series of five-minute recordings. Many of his shiurim can be found at http://torahdownloads.org/s-67-rabbi-dovid-rosenbaum.html

Rabbi Rosenbaum is a musmach of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington and holds a BS in Accounting from University of Maryland University College.

Rebbetzin Atara Rosenbaum, a product of the Woodside community, has been a Judaic studies teacher at the Yeshiva of Greater Washington Girls Division since 1998. The Rosenbaums' lives are immeasurably enriched by their children Yosef, Gedaliah, Moshe, Rachel, and Miriam.

Rabbi Yosef Postelnek is the Assistant Rabbi at YISE. Prior to his arrival in Silver Spring, he served as the Rabbinic Intern at The Roslyn Synagogue in Roslyn, NY as well as a Shoel U'Maishiv in Yeshiva University's Irving I. Stone Beit Midrash Program.

A graduate of Sy Syms School of Business, Rabbi Postelnek received Semicha from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He currently learns in Kollel Zichron Amram of Yeshiva of Greater Washington.

His wife, Aliza, earned her M.A. in Jewish education from Yeshiva University's Azrieli Graduate School in secondary Jewish education and a B.A. in psychology from Queens College. She currently teaches Tanach, Chumash and AP Psychology at Berman Hebrew Academy. Aliza also works at the Wallerstein Mikvah and is a trained Kallah teacher.

With a shared passion for Torah and desire to serve the Jewish community, Rabbi and Rebbetzin Postelnek – along with their three children – feel privileged and excited to connect, learn and grow with the entire YISE community.

Rabbi Postelnek can be reached at rypostelnek@yise.org.

Office Staff
  • Office Manager: Simi Franco
  • Facility Manager: Josh Breitstein
  • Secretary: Esther Edeson
Officers of the Shul
President Joshua Seidemann president@yise.org
Vice President 1 Meir Kramer mkramer@yise.org
Vice President 2 Barbara Price barbaraprice@yise.org
Vice President 3 Isaac Moses imoses@yise.org
Vice President 4 Rabbi Yehuda Shinensky yshinensky@yise.org
Vice President 5 Ori Carmel ocarmel@yise.org
Secretary Jonah Mainzer secretary@yise.org
Treasurer Nancy James treasurer@yise.org
Board of Directors
Dova Boyars dboyars@yise.org
Aliza Chlewicki achlewicki@yise.org
Dov Chodoff dchodoff@yise.org
Ethan Cohen ecohen@yise.org
Shoshana Feldman sfeldman@yise.org
Yoni Goldstein ygoldstein@yise.org
Ali Jacobson ajacobson@yise.org
Goldie Levy glevy@yise.org
Adina Neumann aneumann@yise.org
David Price dprice@yise.org
Craig Simon csimon@yise.org
Jules Szanton jszanton@yise.org
Sandie Thurman sthurman@yise.org
Joan Walter jwalter@yise.org
HaRav Gedaliah Anemer z"lRabbi Gedaliah Anemer was born in Akron, Ohio. His early schooling was at Tiferas Yerushalayim in New York, and he attended Telse Yeshiva from 1944 to 1956 where he was a talmid of Rabbi Bloch. He received smicha in 1952 and was Rosh Yeshiva of the Boston Rabbinical Seminary, a joint venture of Lakewood and Telshe Yeshivot, in 1956.Rabbi and Mrs. Anemer came to our congregation from Boston. They arrived as we moved into our first building on Eastern Avenue in Riggs Park, Washington.At that time, the congregation had about thirty paid-up member families and decided to engage this full-time rabbi to coincide with our move in 1957 to our own “permanent” quarters.After a few short years, the demographics of the Riggs Park community threatened the existence of the congregation. We were losing members to other neighborhoods. Under the leadership of Rabbi Anemer, the congregation made a bold decision to create a branch in the suburbs where there was not yet an orthodox congregation. The shul bought land on University Boulevard to build there. When the University Boulevard shul was completed, there were about sixty people davening regularly in their home.It was not long after the University Boulevard building was completed that the congregation outgrew it. We bought a rambler on North Belgrade Road and converted the basement into a place to daven. During this time, we also bought land and built the Arcola facility as the North Belgrade building was quickly outgrown, too – even though we started the Hashkoma minyan to alleviate the crowding at the “nine o’clock” minyan. We moved into the Arcola building in 1974.

In addition to serving the Young Israel Congregation, Rabbi Anemer has served as Rosh HaYeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington for over a quarter of a century. He is also the Rav Av Bet Din of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington.

Rabbi Gedaliah Anemer passed away in April of 2010.