Ritual Director

Yossi’s career at VBS began in 1971. Originally hired as a Day School and Bar Mitzvah Teacher, Yossi became the Ritual Director in 1988 while continuing to teach Torah trope and Shabbat service prayers to children and adults. Over the past 50 years, Yossi has taught over 3,500 students, including multiple generations! Born in 1938 in Tel Aviv, Palestine, Yossi was 9 years old when he stood with his family to hear the United Nations vote, one by one on Israel’s statehood.  A defining moment in his life, the survival of the Israel is always at the forefront of his mind and heart. As a young adult, Yossi distinguished himself as captain of the Tel Aviv Maccabi youth soccer team and at 18 he began his service in the IDF. As a paratrooper, Yossi jumped behind enemy lines in the 1956 war against Egypt and still proudly possesses his “wings” from those days. In 1966, during a trip to the United States, Yossi fell in love with this country, especially the American Jewish people and stayed. While teaching at VBS he met his wife, Dr. Maxine Newman-Dresner. They have two wonderful children, Jeffrey and Robin, and three beautiful grandchildren--- Melanie, Joshua, and Andrew. Yossi has worked with young people as a B’nai Mitzvah teacher to help them learn Torah and develop a love of Judaism. He sees this as his mission, to carry on the traditions that he was willing to fight for as a young man. As each of Yossi’s students prepare for their B’nai Mitzvah, they have the good fortune to know that they are in the hands of a master. Yossi is a master teacher, a knowledgeable Torah scholar, and an accomplished Bal Kria. In the tradition of those who endear themselves with certain traits that only they seem to possess, Yossi is tough but compassionate; he walks faster than anyone else in Shul; he gives directions on the Bimah without opening his mouth, and he talks so fast many people think he is speaking a foreign language.