JCUA is excited to welcome two new board members!

Rabbi Scott Gellman is the Associate Rabbi at Temple Sholom, one of our congregation partners. He was ordained by Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in May 2017 and also serves on the boards of the Chicago Board of Rabbis and The Community Mikvah of Chicago. Rabbi Gellman and his wife Ma’ayan have both been involved with JCUA’s housing and economic justice organizing for years and we are happy to have him on the board.

Rabbi Gellman’s roles at Temple Sholom include providing pastoral care, engaging with students of all ages, and providing support to the Sholom Justice community group, Or Chadash, Temple Sholom’s LGBTQ+ and Allies group, and support to each and every one of their members.
Rabbi Gellman served numerous Rabbinic roles during his time at HUC-JIR, including: Student Rabbi at congregations in Beckley, West Virginia and Saginaw, Michigan; Chaplain at a Jewish nursing home; as well as Rabbinic Intern and Director of Youth Engagement at Temple Sinai of Bergen County, New Jersey. Rabbi Gellman’s love of Jewish youth work and summer camp were cultivated during many summers at URJ Camp Coleman in Georgia as a camper, counselor, and as a senior staff member.

Rabbi Gellman and his wife Ma’ayan Eckstein, both originally from South Florida, live in the Ravenswood neighborhood with their son Yair, their new baby Amitai, and their dog, Shmooli.

Deb Sokol is a Wilmette resident and works as a Senior Managing Counsel at Allstate. As a recent empty-nester, Deb has been looking for a way to focus more of her time and energy into making some positive change in the world, particularly with a Jewish focus.  She’s excited for the opportunity to serve on the JCUA board because of its focus on real, meaningful impacts on the local community.  She is excited to understand and contribute to JCUA’s coalition work as well as JCUA’s racial justice work.

Deb is originally from New Jersey but has lived in the Chicago area for the past 20 years including the last 18 years in Wilmette. She has two college aged kids, Zoe (20) and Alec (18), and two stepsons, Henry (28) and Kendel (24). She is married to Dave Chopp, an applied math professor at Northwestern. She has been a member of Sukkat Shalom for over 11 years.

She is a Senior Managing Counsel at Allstate, serving as Lead Counsel for Allstate’s privacy, regulatory compliance and ethics team, and is a subject matter expert on privacy and data matters. Deb leads a team of attorneys, and works collaboratively as part of large, cross-functional team.  The team she leads provides legal support across the corporation. She has experience working to develop, maintain, and improve policies and processes, determining best practices for multiple stakeholders with competing priorities. Prior to working at Allstate Deb was acting North America Chief Privacy Officer at Citibank. She also has worked at Grainger and spent over 10 years in-house with AT&T.