Ellen Geller Kamaras
“What lights me up? As a nurse, helping people especially in their hardest moments. Personally, staying grounded and supporting friends and family, raising a family that can add to our amazing community, and supporting my husband, a rabbi, in his awesome work. It’s a kiddush Hashem, being a successful hard-working Jewish mom in a mostly non-Jewish environment.” – Renee
Please meet Renee Tawil, nurse, wife, mother, and a dedicated community member. Renee is also the sister-in-law of Rachel Tawil Abraham who was featured in this column in July 2021.
Roots
Born to Rozie Shamah and David Steinberg, Renee grew up in Brooklyn as the third of four children. The siblings are still very close.
The Steinberg family followed Sephardic traditions as Rozie is Syrian-Sephardic and David is one half-Ashkenaz but grew up in the Syrian community.
A very social and creative child, Renee studied at Magen David Yeshiva from elementary through high school. She became a serious student in 11th grade when she set her sights on becoming a nurse.
Although she wasn’t interested in academics in her early years, Renee loved being in the spotlight and overseeing science and dance projects. As a sixth grader, she won the National Young Inventors Competition. Renee would get tired carrying luggage on family vacations and she created a suitcase with a chair that folds back.
As teenagers, Renee and her friends ran dance classes and plays for younger children. This experience, organizing children’s programming for pay, demonstrated Renee’s early business acumen.
Intro to Medicine
During eleventh grade, Renee loved training for her EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) certification. “I was always interested in medicine and thought: how can I turn the EMT into a career?” Renee researched nursing and decided that being a nurse would fulfill her interest in medicine and would satisfy her desire to help the community and positively impact society.
“I also love being different and creating my own path and nursing was a great way to do this.” And, this career path would make her parents proud. Once Renee chose nursing, she buckled down with her studies. She was very driven, focused, and determined to achieve her goal.
Staying close to home, Renee enrolled in the Kingsborough College nursing program and received her Associate Degree in Applied Science and her Registered Nurse (RN) license. She obtained her bachelor’s degree online from Chamberlain College and her master’s in nursing from the University of Phoenix.
Then Came Marriage
Renee met her naseeb at an MDY Shabbaton. David Tawil, three years older, was an alumni, and Renee was a senior advisor at the event. David was also friends with Renee’s brother.
On their first date, David told Renee that he remembered that she had won the Young Inventors Competition. He was at the contest as his younger brother was Renee’s age. “David was enamored by the idea of my becoming a nurse and called me ‘Renee RN.’”
The two were married the following year after Renee completed her freshman year of college. Their first child was born during her second year at Kingsborough during winter break. David, her parents, and in-laws were very supportive of Renee’s nursing career. This gave her hizuk, keeping her motivated.
Inspired by Hacham Ovadia Yosef, zt”l. David became a rabbi. He serves as the Head Rabbi of Bet Rachel Synagogue (Larchwood Avenue Shul) and teaches Humash, Navi, and Gemara at Hillel Yeshiva High School.
The Tawils live in West Long Branch and have six children, ranging from two to fourteen.
Renee’s Essence
Renee is both a take-charge and hard-working person. She is positive, organized, passionate, and is a team player. Personality-wise Renee is outgoing, friendly, creative, bright, and super energetic. In her current role as Cath Lab nurse manager, her leadership and team building skills shine through.
Role Models
Renee credits her parents for modeling good middot and helping her grow into the woman she is today.
“My father is hard working, driven, always helping others, thoughtful, and has strong emunah. My mother is hospitable, caring, loving, and warm, always helping others, and she is dedicated to tradition.”
Linda Kacher was Renee’s first boss in nursing. Linda, a working mom at NYU Brooklyn Endoscopy, provided Renee with nursing and life lessons, amazing guidance, and inspiration. Linda encouraged Renee to go for her master’s degree and to invest in herself. Linda believed that Renee had a bright professional future ahead of her.
