Arlene Chertoff

Arlene moved to Israel in 1988 with her husband and three children. She has a BA in Dance & Education, a Masters degree in Dance Therapy, and has studied dance in many of the prominent dance studios in New York City and in Israel. Arlene has 20 years experience teaching dance both in New York and in Israel.

She has performed with the 'Jewish Dance Ensemble' and other amateur dance groups. Arlene still gets a chance to perform in the Raise Your Spirits productions and occasionally in JEST productions.

In addition to being co-lyricist for “ESTHER and the Secrets in the King's Court”, “NOAH! Ride the Wave!”, and “RUTH and NAOMI” she has also created the choreography for each of these shows for the Raise Your Spirits Summer Stock Company (RYS) performances, as well as choreographing the production of 'JOSEPH and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' performed by RYS in 2001.

Arlene has also done choreography for the Jerusalem English Speaking Theatre (JEST) including: 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown', 'Mikado', 'She Loves Me', 'Pirates of Penzance', 'Camelot, 'Iolanthe', Tom Sawyer', and 'H.M.S. Pinafore'.

Other choreographic projects include: 'Little by Little', 'Pippin', Peter Pan', and 'Lion King'.

In her spare time, Arlene volunteers at a Second Hand Clothing Exchange (which is a great source for costumes!) and serving coffee and cakes to the soldiers in the Gush Etzion IDF hospitality hut.

Toby Klein Greenwald

Toby Klein Greenwald is a theater writer and director, journalist, author, translator and editor. In addition to co-writing ESTHER and the Secrets in the King's Court, NOAH! Ride the Wave!, and RUTH and NAOMI in the Fields of Bethlehem, Toby has been the theater director for all three shows. She has been "making plays" since she was a child, when she used to drape blankets over her family's dining room table for the stage curtains, or jump out of the den door into the backyard for a dramatic entrance. She directed her first full length production at the age of 11, for her neighborhood in Cleveland Heights. It was "The Shoemaker and the Elves" (she also played the title role) and her little troupe raised $5.00 from the show, which they donated to the Heart Fund. Toby played the evening show in proper costume, without a sweater, against her mother's warning, and several days later ended up in the hospital with meningitis, which she thankfully recovered from. Ever since then she listened to her mother, of blessed memory.

She continued to write and direct plays in school, B'nei Akiva, camp and college. Her most memorable performance at Camp Moshava (Wisconsin) was when she was the only female in an all male cast in a play written and directed by fellow campers David and Joseph Stern, her mentors, who went on to do shows at the famed Second City Club in Chicago (before they went on to become erudite professors).

Toby's first real job at 18 was writing the poetry inside greeting cards for American Greetings. She wrote an anniversary card that became a best-seller.

Toby has degrees in Jewish Bible and Philosophy and English Literature. She also studied Communications, Film, Drama, Psychodrama, Bibliodrama, Photography, Graphic Art, Cartooning, Ceramics and Painting. She wrote or co-wrote many of the website dramas that appear on WholeFamily.com, of which she is the editor, and in which capacity she co-wrote a marital self-help novel with Dr. Michael Tobin that has been published in Hebrew and German. She has taught Creative Writing to students of many different ages and abilities, including a group of women from Gush Katif, whose work is included in the book she translated, Route of Longing – Prayers from the Land of Israel. She is also the editor of two soon to be published books - Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s, Stories for my Grandchildren, and The Golden Pens of Gush Etzion – writings by her senior citizen students.

Today she produces and directs the D'or L'Dor Interactive Theater, the Brothers Troupe, and woks with the Gush Etzion Playback Theater. She initiated the innovative "Pippin-Poland Project" at the Lachan Learning Center and was the school's first theater director/producer. These present-day projects followed the directing of "JOSEPH", and Toby is grateful to Producer Sharon Katz for leading her to return to her love of directing.

Toby made aliya one month after the Six Day War and worked as an educator for many years in a variety of capacities, in Israel, the U.S. and Canada. Today she is a member of the President’s Commission to Examine the Structure of Government in Israel, of the Citizen’s Empowerment Center of Israel, and of Leviah – Mothers for Israel.

She is married to Yaakov and they have children and grandchildren who will some day, please G-d, lead to a tribe whose members are as numerous as the stars in the heavens.

Among Toby's favorite quotes are, "Life is full of surprises" and "This world is only a hallway to the next".

Sharon Katz

Sharon Katz, mother of five, and grandmother of two, made Aliyah with her husband Israel and their children 13 years ago from Woodmere, New York.

She has been a journalist her entire adult life – news reporter for "Newsday", editor of "Show Business", East Coast Editor of "The Hollywood Reporter", and freelancer for many national and local publications. Sharon also worked as associate coordinator of public relations in the Astoria Motion Picture and Television Center Foundation, as well as its Associate Coordinator for the Student Academy Awards.

Sharon has been editor of VOICES Magazine for the past ten years – traveling throughout the country, interviewing inspiring individuals and reporting positive stories about what's right with life in Israel.

Charity and community work are an important part of her life – as founder and head of a myriad of organizations and special projects – for the welfare of her town and her nation. Sharon also enjoys volunteering her time to serve soldiers in Gush Etzion's hospitality hut, snapping photos all over the country, and visiting Rachel's Tomb every week.

One of her proudest accomplishments was the founding in 2001 of the Raise Your Spirits Summer Stock Company, which has brought great joy and strength to more than 25,000 women throughout Israel, during the past years of terror and war. She also serves as the producer of RYS shows and creator of its website.

Through Raise Your Spirits, Sharon has discovered that she loves singing and dancing on stage with her friends, and hearing the sound of laughter and applause. Sharon has performed as Pharoah in RYS's "JOSEPH and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", Achashverosh in RYS's "ESTHER and the Secrets in the King's Court", and Og in "NOAH! Ride the Wave!" She is also co-lyricist of "ESTHER…", "NOAH!..." and "RUTH and NAOMI." Sharon is proud to have created Biblical musicals (together with Toby and Arlene) that give people the world over faith, hope and pride.