Shana Novick, Executive Director
Shana assumed the position of Executive Director of the Hebrew Free Loan Society in September 1995. Together with the Board, she created and executed HFLSí first strategic plan which transformed HFLS' programmatic array, and put together a second strategic plan in the fall of 2006. Under her leadership HFLS has doubled the amount and number of loans it administers, created innovative programs to address the needs of the community and doubled the size of the staff.
Prior to her work at HFLS, Shana served as a Resident Counsel at the Ford Foundation where she worked with program staff making loans to intermediary organizations to support cutting-edge charitable projects such as low-income housing development and minority entrepreneurship. Before Ford, Shana worked as a psychiatric social worker in Jerusalem and New York and as an attorney at a large Park Avenue law firm.
Shana is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Barnard College. She earned her MSW from Wurzweiler School of Social Work and her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law. Shana brings to her position deep knowledge both of the FSU community and the Jewish community, generally. She has lived and traveled extensively in the Former Soviet Union and Israel and is a leader in her synagogue (Ansche Chesed), having served on its Board, strategic planning committee and co- chaired its recent capital campaign.

Tanya Figelman, Assistant Executive Director
Tanya, born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, started her career there in the United Nations Population Fund where she was the Regional Program Manager. In 2002, she received the Edward Muskie Graduate Program Fellowship Award that brought her to the U.S. to study at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota . Prior to becoming an Assistant Executive Director at HFLS, Tanya was a program manager in the Microenteprise team and focused on providing business start up and expansion loans to immigrants from the Former Soviet Union. Tanya also ran the overall Microenterprise evaluation program. Prior to joining the Society, Tanya worked as the Co-Founder and Vice President of an e-commerce Internet start-up company. Tanya also interned at and provided consulting services to the United Nations Population Fund in New York . Tanya earned her Bachelor of Science in Finance and Credit from Tashkent Financial Institute in Uzbekistan and her Master of Public Policy and Administration from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota .

Bella Fishman, Executive Assistant

Rona Gottlib, Director of Special Projects
Rona Gottlib is the Director of Special Projects at the Hebrew Free Loan Society, where she is responsible for four of UJA-Federation of NY scholarship funds for higher education and administers the Special Education Bridge loan program. Rona is also responsible for the organizations' Next Generation Leadership Board operations, and leading the planning and executing of their annual fundraising event. Prior to joining the HFLS Rona was a Program Director at Israel at Heart, an international advocacy nonprofit organization where she created and marketed new programs, as well as oversaw the coordination and production of large-scale events and volunteers. Born and raised in Israel, Rona served as an instructor of decoding courses in the Israeli Defense Force. Rona received her M.P.A. from the Robert E. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, and her B.A. from Ono Academic College, Israel.

Tanya Hackel, Director of Development
Tanya Hackel is Director of Development at the Hebrew Free Loan Society, New York. She is responsible for all aspects of the organization's development efforts including: the annual campaign, grant writing and donor engagement. Prior to joining the HFLS Tanya was the Major Gifts Officer at the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter, an organization providing housing and support services to homeless men and women. Tanya started her development career at UJA-Federation of New York, in the Wall Street and Professional Women's divisions. Before her work in development Tanya spent several years as an account manager in field of advertising working on clients including: Maybelline, Cover Girl, M&M's and Datek Online. Tanya received her M.P.A. from the Robert E. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, and her B.A. from Williams College. Tanya lives on the Upper West Side with her husband and daughter.

Shlomo Haft, Microenterprise Program Coordinator
Shlomo, fluent in both Hebrew and English, focuses on providing business start up and expansion loans to the Chassidic community in Brooklyn. Prior to joining the Society, Shlomo started his career at Haywin Textile Products, Inc. a successful home textile wholesale distributor, where he spent twenty years as Chief Operating Officer and In-House Counsel. While there Shlomo helped grow the annual sales from $10 million to $70 million, negotiated strategic joint venture agreements with overseas manufacturers and U.S. based licensors, and oversaw of the company's credit risk decisions. Shlomo has his undergraduate degree in Economics from Yeshiva University and his Juris Doctor from Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. Shlomo is a member of the New York State Bar and a licensed New York State Real Estate Broker.

Anna Levanidova, Loan Officer/Network Administrator

Raizy Polatchek, Loan Officer/Office Manager

Larisa Shakirova, Loan Officer

Valerie Shinder, Staff Accountant
Valerie, born in Odessa, Ukraine and came to the United States in 1994. She received her Masters in Mathematics from Odessa State University of Education, with minor studies in theater and language. Since moving to the US, Valerie retrained in general accounting, which has helped her hold increasingly senior positions in finance departments of mid-size corporations in New York and New Jersey. Valerie’s restarted her career in Aramark’s uniform division, where she quickly rose from clerical support to office manager/staff accountant with managerial oversight of over 20 people. After serving as a head of accounting at Dynasty House of Design - a large New Jersey retail and wholesale company, Valerie became a financial controller at DM Services - an international internet company based in New York and London where she implemented new accounting system procedures that helped integrate the financial statements of several international entities. Valerie is fluent in Russian and English.

Natasha Srulowitz , Microenterprise Program Director
Natasha was born in Kiev, Ukraine and emigrated to the U.S. as a child in 1978. Fluent in both Russian and English, Natasha oversees both Russian and ultra-Orthodox arms of the Microenterprise program. Her responsibilities include managing the candidate screening process ensuring due diligence for each loan and the reporting structure for the program. Natasha is also responsible for reaching out to government and other non-profit organization to gain their partnership and volunteerism with the Microenterprise program. Prior to joining HFLS, Natasha worked for over sixteen years in the financial sector gaining significant experience in venture investing, financial advisory, and microenterprise lending. She had a successful track record of building and implementing new programs and initiatives from inception, as well as, developing partner and vendor networks, and formulating strategic decisions. Natasha earned her undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Washington and her MBA from Columbia University Business School.