Meet Our Faculty

Directory Listing

Samara Rossi was born in Brooklyn, New York, but grew up in the five towns and Long Beach.  Being diagnosed with ADHD during her high school years led Samara to have an interest and gift for working with special needs children. Her grandparents were a huge influence in her formative years and their love of Jewish culture, values and family history contributed in cultivating her exploring Jewish education. Her teaching journey began at her childhood synagogue, Temple Emanuel of Long Beach, where she was mentored by “a brilliant women and exceptional educator” Vicki Cabrera, whom Samara thanks for guiding her to where she is today.

Samara believes strongly in experiential education that focuses on the student’s interest to guide their learning experiences; her past experiences include Director for Youth Engagement, Director of Holiday Programming, Classroom Educator and special needs Behavior Intervention Therapist.  She has enjoyed working with children from nursery school age through high school. Prior to her career and passion for education, Samara was the Northeast Warehouse Seller Division Manager for JPMorgan Chase Mortgage division.

Samara has a degree in Early Childhood and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a dual degree in Child Psychology and Social Sciences with an Alpha Sigma Lambda Honors award for excellence.  Currently she is in the process of completing a dual honors program with Fordham University for General and Special Education.  Samara and her husband Joe live with their two children Bella and Sam in Huntington.

Jamie Goerke received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Binghamton University. She started volunteering with Temple Beth El Religious School in January of 2021 as an administrative assistant and substitute teacher. After getting a wide variety of experience helping to run events, handle office responsibilities, and stepping into the classroom, she became our Library/Tech Enrichment Teacher. In this role, she works on school-wide projects that utilize both technology and books in our expansive children’s library to enhance the experience that children receive in the religious school classrooms.

Wendy Isaac received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education and her Masters in Special Education from CUNY Queens College. She is State Certified in Elementary Education with students with disabilities. Currently, she is a substitute teacher in local school districts. In her spare time, she is a Vice President of Youth at East Northport Jewish Center and Hadassah life member. Wendy has taught third grade for us and now has moved to teach Level One Hebrew. 

Jennifer Levine Reilly moved to Huntington 5 years ago after marrying her husband, Kevin.  Morah Jen is a passionate educator who achieves great personal satisfaction through her hand on Judaic teaching approach of values, traditions and history with our students in our TBE community. With great enthusiasm, she has been working here at TBE and this is her second year.  Jen has been a Religious School Educator for the past 25 years as she worked at Temple Shalom of Norwalk, Connecticut and Temple Beth El of Fairfield Connecticut, as well as other synagogues in the Huntington area.  In her down time, Jen enjoys quality time with her husband, their daughters as well as their beautiful grandchildren, Paige and Lucas.

Brenda Reiss has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from SUNY Stony Brook and holds certificates in Jewish Family Education from SAJES and Touro College, a Certificate of Completion in Jewish Education from United Synagogue, Master’s Program, Board of Jewish Education and the Morasha Teacher Training Program, also from Touro College. She has been teaching and leading Family Education programs in many Synagogue Religious Schools over more than 30 years. Brenda teaches our Level Three Hebrew students.

Erica Russell received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Binghamton University in May 2020. She began working at Temple Beth El in March 2022 by working as a teacher’s assistant. With this classroom experience, along with her studies of education at Binghamton, she became the K/1 teacher for 2022-2023 year.  Erica is passionate about creating engaging and fun lessons for her students and she is getting her Masters in Social Work from Fordham University.

Randi Solis earned her Master of Science Degree in Special Education and Elementary Education from New York University and Oxford University. She was a teacher and staff developer in New York City Public Schools and has taught Early Childhood in Private Schools.  Randi currently serves on the Lloyd Harbor School Parent/Teacher Board. She teaches our kindergarten and first grade classes.