Investment Management
Understanding how RPB approaches investing
At RPB, our primary obligation is the judicious stewardship of your investments. We adhere to leading financial and retirement industry practices when approaching all decisions about the investment and management of plan assets.
Our Investment Committee makes investment strategy and asset allocation decisions in partnership with NEPC, our external investment advisory firm. We’re also guided by our commitment to the tenets of our Jewish Values Investing Policy, which compels RPB to consider environmental, social, and responsible corporate governance factors in our investment decision making.
A commitment to leading practices drives all our thoughts and actions, guided by sound investing principles and the tenets of Jewish Values Investing.
Investment committee
The RPB Investment Committee has rigorous standards for the Plan’s investment choices, which consists of three tiers: Tier 1 is a set of customized target allocation funds; Tier 2 consists of asset class-specific funds that allow participants to construct their own asset allocation; and Tier 3 is a class of socially responsible funds.
The committee’s approach to investing includes a level of risk and expected returns that are consistent with the accumulation of participants' assets to provide retirement income. It practices a disciplined, long-term-focused investment orientation that isn’t influenced by short-term market changes or other outside factors, but is still willing to challenge assumptions and engage in healthy debate using facts and data.
Investment committee members
Amy Brackett is a Senior Wealth Advisor at Revolve Wealth Partners, working with individuals, families, and non-profits to manage their investments and help clients build a path toward their financial goals. She has a deep-rooted commitment to helping clients in all areas of wealth planning including investment management, employee benefits, insurance coverage, cash management, and estate and tax planning.
Amy has worked in the financial industry for 20 years, most recently as a Senior Advisor at Klingenstein Fields Advisors (and before that at Solaris Advisors, which was acquired by Klingenstein Fields Advisors). Prior to joining Solaris Advisors in 2007, Amy spent several years as a Research Associate at TIAA-CREF and as an Investment Banking Analyst at CIBC World Markets. Amy received a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated magna cum laude. Amy is a CFA charterholder and holds the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) certification.
Amy currently serves on the Investment Committee and Board of the Reform Pension Board and as well as the Board of the Union for Reform Judaism. She previously served on the Board of Trustees of East End Temple (where she has been a member since 2006) and on the Investment Committee of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children, who love attending URJ Eisner Camp in the summer.
David Baskin has more than 38 years of experience in the finance, venture capital, and investment fields, having pursued a career in these areas shortly after being called to the Bar of Ontario in 1978. He is the founder of Baskin Financial Services Inc., which provides discretionary investment counseling and portfolio management services to investors in six provinces. The firm currently serves 1,000 families and not-for-profit institutions with more than $2 billion of assets under management. Baskin Financial Services Inc. has 24 employees and is based in Toronto. David is a regular commentator of the North American and global markets frequently appearing on BNN’s Market Call and other BNN programs as well as on CBC Newsworld. Additionally, he has been a frequent and popular guest on CBC Radio, 680 All-News Radio and CP4 in Toronto. He is quoted often in the business pages of the Globe and Mail, Financial Post and Toronto Star and was for several years a columnist for The Moneyletter, Investors’ Digest and The Investment Reporter.
David is a past president of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He holds an Honours B.A. with a major in economics from the University of Colorado and Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Toronto, where he was president of the Students’ Law Society.
Julie is a co-Treasurer and Officer of the Union for Reform Judaism. She joined RPB in 2020.
Julie is retired after enjoying a career at a leading Human Resources Consulting and Outsourcing firm. As an Enrolled (pension) Actuary, she spent the majority of her career consulting with large organizations on the funding requirements, design and administration of their retirement programs. She also co-led their Asset-Liability Projection business which, among other goals, helped large organizations determine the appropriate asset allocation of their pension assets. She became an officer of that firm and served on their Board of Directors.
Julie is a member of the Board of Trustees for North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, IL. She has previously served on other not-for-profit boards, including United Way of Lake County and Junior Achievement USA.
Julie is a graduate of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, IL, receiving a B.S. in Actuarial Science with highest distinction honors. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.
