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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 (IC) has rigorous standards for the Plan’s investment choices, which consists of two tiers: Tier 1 is a set of customized investment objective-based funds; Tier 2 consists of asset class-specific funds that allow participants to construct their own asset allocation.

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.

We partner with NEPC, a nationally recognized investment consultant that offers a full range of objective, results-driven investment consulting services to their clients.

Investment committee members

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 800 families and not-for-profit institutions with more than $1.25 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.

G. Leonard Teitelbaum currently serves 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.

Daryl Messinger is the chair of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Board of Trustees. She is a dynamic leader with a track record of sustained involvement and success in the Reform Movement and in business. Daryl served as chair of the Reform Pension Board from 2010-2015 before becoming the first woman to chair the URJ.

Prior to retiring in 2009, Daryl had various roles in both communications and investment management organizations. In 1999, she opened an investor relations consulting firm, and in 2004 merged the firm with WeissComm Partners, Inc., an integrated marketing and communications agency, where she served as executive vice president and strategic consultant. From 1983 to 1999, Daryl was an investment manager and partner of various funds managed by Glynn Capital Management, an investment advisory firm. She began her investment career as a research analyst at Rosenberg Capital and Oppenheimer & Co. after completing her MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Senior Rabbi Emeritus Block retired in July 2018 after serving as senior rabbi of The Temple–Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, OH since 2001. Designated by Newsweek as “one of the top 25 pulpit rabbis in America,” Rabbi Block is a passionate, widely recognized advocate for Israel and the US-Israel strategic alliance. A prolific writer, he has been featured in numerous publications, including Time, The Jewish Daily Forward, Tablet Magazine, Huffington Post, The Times of Israel, The Tower Magazine, JTA, The Jewish Week, and Haaretz.

He has also been a leader in the community for many years. In addition to serving as president of many organizations—including the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and the Greater Cleveland Board of Rabbis—he also served as a member of RPB’s Board from 1982-2015, including two terms as vice chair.

Rabbi Block was ordained at HUC-JIR in 1982, where he received awards for academic distinction, writing, and sermonic excellence. He graduated with honors from the Wharton School and from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He was a law clerk to a federal judge and spent four years on active duty in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, including assignments as a special assistant US attorney and a faculty member of the Naval Justice School. He received an honorary doctorate from HUC-JIR in 2007.

Ralph Sinsheimer has over 35 years of experience in the financial and investment business. He is a founder and managing director of The Solaris Group, a specialized global wealth strategy and asset management firm for ultra-high net-worth individuals, foundations and charitable programs. He oversees Solaris’ institutional consulting and wealth management activities, including strategic and tactical asset allocation, manager selection, and philanthropic services.

Ralph held a similar position as senior vice president and head of wealth management for Neuberger Berman Trust Company. Before that, Ralph was a managing director at Offitbank, where he was instrumental in developing the firm’s alternative investment activities in the hedge fund and private equity sectors. There, he also served as director of marketing and philanthropy management. He was also general partner of Eureka Capital Management, a long/short hedge fund, and worked at Loomis, Sayles, a leading institutional money management firm, where he was a vice president and director of funds.

Ralph earned his BA from Trinity College and an MBA from New York University. He sits on several other non-profit and corporate boards including the American Friends of Hebrew University, AccessLex Institute and the URJ.

Elliott is a member of the URJ Board, as well as the URJ Investment and Audit Committees. He also served on the URJ Oversight Committee and chaired the URJ Budget Committee from 2011 to 2015 and 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 is a past president of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto and current chair of the Holy Blossom Temple Foundation. He has served as chair of the Canadian Council of Reform Judaism and is currently the treasurer of the Canadian Council for Reform Judaism. He is on the Governance Committee of the Canadian Reform Pension Board.

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.

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, CT, 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.

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.

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.

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