Cheryl grew up in Levittown, PA. During her teen years she was very active in NFTY. At sixteen she spent a summer in Israel with her confirmation class and those from two other synagogues. That experience cemented her desire to study archaeology, which was her major in college. By her junior year in college she realized that she didn’t want the type of life that being an archaeologist entails, what with backbreaking work digging in the dirt all day long, often in places without hot & cold running water! So, she went to law school. She started dating Allen Gorski about a month into college and they have been together ever since; it will be 40 years together this coming Fall!
Cheryl & Allen attended law school together in Boston. They like to say that Boston is a great college town, but unfortunately, they weren’t in college anymore. After law school they moved to southern New Jersey to start their careers. They remained in Camden County for the next 7 years, where their sons, Sam and Randy, were born. One day when Sam was about 10 months old he waived bye-bye to Cheryl as she was leaving for work. At the time she was newly pregnant with Randy. She drove to work in tears and decided that she really wanted to be a stay-at-home mom after Randy was born. She feels blessed to have been able to have a home-based job for the next 10 years.
In 1992, the family moved to Lawrenceville to the home where they still reside. Sarah joined the family a few years later. During those years Cheryl was actively involved in the JCC Nursery School PPO and the Eldridge Park School PTO. She also served as manager for her sons’ travel soccer teams.
When Sarah was about to enter kindergarten, Cheryl decided it was time to return to work. She returned to her former place of employment, Ken Landis Law, in Haddon Township, NJ. Her employer was kind enough to agree to a work schedule seldom allowed, 3 days a week. She still works at this law firm, going in to the office 3 days a week, but now she works from home the other two days. Her primary field of practice is Trust & Estate law. Her three children no longer live at home. Sam is an attorney, practicing in the same field as his mother, in Boston. Randy is a fourth-grade math teacher in the City of Baltimore. Sarah is a junior in college, majoring in Deaf Studies, who hopes to become a Sign Language Interpreter. All three of their children are involved in long-term relationships. Cheryl & Allen are very proud of all of them and enjoy when they come home to visit.
At Adath Israel, Cheryl was involved with the Hebrew School PTO. She joined the Board of Trustees in 2003 and became a Vice President of the Congregation in 2005. She continued as Vice President until 2016. As best as she can remember in 2004 the congregation voted to rejoin United Synagogue. Many congregants, including Cheryl, voted for this so that our synagogue could have a USY Chapter. The next year Cheryl petitioned the Board to establish a Youth Commission Chair to pursue development of a chapter. Cheryl continued to serve in that capacity until 2017. The Adath USY Chapter received the Hagesher Region (Philadelphia and its suburbs) “Chapter of the Year Award” in 2008, when Judi & Michael Weiner’s daughter, Sarah, and her husband, Jason Korn, served as advisors, and again in 2012, when Cheryl was serving as “volunteer interim advisor.” Despite her complaining, Cheryl truly loved the years that she assisted our synagogue’s teens in planning and running our USY Chapter. She is also very proud of her commitment to Adath Israel, which continues now as Treasurer of Women’s League.