Rabbi Lisa S. Greene has served North Shore Congregation in Glencoe, IL since 1999. She is proud that her work creates small communities and leaders amidst the larger congregation. She is a passionate informal educator and loves creating ritual, teaching and writing about it. Her ELI talk, Getting Ritual: Making Meaningful Jewish Moments, focuses on new Jewish divorce ritual. Rabbi Greene has written for HuffPost; Reform Judaism Blog; MyJewishLearning; OSRUI blog; The Forward blog; CCAR Press, Eat Darling, Eat!; Kveller; The Wisdom Daily; and her personal blog, Intersections.
Rabbi Greene was a CLAL Rabbis Without Borders fellow and LEAP fellow and a member of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Clergy Leadership Program cohort. She has served as camp faculty for URJ Olin-Sang-Ruby-Union Institute and NFTY Rabbinic Advisor for the NFTY Chicago region.
Rabbi Greene was ordained by the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 1995 and earned her BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. A former securities analyst at Lazard Freres, she has brought her finance background to the CCAR as Budget & Finance Committee Chair, as well as a member of the Reform Pension Board.
Lisa is proud to be a second-generation Rabbi Greene and the mother of Noa, David, and Talia Polish, all of whom greet the world with curiosity, compassion, and creativity.
Elliott has been a member of the RPB Board of Trustees since 2016. He is also on the Investment Committee, chairs the Audit Committee and served on the 2018-2019 Governance Task Force and on the Governance Committee through 2022.
He has been a member of the URJ Board since 2001, has served on the URJ Oversight Committee and chaired the URJ Budget Committee from 2011 to 2015, and also served on the Executive Committee from 2004 to 2008.
Elliott retired from professional accounting and auditing as a partner in Deloitte & Touche, LLP in 2010.
He is a graduate of the Director’s Education Program sponsored by the Institute of Corporate Directors (Canada). He has served and continues to serve on and chairs various charitable organization boards in Canada.
He is a past president of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto and immediate past chair of the Holy Blossom Temple Foundation. He has served as chair of the Reform Jewish Community of Canada (formerly the Canadian Council of Reform Judaism) from 2004 to 2008, and has served from 2016 through 2022 as its Treasurer.
Elliott is a graduate of Dalhousie University and Queen’s University at Kingston (Ontario). A Canadian Chartered Accountant/Chartered Professional Accountant, he is a member of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario.
Daryl Messinger has a four-decade track record of lay leadership throughout the Jewish community.
She served on the RPB Board from 2007-2024 and was its chair from 2011-2015. Currently, she is Board Chair of Leading Edge. Separately, she is chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) and the past chair of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). She also serves on the boards of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Hebrew Union College-JIR and the Israel Policy Forum. During her professional career, Daryl was a partner in an investment management firm, Glynn Capital Management. She founded an investor relations practice and helped to grow a marketing and communications firm. She and her husband Jim Heeger live in Palo Alto, CA, and Lenox, MA. Jim also has significant lay leadership involvement on several Jewish boards.
In addition to serving as Executive Director at Temple Judea, Rabbi Bruce Raff was its Director of Education from 1986 to 2021, save a brief hiatus from 2012-2017. He began his career as a public school teacher, and after a short stint with the Los Angeles public schools, he became a full time Jewish educator. He is known as an innovator in the field of Jewish education, and has been at the forefront of introducing new models of education that have spread across the Jewish landscape.
In addition to his teaching and his extensive work as a school administrator, Rabbi Raff has mentored over 100 Jewish educators and rabbis as a member of the Clinical Faculty of Hebrew Union College. He holds Master’s Degrees in Jewish Education from the University of Judaism (Now American Jewish University) and in Jewish Letters from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained as a rabbi in 2001.
Rabbi Jason Rosenberg is the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Am in Tampa, Florida. He was ordained at HUC-JIR in 2001. Raised in New Fairfield, Connecticut, Rabbi Rosenberg majored in computer science at Brown University and worked for several years as a software engineer before entering rabbinical school.
