AJL 2022 Elections
AJL will hold its regular biennial election May 1-30, 2022. We will be voting by electronic ballot; all current members and life members are eligible to vote. It’s very important that we have up-to-date email addresses for all members. If your email address has changed, please log into your account on the AJL website (https://jewishlibraries.org/) and update it. Please also email Joy Kingsolver (joy dot kingsolver at gmail dot com) to alert her to the change.
A ballot link will be sent to all current AJL members by email on May 1. If you do not receive a ballot, please contact Joy Kingsolver at the email address above. If you need a paper ballot, please contact Joy to request one.
President: Michelle Chesner (elected in 2020)
Immediate Past President: Kathy Bloomfield
Vice President/President Elect: Sean Boyle
Sean Patrick Boyle is the Librarian at Congregation Keneseth Israel, in Allentown PA, and received his MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the current SSCPL Division President, was the Chair of the AJL Strategic Planning Committee, and is the Chair of the Advocacy Committee for AJL’s SSCPL division. He is a retired U.S. Naval Officer with over 23 years of service.
In 2008 Jackie started work at American Jewish University as the Special Collections Librarian where she catalogs and mounts exhibits with materials in the Lowy-Winkler Family Rare Book Center in addition to overseeing digital collections.
Jackie has been an active member of AJL since her first day on the job at AJU. Jackie serves on the annual conference committee and manages ads in AJL’s publications. Currently she is the VP for Development.
Past position on AJL Board, Council or committee: RAS Vice President, RAS President, Local Conference Co-Chair, Education Committee, member, Vice President for Membership
Bio: Sharon Benamou is the Hebraica/Judaica and Music Catalog Librarian at UCLA. She has an MA in Musicology from UCLA and an MLIS from CSU San Jose. She is active in both AJL and the Music Library Association (MLA). In MLA she is the Jewish Music Interest Group coordinator
Plans if elected: If I am re-elected as Vice President for Membership I would like to improve the member experience on our online platforms, continue to build our membership and community.
Treasurer: Andrew Lillian
Andrew Lillien holds a BS in math and has worked as a data analyst for the past ten years. He is an enthusiast of Judaism and books, and is looking forward to working as the AJL treasurer. He is a father of three young children and an avid gamer of all kinds.
RAS (Reference, Archives, and Special Collection) President: Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
Yermiyahu Ahron Taub is a librarian, poet, writer, and Yiddish literary translator. He is the author of two books of fiction, Beloved Comrades: a Novel in Stories (2020) and Prodigal Children in the House of G-d: Stories (2018), and six volumes of poetry, including A Mouse Among Tottering Skyscrapers: Selected Yiddish Poems (2017). Yermiyahu’s most recent translation from the Yiddish is May God Avenge Their Blood: a Holocaust Memoir Triptych by Rachmil Bryks (2020). A longtime AJL member, Yermiyahu was the co-chairperson of “Yovel/Jubilee: 50 Years of AJL!”, the June 2015 conference celebrating the Association’s 50th Anniversary. He has served as Chairperson of the Fanny Goldstein Merit Award Committee and the RAS Cataloging Committee, and he was a founding member of the AJL Jewish Fiction Award Committee. Yermiyahu recently completed a term as President of the Association of Jewish Libraries/Capital Area Chapter (AJL/CAC). Please visit his website at https://yataubdotnet.
RAS Vice President: Eitan Kensky
Eitan Kensky is the Reinhard Family Curator of Judaica and Hebraica at Stanford Libraries. Before that, he spent an enriching three years at the Yiddish Book Center as the director of collections initiatives, working on translation projects and expanding digital collections. He holds a PhD in Jewish Literature from Harvard, following which he stayed at Harvard to teach Yiddish and Jewish Studies. For the last two years, Eitan has also served as the co-organizer and programmer of a retrospective Jewish Film Series called REWIND. He is currently finishing a term as AJL secretary.
SSCPL (Schools, Synagogues, Centers, and Public Libraries) President: Rebecca Levitan
Rebecca Levitan holds a BA in History and Judaic Studies from Binghamton University, and an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a full time generalist librarian, and the Children’s Coordinator at the Pikesville Branch of the Baltimore County Public Library in Baltimore, MD. She is the immediate past chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award and the Co-Editor for Children’s and Young Adult reviews for the AJL News and Reviews periodical, the AJL Seals Manager and the president of the AJL Capital Area Chapter. As a mom of three young children she is passionate about quality Jewish literature. Rebecca is a voracious romance novel reader and is an avid knitter and can often be found working on a shawl that she will likely not wear because it is too warm in Baltimore most of the year.
SSCPL Vice President: Aviva Rosenberg
Aviva Rosenberg is the Youth Services Librarian at the Ridgefield Free Public Library in Ridgefield, NJ. She previously served as school media specialist at The Moriah School in Englewood, NJ, and Talmudical Academy in Baltimore, MD. She received her BA in History from Stern College and her MLS from Southern Connecticut State University. Aviva has been on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee since 2021. She lives in Passaic, NJ with her husband and 4 children, where she spends her non-reading time baking and providing reader’s advisory to strangers on the internet.