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Name: Isabel Barker Smith

Occupation: Creative writer and communications director for CAMERA — Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

Address: East Brunswick

Family: Married three years to Rabbi Aaron Benson, recently installed East Brunswick Jewish Center's rabbi. They have a 1-year-old son Montgomery Barker Benson. Two brothers: Peter Smith, an actor living in Los Angeles; and Morgan Smith, an opera singer living in Seattle. Sister Susanna Smith is applying to be a doctoral candidate in languages and lives in New York City. Mother Patricia Smith lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., and father Gray Smith lives in Croton-On-Hudson, N.Y.

Community activities: "I've only been here for six weeks, but I have done a lot of events for CAMERA including bringing Bret Stephens, former Jerusalem Post editor, to talk Jan. 19 at EBJC. I help in event planning for the synagogue. I also would like to get involved in dog rescue and animal rights activities."

Hobbies: "Writing, especially humor, short stories, and screenplays. I've had a screenplay optioned but it has not been made. I love taking my dogs running and going to the gym. Reading, I like going into the city for opera, plays, and seeing art exhibits. I speak Russian and I love anything that has to do with the Russian community."

Self-portrait: "I love people helping people and into philanthropy and creativity. I like to laugh; I'm known by my laugh. My friends, who worked in standup, always had me come to their performances."

Motto:"Always make the happy ending happen."

Greatest achievement: "My marriage and my son. I'm really close to my siblings; I'm sad that we are spread out all over the country."

Bad habits: "I'm terrible with time management. I take on too much and I can't say no."

Favorite TV: "Mad Men," "South Park," and "Boston Legal."

Favorite food: "Red Caviar on bread with butter."

Best childhood memory: "I liked going to Tennessee to visit my father's family there every summer. We did a lot of outdoor activities like hiking in the mountains and white water canoeing."

People don't know that I... "am a nationally certified whitewater canoe instructor."

Last book I read: "Absurdistan," by Gary Shteyngart. "It's a coming of age comic novel of Misha Vainberg, a Russian foreign student at Accidental College, U.S., who returns to Russia but gets stuck in tiny Absurdistan while it's going through a civil war and can't get a visa to go back to the USA."

The biggest asset in the local Jewish communities: "There seems to be a lot of collaboration between different congregations working together."

The biggest problem in the local Jewish communities: "I haven't been here long enough to know."

If I had more time, I would... "volunteer more."