Career Trajectory
Renee’s nursing career was launched at NYU Langone Brooklyn Endoscopy and Ambulatory Surgery Center. She spent seven years there, learned a tremendous amount, and loved her job. Renee’s work-life balance was just right at NYU. “I thought I would be there forever.”
Renee’s life changed dramatically when the Tawil family moved from Brooklyn to NJ eight years ago. David took a founding rabbi position at Bet Rachel Synagogue. The shul was initially open on weekends only and then a year later it had daily minyamin. A new building was erected, and last March a mikvah was built.
Both Renee and David took a leap of faith when they moved to Deal. David jumped in as Head Rabbi of a new shul in a new town and state and Renee now served as a nurse in a medical center where most of the staff knew nothing about Yiddishkeit and Shabbat.
Renee emphasized how her faith guided her career decisions, including a move to a new hospital where she had to educate her colleagues about her religious observance and work-life balance.
Renee started out doing endoscopy work at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, JSUMC, and within four years had earned the trust of the hospital administration.
Despite having a limited cardiac background, Renee took on the interim leadership of a cath (catheterization) lab after a previous nurse manager’s departure. Notwithstanding initial doubts about balancing this new role with her responsibilities as a mother of five, Renee trusted her boss and embraced the challenge. Over the past four years, she led the construction and opening of a state-of-the-art $45 million cardiac unit with 11 procedure rooms, which has since seen a 40 percent increase in volume and become a leading heart care facility in NJ.
Renee oversees a team of 150 staff members including nurses, technologists, and nurse practitioners. She appreciates the flexibility of her managerial position, but at the same time she has constant responsibilities and occasionally emergencies require her attention even when she is not physically at work.
“Eric Coyle, my current manager, urged me to take on this new role even though I would never have predicted I would be here today.”
Thorns and Roses
Renee’s roses are watching the amazing talent of her staff, literally saving lives every day, creating a good name for Jews, and debunking some stigmas. “Making a difference one patient at a time.”
Her challenges include work life balance, juggling Shabbat and holidays, and ensuring that everyone on her staff feels seen and heard.
Accomplishments
Personally, Renee is so proud of her amazing children, running an organized home, teaching kallah classes, hosting bnot sherut for Hillel Yeshiva, and modeling good middot for her kids. Renee and David have two teenage girls living with them.
On a professional level, Renee values her nursing certification and her position as Cardiac Cath Lab Nurse Manager at JSUMC.
Rebbetzin and Community Leader
Renee is passionately dedicated to her community, especially Hillel Yeshiva and Bet Rachel. As a rebbetzin, she thrives on teaching kallah classes from both a halachic and medical viewpoint.
Her key to success? She is super organized and believes in the “Let Them” philosophy of Mel Robbins. The “Let Them Theory” is a guide on how to stop letting other people’s opinions, drama, and judgment impact your life.
Renee believes in talking to the people [connected to certain issues], not about the people, taking a positive spin on everything, keeping everything in perspective, and maintaining religion/Hashem at the center of everything.
Parenting and Balance
“We are a great team! Our parenting style is to lead by example and foster independence.”
Renee and David parent as a team and support each other. Renee can usually break away from work for her children’s special school events. Renee is grateful for her husband, her leadership team at work, and her parents’ and in-laws’ support.
Her work-life balance tools include cooking on Sundays for Monday through Thursday’s meals, taking Thursdays off for Shabbat preparation, using a written planner, asking for help when needed, and being nice to herself.
“I couldn’t be luckier, even with leaving at 6am and late nights, David and the children always cheer me on.”
To unwind, Renee takes a day off, has date night with her husband on Thursdays, schedules “me time,” does meditation, reads, and spends time with friends.
Connect with Renee at ReneeTawil@gmail.com.
Ellen Geller Kamaras, CPA/MBA, is an International Coach Federation (ICF) Associate Certified Coach. Her coaching specialties include life, career, and dating coaching. Ellen can be contacted at ellen@lifecoachellen.com.