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Alan Friedman - Executive Director
Alan Friedman is thrilled to bring thirty-one years of successful camping experience to Camp Mountain Chai. His summer camping career began as a child, at the age of ten, when he first attended Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, a private boy's camp in Lenox, MA. Over the next eighteen years, Alan continued to spend his summers at Camp Mah-Kee-Nac, as a camper, CIT, group leader and program director. In 1993, he became its first full-time Assistant Director and in 1999 was promoted to Director. Alan began working as a consultant for CampGroup, the largest group-owner of private summer camps in United States, in 2005.
Alan grew up outside of Princeton, NJ. He attended Ithaca College where he earned a degree in Communications Management. In addition to camping, Alan has had a prosperous advertising career, selling television time in the New York City, Boston and Harrisburg markets. Moreover, he spent ten years working as Senior Youth Group advisor to four different Reform congregations in the northeast. He looks forward to sharing this Jewish education experience with us, as well.
Alan moved to San Diego from West Orange, NJ with his lovable four-year old Golden Retriever, Einstein. He is very excited to join the Camp Mountain Chai family and become part of the Jewish Community in the San Diego area.
David Zimmerman - Administrative Director
Jewish summer camping has been a part of David's life for as long as he can remember. He began as an 8 year old camper at Shwayder Camp outside Denver, Colorado. After 7 years as a camper David began to develop his professional skills with the completion of the highly competitive CIT program in 1991. Over the next 12 years David greatly expanded his skills repertoire by serving on staff in many specialty positions including Kitchen Manager, Wilderness Specialist, Ropes Course Director, CIT Coordinator and Assistant Director. Additionally he spent a summer at Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu as the Adventure Sports Specialist.
David was born in Los Angeles but primarily grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. David moved to Colorado for college and received an Associates degree in Outdoor Recreational Leadership from Colorado Mountain College. He later continued his education at Colorado State University, receiving a B.S. in Natural Resource, Recreation and Tourism Management.
David moved to San Diego in the fall of 2007 to join the Camp Mountain Chai team. David is excited to apply this great breadth of camping experience to his exciting new endeavor at Camp Mountain Chai.
Wanda Refaely - Marketing and Development Director
Wanda joined Camp Mountain Chai in February 2008 bringing years of relevant experience. When she was only four years old, she moved to Haifa, Israel with her family where she fell in love with a country and its people. After returning to Boston four years later, Wanda assured her parents that, one day, she would return to the place she considered home. Upon graduation from a Boston area High School she made good on her promise and moved to Tel Aviv.
Following the completion of a degree in Education and English from Tel Aviv University, Wanda embarked on a career in international business and marketing communications. She worked in the international trade show industry and later shifted into the institutional investment sector where she established the international marketing communications department for Ofek Securities and Investments, a Bank Leumi subsidiary.
After more than 15 years in Israel, Wanda returned to the United States and settled in San Diego. Her involvement in the community was driven by her desire to maintain a Jewish cultural and social network both for her son and for herself.
Her professional life took a fortuitous turn when she was hired as the managing director of a San Diego non-profit organization serving the needs of wounded U.S. servicemembers, their families and the families of the fatally wounded. This entrée into the non-profit sector ultimately served as a natural segue to the position with Camp Mountain Chai. Wanda sees her position with Camp Mountain Chai as an ideal marriage of her professional abilities and her deep commitment to Jewish continuity and community-building.
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