Deena Aranoff is a PhD candidate in Jewish history at Columbia University, where she received a Master of Philosophy and a Master of Arts in history. Deena has studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem. Recently, she was a researcher and cataloger at the Rare Book Collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Dr. Jay R. Berkovitz is Professor of Jewish History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he directs the Center for Jewish Studies. Also a specialist in Jewish law, he received his PhD at Brandeis University. He is the author of The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth Century France (1989), The Life and Letters of Rabbi Salomon Ulmann (forthcoming), and has now completed a new book, Rites and Passages: The Making of Jewish Culture in Modern France, to be published in Israel.

Mr. David Bernat is Assistant Professor of Religion at Wellesley College and a doctoral candidate at Brandeis University. In addition to his Me'ah involvement, David has taught for Hebrew College's Center for Adult Jewish Learning. Previously David was the director of education at Temple Israel in New York and lectured extensively in the greater New York area.

Dr. Avi Bernstein-Nahar is the dean of educational planning and development at Hebrew College. He teaches at Hebrew College and for the Me'ah program. He earned his PhD at Stanford University.

Ellen Birnbaum holds a PhD in religion from Columbia University, and has most recently done post-doctoral work at the Department of Near Eastern Languages at Harvard University. Ellen has taught at a number of institutions and adult education programs in the Boston area, including Harvard and Brandeis University. She is the author of The Place of Judaism in Philo's Thought: Israel, Jews, and Proselytes.

Dr. Marc Brettler is Professor of Bible at Brandeis University, where he was awarded the Michael L. Walzer Teaching Prize. He received his PhD from Brandeis University. He is the author of articles on literary and historical aspects of biblical texts, and has previously taught adult education courses, including Early Morning Study Groups, at Hebrew College.

Shaye J.D. Cohen is Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard University. Prof. Cohen is interested in the history of Jewishness, in particular the boundary markers that distinguish Jews from other peoples and Jewishness from other identities. He has published widely on this theme, and also on the relationship between Judaism and Hellenism and between Judaism and Christianity. His publications include Josephus in Galilee and Rome: his Vita and Development as a Historian (1979), From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (1987) and The Beginnings of Jewishness (1999).

Reuven Cohn is an adult Jewish educator and an attorney. He is a veteran teacher in the Me'ah program and also offers courses at the Me'ah Graduate Institute, Hebrew College Online, Ma'ayan and Maimonides School. He has a supportive interactive teaching style, working cooperatively with the class to bring ancient texts to life. He has rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University, a JD from Yale Law School and has done advanced graduate work in Jewish studies at Harvard University. Among his areas of interest are Jewish interpretations of the Bible, the literary development of the Mishnah and Talmud, and history of the prayerbook.

Alanna Cooper is a senior fellow at Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions, where she is engaged in research on Jewish identity, Diaspora relationships, and the Jews of Eastern Lands (Edot HaMizrach). Alanna received her PhD in cultural anthropology from Boston University. Her dissertation, which is on the Bukharan Jews, traces the historical and contemporary relationship between this Central Asian Diaspora group and the wider Jewish world.

Dr. Eliezer Finkelman holds a PhD in comparative literature from City University of New York. He has previously been a Hillel director and congregational rabbi. He currently teaches Talmud at the New Jewish High School.

Dr. Everett Fox is the Alan M. Glick Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies at Clark University. He received his PhD from Brandeis University. Dr. Fox's books include In the Beginning (New York: Schocken Books, 1983), Now These are the Names (New York: Schocken Books, 1986), Scripture and Translation (ed., with Lawrence Rosenwald, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996) and The Five Books of Moses (New York: Schocken Books, 1995).

Dr. Jay M. Harris is Harry Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University. He received his PhD from Columbia University. He is the author of How Do We Know This?: Midrash and the Fragmentation of Modern Judaism.

Rabbi Shai Held is the director of education and the conservative rabbinic adviser at Harvard Hillel. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Rabbi Held received his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He serves as scholar-in-residence at the E Pluribus Unum Interfaith Conference on Religion and Social Justice, and lectures and teaches widely on issues of Jewish philosophy and theology and the relationship between Judaism and the quest for social justice.

Dr. Lynne Heller is a graduate of the Yeshivah of Flatbush and its Midrasha. She received a BA with honors in English and Education from Brooklyn College (Scholars Program) and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Heller earned her MA and PhD degrees in English and Comparative Literature at New York University as a New York State Regents Doctoral Fellow and a National Defense Education Fellow. She has taught Bible in several of the adult learning programs of Hebrew College and CJP, including the Early Morning Text Study program, Genesis Bible study program, Ikkarim, Kol Isha and the Institute for Jewish Studies in Lexington.

David Jacobson is Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at Brown University in the Program in Judaic Studies/Department of Religious Studies. He has published widely and is author of Modern Midrash: The Retelling of Traditional Jewish Narratives by Twentieth-Century Hebrew Writers (State University of New York Press, 1987) and Does David Still Play Before You?: Israeli Poetry and the Bible (Wayne State University Press, 1997). He is co-editor (with Kamal Abdel-Malek) of Israeli and Palestinian Identities in History and Literature (St. Martin's Press, 1999). He is currently writing a book on the relationship of contemporary Israeli poets to God and prayer.

Dr. Jonathan Klawans is Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University, where he teaches courses in Western religion, Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Jewish history and rabbinic literature. His book, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism (Oxford University Press), won awards as a best first book for the year 2000 from the American Academy of Religion and the American Academy for Jewish Research. He is currently writing a book exploring the religious significance of sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism.

