Rabbi David Burstein
ish welcomes Rabbi David Burstein in a new role as Creative Director, working with current program leaders and creating new Jew-ish experiences for curious seekers with a focus on family education and intergenerational programming.
Rabbi David comes to ish with 20+ years of communal experience and has been connected to ish's work from the very beginning – as a founding board member and volunteer. A visionary creative and innovator in the field of Jewish education, he’s been recognized locally and nationally as a leader in both educational and spiritual venues. He played a crucial role in the creation and development of new programming, including The Cincinnati Teen Initiative and Reflect Cincinnati. A graduate of HUC-JIR, Rabbi Burstein has served three congregations, and is the former director of Kulanu-The Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School. He’s also taught classes in the Jewish and Non-Jewish communities on a variety of topics, including Adolescent Masculinity to Kabbalah and Jewish meditation. A William Bridges trainer in transition work, David has coached and counseled people and organizations and also developed and led over 30 retreats.
In his free time he has coached high school and youth lacrosse, taught Krav Maga, and travelled on peace missions to the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
Most of all he loves his time with family–-his wife Elizabeth and three children, Emma, Coby and Nadia.
Rabbi David comes to ish with 20+ years of communal experience and has been connected to ish's work from the very beginning – as a founding board member and volunteer. A visionary creative and innovator in the field of Jewish education, he’s been recognized locally and nationally as a leader in both educational and spiritual venues. He played a crucial role in the creation and development of new programming, including The Cincinnati Teen Initiative and Reflect Cincinnati. A graduate of HUC-JIR, Rabbi Burstein has served three congregations, and is the former director of Kulanu-The Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School. He’s also taught classes in the Jewish and Non-Jewish communities on a variety of topics, including Adolescent Masculinity to Kabbalah and Jewish meditation. A William Bridges trainer in transition work, David has coached and counseled people and organizations and also developed and led over 30 retreats.
In his free time he has coached high school and youth lacrosse, taught Krav Maga, and travelled on peace missions to the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
Most of all he loves his time with family–-his wife Elizabeth and three children, Emma, Coby and Nadia.
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Marie Krulewitch-BrowneIn 2011, Marie Krulewitch-Browne dove into the Cincinnati arts community quickly building a career and reputation at ArtWorks, a nationally-recognized public art and youth employment organization founded by Tamara Harkavy. For nearly a decade, working in roles across five different departments, Marie built expertise in organizational management, marketing & development, administration, public art programming, design thinking, and community engagement. Marie credits longtime mentor, friend, former boss and ArtWorks Founder, Tamara Harkavy, for taking a chance on her and never ceasing to champion and invest in her professional development and career while at ArtWorks and beyond.
Inspired by her experience leading large-scale public art and community-building events, Marie seeded the idea for a Jewish arts and cultural Festival while at ArtWorks. After connecting with local artists, mentors, and long-time friend and then ArtWorks colleague, Rachel Rothstein, (who took a concept for a Jewish marketplace called Ish through ArtWorks' creative business development course!), ideas were exchanged, concepts were married, and ish Festival was born in 2016. From 2016 - 2019, Between her full-time work at ArtWorks, having two young kids, a menagerie of hobbies and side hustles, Marie oversaw the first two ish Festivals, led the organization to formally incorporate as a 501(c)3, and worked to grow ish's program portfolio and impact, alongside ish's Founding Board, all as a volunteer. When the COVID-19 Pandemic forced Marie to take an unplanned leave of absence from ArtWorks to stay home with her two young children, it marked a turning point, ultimately leading Marie to move on from ArtWorks to serve as ish's first full-time Executive & Artistic Director in September 2020 (due in large part thanks to support from the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, who around the same time had selected ish to be the main operator of the Cincinnati Jewish Teen Initiative). For the past 14 years, Marie has creatively led a variety of community arts & cultural initiatives, professionally, as a consultant, and a volunteer. Marie is proud to note one of her most significant career roles as serving on the founding creative team for BLINK (2017) as well as subsequent involvement and leadership in BLINK 2019, 2022, & 2024. What began as a single-program model, with one volunteer leader, ish quickly grew under Marie's leadership, into a robust multi-faceted community arts organization, leading innovative, human-centered design, cultural and community-building programming. While growing ish, Marie had the incredible opportunity to support Cincinnati's Jewish community in a dual role as the Project Manager for the Jewish Cincinnati Bicentennial (2020-2022). An artist in her own right, Marie has given art talks, led creative and spiritual workshops, and has served as a creative consultant for organizations within and outside of greater Cincinnati. A talented vocalist by training, Marie is preparing for her seventh High Holiday season as the Lead Cantor for Temple Beth Sholom in Middletown, Ohio. Throughout the year, you can often hear Marie singing as a regular guest vocalist for Majestic Care's, Cedar Village Retirement Community. Marie's volunteer leadership roles have spanned Cincinnati Jewish, arts/culture, and civic-engagement organizations including roles at the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, Congregation Beth Adam, MUSE Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir, the League of Women Voters of Greater Cincinnati, and the University of Cincinnati’s Alpha Tau Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta. Outside of direct leadership roles, Marie has been affiliated with several local and national nonprofits, including the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and HRC Greater Cincinnati, to name a few. Marie is a graduate of the Wexner Heritage Program, Jewish Federation of Cincinnati's Leaders in Light, Cincinnati Chamber's Leadership Council for Nonprofits’ BOLD Class 4, UpStart's Venture Accelerator (2022), Cincinnati School Board School (2025), NLIGC’s ADVANCE program (2012), and Design Impact's Studio C (2014). In 2022 Marie was named a Cincinnati Business Courier 40Under40, and in 2023 was inducted into Marquis Who's Who. In January 2025, after another incredible BLINK Parade and the culmination of ish's role leading the Cincinnati Jewish Teen Initiative, Marie stepped back to focus on supporting homelife and two growing kiddos. Marie is thrilled to continue supporting ish's transition into its next life stage under the leadership of long-time friend and ish founding Board Member, Rabbi David Burstein (Creative Director). In her newly appointed role as Founder-President, Marie will continue to support ish in a volunteer capacity, working closely with Rabbi David to incubate new programs, grow the Board of Directors, strengthen governance and organizational capacity, oversee new income streams and continue to nurture and seed new community arts/culture partnerships at the ish's home in Northside, The LoomHouse (formerly the ish Garage). Marie enjoys gardening, crafting, doing "witchy" stuff, and is a proud Mom of two human sons, two cat daughters, and a sister snake. |