High Profile: Meet The Golden Lioness Owner Mona Gora Sterling

Mona Gora Sterling’s latest development project was a labor of love. Gora Sterling, owner and founder of The Golden Lioness, a property management and development company headquartered in Brooklyn Heights, has spent more than a year working on Jack’s House, a children’s center at the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach. It is named after her father Jack Gora, a Holocaust survivor who died in 2020.

“My father could have been a bitter man, but he always was a ‘glass-half-full’ sort of guy,” says Gora Sterling of the man she describes as her best friend. “He grew up in Warsaw and lost his entire family when he was 18 years old. Instead, he and my mother were always about the children and grandchildren. He and my mom always felt they led a blessed life.”

She sees the children’s center, which opened in 2022, as a fitting tribute to a man who had been coming to Westhampton Beach for 40 years and helped to found the synagogue in Westhampton Beach 35 years ago with Gora Sterling’s mother, Paula.

“Westhampton Beach is all about community and so is this children’s center,” Gora Sterling says of the facility that this summer has grown to three lots and is adding a basketball court, pool and a “Field of Dreams”-style athletic field. “This is a community-built and community-focused center. It was all done with donations from members of Hampton Synagogue, but it is open to everyone.”

Gora Sterling says that a great deal of thought was put into designing the center with children in mind. There is a chapel designed for children with three child-sized Torahs that were created in Israel and finished in the United States. In addition, there are 36 fiories made by world-famous glass artist Dale Chihuly hanging in the chapel. Chihuly, who is friends with Donna Schneier, mother of Rabbi Marc Schneier. She was the catalyst behind the artist’s involvement.

The very reason her parents chose to put down roots in Westhampton Beach is the reason she wanted to build a children’s center here.

“The key to happiness is family and a community of shared values,” Gora Sterling says. “Westhampton Beach is community based, it is welcoming. That’s why we come back every year. It is fresh, beautiful and the air is clean. And, the young people are coming back. That says a lot about your community if your young people want to be there.”

Although designed for children, the center and the synagogue also hosts events for adults including cooking classes, lectures and movie nights. Gora Sterling says the goal is to give the entire community a place to congregate and grow.

“We at Hampton Synagogue wanted to bring something to the community,” she said. “My father would be pleased. I imagine him looking down and being happy about what he sees going on in the community.”

Gora Sterling is no stranger to getting things done. When she opened The Golden Lioness in 1995, there were very few women in the business. She paved the way for other women to step into development and now runs a multi-million-dollar company known for its owner’s attention to detail and innovation.

“When I started, it was an exciting time and I looked forward to the challenge,” Gora Sterling said. “I am proof that if you work hard and focus on your dreams, you can accomplish anything. I am not slowing down. I’m invigorated by whatever is next.”

Gora Sterling and husband David Sterling, owner of the insurance firm SterlingRisk, have five children and 11 grandchildren, all of whom spend time with them in Westhampton Beach.

Passionate about giving back, Gora Sterling and David Sterling also give generously to many charities, including the Women’s International Zionist Organization, the UJA Federation, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American Friends of Rambam Hospital and the American Society for Yad Vashem.

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.