Professional Staff

Heather Kibel has been our Executive Director for more than 10 years. She came to us with years of experience working in professional Jewish life. She served as Director of the North American Alliance for Jewish Youth (NAA), where she was responsible for overseeing the budget, developing a website, organizing and facilitating meetings and conferences, working with boards and membership, and was involved in grant development from national foundations.

Prior to her work at the NAA, Heather served as alumni coordinator and Israel programs supervisor for national Young Judaea. In that position she was involved in recruitment, training, publicity, and alumni services to this well known and long standing national Zionist youth organization.

Heather’s family belongs to Highland Park Conservative Temple. Heather lives in Edison with her husband, Philip, and their three children, Jacob, Zachary and Rose.

Melissa brings to the Gan 18 years of Early Childhood Education experience and a passion for creating safe, engaging and developmentally appropriate learning environments where children gain a life long love of learning. She is eager to work with the Gan staff and the Anshe Emeth community to help the early childhood program grow and flourish.

Matthew Vogel joins us from sunny South Florida where he grew up as an active member of his synagogue in Boca Raton. After studying Religion and Sociology at Florida State University in Tallahassee (Go Noles!), Matt began working in the Jewish community of West Palm Beach as Teen Engagement Coordinator for the local Jewish Federation. He continued to work with Jewish teens in Palm Beach County when he helped staff the March of the Living, a two week experience in Poland and Israel over Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Haatzmaut.

Matt began his journey in the northeast in 2017 when he began working at Temple Shaaray Tefila of Northern Westchester as the Director of Youth Engagement. In 2018 he joined the Anshe Emeth staff as the new Director of Youth & Member Engagement.

Since June 2020, Matt has served as Director of Education and Engagement, overseeing our Pre-K – 12th grade Religious School and Youth group programs, with an occasional helping hand in Member Engagement. Matt earned his Masters of Arts in Jewish Educational Leadership from HUC-JIR after graduating in May 2022. Please reach out if you’d like to connect with Matt about our Religious School community, learn about our Youth programs for students in 1st grade and up, or to hear more about our Anshe Emeth community.