Education Director, Ana Turkienicz was born in the southern city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, where, inspired to become an educator by her mother, she began working as a teacher in Brazil’s poor neighborhoods and subsequently at the local Jewish Day School. Soon after her marriage to Neco (Ariel) Turkienicz, Ana made alyiah (immigrated) to Israel, and went on to study Education at Kibbutzim College of Education in Tel Aviv, as well as Bar-Ilan University’s Education College and The Leslie College for Expressive Arts Therapy. She worked in Israel for 21 years as a kindergarten, Elementary and Middle school teacher in different settings, including Kibbutz Gezer, Kibbutz Bror Chayil and KIbbutz Netzer Sereni, as well as at the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional School, and the Hadarim Community school in the town of Be’er Yaakov, before moving to America with her husband and two children, Yoni and Hila. In the US, Ana and her family settled in White Plains and she has been working as a Hebrew teacher in Jewish Day Schools as well as the Education Director at the Pelham Jewish Center. Ana participated at the JTS-HUC Leadership Institute for Congregational Educators, the LOMED cohort and received a Masters Degree in Jewish Education from the William Davidson School at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Currently, Ana works as the Hebrew Learning Specialist at Rodeph Sholom Day School in NYC and is delighted to have the honor of being the Education Director at The Pelham Jewish Center, a warm and welcoming community that has embraced her and her family since 2006.

She can be reached at edudir@thepjc.org.