Fred Klein is currently a doctoral student at Columbia University, is a Wexner Fellow, and holds rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. He has taught in a variety of programs both in the US and Israel, including Hebrew College, Ma'ayan, Machon Pardes, and the Hartman Institute.

Dr. Deanna Copeland Klepper holds a PhD in medieval European history from Northwestern University and is currently Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University where she teaches a variety of courses on the religious culture of the Middle Ages. She has published articles on late medieval Christian-Jewish relations, and is completing a book on polemics, interpretation and Jewish texts in the middle ages.

Daniel Kokin is pursuing his doctorate at Harvard University in Renaissance Intellectual History, and has served as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard for the last few years. From 1999–2001 he was a visiting researcher at Hebrew University focusing on halakhic responsa to non-Jews.

Ms. Marcie Lenk is currently a doctoral student at Harvard University. She lived in Israel from 1988 to 2000, where she taught at the Pardes Institute, Midreshet Lindenbaum and several Christian seminaries. She holds a BA in Mathematics and Jewish studies and an MA in bible from Yeshiva University and an MTS from Harvard Divinity School.

Mark Leuchter teaches and conducts research into biblical literature and ancient Israelite religion. He received his BA from the University of Michigan and his MA/PhD from the University of Toronto. In addition to Israelite religion and biblical literature, he also teaches courses in comparative religion and religion and cinema.

Shari Lowin is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. She holds a PhD from the University of Chicago. She has taught at University of Chicago, Yeshiva University, Brooklyn College and in Ma'ayan. Shari is fluent in Arabic, and has researched and published on a number of topics comparing Judaism and Islam including her dissertation, The Making of a Forefather: Abraham in Islamic and Jewish Exegetical Narratives.

Dr. Jacob Meskin is Assistant Professor of Jewish Education at Hebrew College. He also helps train faculty for Me'ah, Hebrew College's Boston-based and nationally-franchised adult Jewish education program. He has taught previously at Princeton University, Williams College and Rutgers University. He received his MA and PhD from Princeton University. His articles have appeared in Modern Judaism, The Journal of Religion, Soundings, Judaism, Cross Currents, and in several edited volumes. He is currently completing a manuscript on the relationship between philosophy and Jewish tradition in the work of Emmanuel Levinas.

Rabbi Carl Perkins is the rabbi at Temple Aliyah in Needham. He received his rabbinic ordination and Masters in Rabbinics and Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as a JD from Harvard Law School.

Asher Ragen is a graduate of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he studied ancient Near Eastern languages and history. He is currently completing his PhD at Harvard University, writing his dissertation on the temple societies of the Near East in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. He has taught courses on bible and rabbinics at various locations in the Boston area over the last few years.

Rabbi Benjamin Samuels is the rabbi of Congregation Sha'arei Tefillah in Newton. He holds a BA in English literature and an MA in both bible and medieval Jewish history from Yeshiva University.

Michael Satlow is Associate Professor at Brown University in the Program in Judaic Studies/Department of Religious Studies. He specializes in early Judaism, and is author of Jewish Marriage in Antiquity (Princeton, 2001) and Tasting the Dish: Rabbinic Rhetorics of Sexuality (Scholars Press, 1995). He is now working on a project on Jewish piety in antiquity, as well as continuing to develop an interactive database of inscriptions from the land of Israel that will be accessible over the Internet.

Dr. Solomon Schimmel, Professor of Jewish Education and Psychology, is the author of Wounds Not Healed by Time: The Power of Repentance and Forgiveness, and The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology, (both published by Oxford University Press), and numerous articles and book chapters on Jewish thought, psychology of religion, and Jewish education. He was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar and Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, England for six months in 1998 and has lectured throughout the world on his areas of interest. He has been a consultant to Jewish day schools on curricular philosophy and development, and pioneered the teaching of Jewish Studies courses over the Internet. Dr. Schimmel received his BA from the City College of New York and MA and PhD from Wayne State University, and has been a National Science Foundation Research Fellow at Harvard University, and a Visiting Professor and/or Research Fellow at Brandeis University, University of Texas, Bar-Ilan University and Hebrew University.

Rabbi Meir Sendor is spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Sharon. He holds rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University and a doctorate in Medieval Jewish History from Harvard University. Rabbi Sendor lectures widely on Jewish history, philosophy, law and mysticism and serves as an instructor in the Me'ah Program.

Rabbi David B. Starr is Dean of Me'ah and Assistant Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew College. He holds rabbinic ordination from Jewish Theological Seminary, and received his PhD in history and Jewish studies from Columbia University.

Dr. Gregg Stern is Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew College. He has just returned to Boston from the United Kingdom, where he taught Jewish history and religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London as a fellow of the London School of Jewish Studies. He received his PhD from Harvard University and is a former Hebrew University Fulbright scholar in medieval Jewish studies. Dr. Stern is fascinated by the diversity and complexity of Jewish culture in its variegated manifestations, and is completing a book on the cultural history of southern French Jewry in the late Middle Ages.

Avi Winitzer is a doctoral candidate in Assyriology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation deals with the subject of divination in ancient Mesopotamia. He received his BA and MA from Brandeis in Judaic studies and bible. He has taught classes as a visiting lecturer at Harvard, Boston University, and at Boston College, and has won four teaching awards for instruction of bible.

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