Rabbi Rosenberg served as an Associate Rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto from 2001 to 2007. In addition to his time serving as a chair of the Tampa Rabbinical Association, Rabbi Rosenberg has also served on the board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Tampa Jewish Federation, and is currently a member of the Florida Reform Jewish Leaders organizing team at the Religious Action Center, the Reform Movement’s political advocacy wing. He also serves on the boards of Faith In Florida and Faith In Florida’s Hillsborough County Chapter.
Rabbi Benjamin D. Sternman is the spiritual leader of Adat Chaverim in Plano, Texas. Rabbi Sternman received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell, followed by his MBA. He entered the world of corporate finance and soon found that while he loved solving the mathematical puzzles required for his work, he didn’t feel it was completely fulfilling. Rabbi Sternman had always been active in the Jewish community. In his junior and senior years at Cornell, he led Reform Shabbat services, and during his finance years he served on the board of his temple in various positions. He finally decided to trade the world of high finance for the life of a Reform rabbi and he has never looked back.
After being ordained at Hebrew Union College in New York in 2003, he served as associate rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Austin from 2003-2008 and at The Community Synagogue, Port Washington, New York from 2008 to2011. Rabbi Sternman joined Adat Chaverim in 2012 and is thrilled to have found his own spiritual home within the congregation. In addition to serving as the rabbi at Adat Chaverim, Rabbi Sternman has served on the Clergy Advisory Board of the Child Advocacy Center of Collin County and is a founding member of the Frisco Interfaith Alliance.
Phyllis Tabachnick is a Managing Director and co-founder of the Tabachnick Oskin Group at J.P. Morgan Securities, a wealth management division of J.P. Morgan in Chicago. She has provided investment management services to individuals, families and business owners for almost 30 years. She has held leadership roles in many philanthropic organizations both locally and nationally, and has been on the Investment Committees of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Jewish Council for Youth Services, Foundation for Jewish Culture, and Executive Service Corps of Chicago.
Additionally, Phyllis served as co-chair in 2015 and 2017 for the Investment Institute for Jewish Federations of North America. Phyllis regularly speaks to board members and students of all ages about fundraising and development (Presentation titled: “Fundraising is not an F Word”), leadership, career advancement and investment management. A native of Akron, Ohio, Phyllis graduated from Northwestern University and currently lives on the north side of Chicago. In her spare time she enjoys reading, cooking and traveling.
G. Leonard Teitelbaum previously served as chair of the RPB Board of Trustees and previously held positions on the Union for Reform Judaism board. Len has a long tenure in the financial services industry in leadership positions, including as managing director at Merrill Lynch Global Securities and the global coordinator for food & agribusiness research for Merrill Lynch. Mr. Teitelbaum was associated with Bankers Trust Company and with Morgan Bank.
Prior to his banking experience, he was associated with Seidman and Seidman, Certified Public Accountants in New York City. Mr. Teitelbaum received his BBA and MBA from the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate, he majored in industrial relations and marketing and as a graduate student specialized in finance and accounting. Mr. Teitelbaum is a member of the New York Society for Security Analysts, past president of the Consumer Analyst Group of New York and a Fellow in the Financial Analysts Federation.
Steve became a member of the North American Board of the URJ in 2022 and serves as a Co-chair of the investment committee. He is also a past chair of the URJ camp OSRUI Board of Governors and served on the board of Temple Sholom of Chicago as well as acting as its Treasurer. He currently serves on the investment committees of Temple Sholom and the Community Development Foundation for Reform Judaism.
Steve has worked in the finance industry for over 40 years. Through that period he has been a partner and manager of TradeLink LLC which is a diversified trading and investment firm focusing on alternative investments and trading opportunities. He been a life-long resident of Chicago and attended the University of Illinois, graduating with degrees in Finance and Economics.
RPB is committed to investing according to our Jewish values.
Our Jewish Values Investing Policy explains how—and why—we consider our Jewish values in our investment selection process.