Evin is very excited to be in her first year of working at the JCC! Before this she spent 14 years teaching in New York – in three different boroughs! The last three years she has been an Instructional Coach in Philadelphia. Which brings us to 2022 at the JCC where she works in the Preschool as a coach, assisting with the design and implementation of the Enrichment Program and ensuring that we recruit and retain the best possible staff at Camp Kef. 

She and her husband, Vinny, live in a house that is filled with beautiful chaos. Evin has three awesome children who all attend the RJW Preschool and Camp Kef. Ellis is 5.5, Jonah is 3.5 and Lily, aka Lil the Thrill, is 2 years old. Additionally, they share their lives with two beautiful doggies – Rosie, a 2 year old Golden Retriever and Reggie, a 2 month old Chihuahua Terrier mix. 

Jill began working at Camp Kef five summers ago as our office administrator. With her expertise in counseling, we knew we needed to get her out of the office and into the field! During her time away from camp, Jill is a School Counselor in the Upper Darby School District and provides counseling to children and adults. She is also a mom of two Camp Kef campers and could not think of a better way to spend her summer than with her boys at Camp Kef! Her favorite part of being at camp is seeing all the different creative outfits on dress-up theme days!  

Aviya has enjoyed being a part of the JCC since her family moved to the US from Jerusalem, Israel almost 5 years ago. Aviya is a mother to three children, two of them attend the JCC preschool during the school year and all 3-love going to camp Kef.    During the school year Aviya teaches kindergarten and First grade at Kohelet Yeshiva Lab School, where she is the Kriya (Hebrew reading and Writing) and Ivrit coordinator. Aviya has years of experience of teaching in elementary school in Israel as well as working in camps. Aviya has also worked at Camp Kef in the last few years since she moved to America and loves every minute of it! She served in the Israel Defense Forces in the Education Corps and in the Air Force and completed her military service with the rank of First Lieutenant. Aviya loves working with children and counselors and is looking forward to a wonderful, safe and Kef summer!  

Ryan has been working in the Lower Merion School District for over 10 years. He is currently a Health and Physical Education teacher at Black Rock Middle School. Ryan has worked at the JCC since 2009 and has been a counselor and more recently has been a sports and fitness specialist. Ryan’s favorite part of being at camp is introducing campers to new sports and activities that they may have never played before.   

Natalie has been working at the Kaiserman JCC for 26 years! It is her home away from home! She believes there is truly a family atmosphere here with all our staff and we genuinely care about one another, our families, and our programs. We work extremely hard behind the scenes to make our school and camp the best we can and care deeply about the results of our efforts! Natalie married her high school boyfriend, and we live in Havertown where we first met. She has three children who all attended Preschool and Camp at the JCC (many years ago)! Both girls are now Counselors during the summer here at Camp Kef. Emily is 15 and a sophomore in high school and Taylor is 18, in her first year of college. Our Son Trevor is 23 and works for Wilson Oil. She doesn’t not have much free time but if she could choose her most relaxing and favorite thing to do would be sitting in a chair by the water’s edge on the beach! 

Melissa began her first summer at the JCC when she was 8 years old, and as years went on, she then became a counselor working with many different age groups at Camp Kef. Melissa graduated from Cabrini University in 2020, earning a degree in Early Childhood Education as well as Special Education. She is a proud first grade teacher and loves every minute of it! Melissa’s favorite part of being at camp is seeing so many happy and smiling faces on the main field during the day. 

Nicole is our Special Needs Coordinator and previously was a camp counselor at camp Kef. She is a proud parent of her three daughters who have been part of our wonderful camp community for the last eight summers. She is a Kindergarten teacher for the School District of Philadelphia. Originally from Conyngham, PA, she moved to Philadelphia in 2002 and to Havertown in 2015. Nicole’s favorite part of being at camp is seeing the look on the campers' faces as they are engaging in an activity or sport that they love. She also enjoys when campers overcome various challenges and develop amazing friendships over the course of their time at camp.  

This is Tammy’s 30th year here at the JCC! She graduated from West Chester University with a BS in Elementary Education and Early Childhood Education. Tammy also took many Reading Instruction classes on the graduate level at the University of Delaware. Tammy enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She enjoys jumping in the waves at the beach, playing mah jong and eating in restaurants. Tammy also enjoys volunteering at her synagogue.  Her motto is “It’s nice to be nice!”  and she tries to instill that into the children that she sees every day. 

Ali is very excited to be taking on a new role this summer and was previously the Chaluzim counselor. She lives in Havertown with her husband, two children, who both attend the JCC and Camp Kef and my dog, Bruno. Ali has been working in education for over fifteen years-ranging from kindergarten through high school. During the school year, she teaches special education and enjoys activities such as skiing, surfing, and kayaking. Ali’s favorite part of camp is encouraging campers to make new friends!