Temple ChaiSan Antonio's Innovative Reform Congregation
Biographies
Michael P. Stern, M.D., President: Dr. Stern graduated from Harvard College in 1959 and received his M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1963. He completed his internship at the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, California. Following this he was appointed to the faculty of Stanford Medical School.
In 1976 he joined the faculty of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio as an Associate Professor and later Professor of Medicine. He is currently the head of Division of Clinical Epidemiology in the Department of Medicine.
Dr. Stern has also been active in the Jewish Community. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of San Antonio for several years and is the incoming Chair of the Community Relations Council. Dr. Stern has also participated in three missions to Israel sponsored by the Jewish Federation of San Antonio. He also serves on the board of Golden Manor, the Jewish Home for the Aged in San Antonio, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. He participated in a JCPA leadership mission to Israel in Oct. of 2005. He currently chairs a JCPA Committee on Energy and the Environment.
Dr. Stern has also served on the Program Committee of the Maimonides Society for a number of years, and has been responsible for bringing a number of noteworthy speakers to San Antonio to address the Maimonides Society on topics relating to medicine and Judaism. He also organized and ran a journal club on Jewish medical ethics and has given a number of talks on these topics in the San Antonio community over the past several years. In 2007 Dr, Stern was presented with the Joel A. Toubin Community Relations Award for his work on the Maimonides Society.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of Temple Chai, a newly formed Reform Congregation in San Antonio, and served as the chair of their ritual committee and is the current president of the congregation.
Jimmy Toubin, Vice-President: Jimmy is the president of the The Campus of San Antonio Jewish Community. He is also on the Jewish Federation board and served as its president from 1994-96. Jimmy has served on the board of Golden Manor since 1984 and was its president from 1989-1992. He also served on the board of the Jewish Community Center and was its vice-president. Jimmy served six year on the board of trustees for Temple Beth-El and was the membership chair for two years.
Jimmy served as the president of the Alamo Area Council of Governments Bexar County Area Agency on Aging from 2000-04. Jimmy is currently on the board of the San Antonio Food Bank and was its president from 1998-1999.
Elliot Weser, M.D., Board Member: He served on the board of Golden Manor Jewish Home for the Aged since 1987, and was President from 1999-2003, and continues to serve on its board. He served on the Temple Beth-El budget committee in 2004. Elliot currently helps select speakers for the Jewish Federation's Maimonides Society, a group of Jewish health professionals.
He served two years as President of the Carver Community Cultural Center. Elliot is a professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, he has published more than 100 research manuscripts and book chapters in his field. In 1967, he founded the Division of Gastroenterology at the UTHSCSA and later moved to the Audie Murphy Veterans Hospital as Chief of Medicine until retiring in 1998. He continues to teach part-time.
Norman Cohn, Secretary/Treasurer: Norman served as Temple Beth-El’s Brotherhood president for five years during which he also served on the Board of Trustees of Temple Beth El as an ex-officio member. In addition he served on the Board for three years as a regularly elected member. He was a youth advisor to BBYO from 1983 to 1990.
Norman is also a founding member of Consumer Credit Counseling Services and has served on its board for 18 years. He currently serves as treasurer of Volunteer Guardians of Texas.
Marcia Goren Weser, Ritual and Religious Practices Committee Chair: She served as president of Temple Beth-El, 2002-03, after serving on the board since 1993. She was a member of the Shli'hei Tsibbor corps. She chaired the Relocation committee during the recent renovation of Temple Beth-El, co-chaired the Programs committee for the year-long 125th Anniversary Temple Beth-El Celebration. Marcia co-chaired local arrangements for the 2004 Union for Reform Judaism's Southwest Council Regional Biennial, while she served on the Regional Board from 2002-2004. She chaired the Editorial board for the San Antonio Jewish Journal, and chaired Yom Limmud, a city-wide day of learning, for two years for the Jewish Federation.Marcia is currently president of the board of Gemini Ink, a center for the literary arts in San Antonio. Marcia is a freelance writer and editor. She was art critic for a San Antonio newspaper for 12 years and guest curator for local and national art exhibits.