Faculty

Rav Rachel Adelman, PhD

Associate Professor, Hebrew Bible
radelman@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8646

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew College

Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem

M.A. in Jewish Studies from Matan/Baltimore Hebrew University

Biography

Rav Rachel Adelman, who joined the full-time faculty in 2012, provides a dynamic, open approach to text study, drawing on a wide range of sources, from Tanakh and classical midrash to modern Israeli poetry. She holds a M.A. in Jewish Studies from Matan/Baltimore Hebrew University and a Ph.D. in Hebrew literature, with a specialty in midrash, from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and rabbinical ordination from Hebrew College.

Her first book, The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha, is based on her doctoral dissertation, and she began her second, The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible, under the auspices of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard. She is currently working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press). When she is not writing books, papers, or divrei Torah, it is poetry that flows from her pen.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• Sukkot as a Touch of Eternity
• Jonah’s Magical Mystery Tour of the Netherworld
• “The Elusive Ark: Locus of Longing in Exile,” Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 27 (2019), 137-167.
• “Love as Strong as Death: Eros and Thanatos in the Sinai Theophany”, in Zeramim: An Online Journal of Applied Jewish Thought 3:1 (Fall 2018), 5-26; https://zeramim.org/
• The Willingness to Let Go of What We Seek (video) from the Hebrew College Elul Together Project (2020/5781)

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld

President
sanisfeld@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8773

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

B.A., Brown University

Biography

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld became president of Hebrew College in July 2018 after being appointed president-elect in fall of 2017 and serving as acting president from January-June 2018. Rabbi Anisfeld first came to Hebrew College in 2003 as an adjunct faculty member of the Rabbinical School and then served as Dean of Students from 2005-2006. She served the next eleven years as Dean of the Rabbinical School (2006-2017).

Rabbi Anisfeld graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1990 and subsequently spent 15 years working in pluralistic settings as a Hillel rabbi at Tufts University, Yale University, and Harvard University. She has been a regular summer faculty member for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel since 1993 and is co-editor of two volumes of women’s writings on Passover, The Women’s Seder Sourcebook: Rituals and Readings for Use at the Passover Seder and The Women’s Passover Companion: Women’s Reflections on the Festival of Freedom. From 2011 to 2013, she was named to Newsweek’s list of Top 50 Influential Rabbis in America. In 2015, Rabbi Anisfeld was named one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world by The Jerusalem Post. She writes and teaches widely, weaving together Torah, rabbinic commentary, and contemporary poetry and literature in her wise and compassionate approach to the complexities of the human experience and the search for healing and hope in a beautiful but fractured world.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• Caught in the Thicket (video) from the Hebrew College Elul Together Project (2020/5781)
• “Extending the Horizons of Our Hearts” (Hebrew College Speaking Torah podcast)
• “Standing Before the Gates: Be’ila 5781“

Harvey Bock

Hebrew Language Coordinator, Rabbinical School hbock@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8761

Education

J.D., Yale Law School

B.A., Linguistics, Yale College

Biography

Harvey Bock is a graduate of the Yeshivah of Flatbush; Yale College, where he majored in linguistics; and Yale Law School. After more than 20 years of practicing law, with a specialty in banking regulation (most recently as general counsel of Discover Card), Bock embarked in 2001 upon a second career at Hebrew College as a teacher of Hebrew language and Aramaic, areas of study in which he has long maintained an intense interest. He has translated several books, articles, and poems from Hebrew into English, including Introduction to the Literature of the Hebrew Bible by Alexander Rofé.

Rabbi Justin David

Dean, Rabbinical School

Education

Rabbinical Ordination, Jewish Theological Seminary

M.H.L., Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies

A.B., Oberlin College

Biography

A graduate of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained in 1999, Rabbi David served as the senior rabbi at Congregation B’nai Israel for 21 years and is currently finishing his doctorate in education at JTS. The new dean said of his time at CBI, “The community profoundly shaped me as a rabbi and as a person. By continually challenging me to seek deeper meaning, my community helped me understand the rabbinate as an enterprise of purpose that compels us to examine and change the conventions that inhibit us from pursuing meaningful connections and urgent moral action.”

Marion Gribetz

Director, Congregational Education Initiative
Hebrew College Graduate Education Program
mgribetz@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8655

Education

Doctoral Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

M.A., Tufts University

B.A., Barnard College, Columbia University

Biography

Marion Gribetz is on the faculty of MaTaRoT and is the director of educational initiatives. She teaches in, oversees, and directs aspects of many professional learning programs at the college including the Pardes Educator Program and community initiatives in teacher learning. As a faculty member at Hebrew College, she has taught a variety of courses in Jewish education, including Strategic Planning for Jewish Education, Arts and Jewish Studies in the Jewish School, Foundations of Congregational Education, Seminar in Jewish Pluralism, Theory and Practice of Experiential Education, Issues in the Teaching of Israel and the Graduate Research Seminar.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• Two chapters in: Learning and Community: Jewish Supplementary Schools in the Twenty-first Century (Edited by Jack Wertheimer, Brandeis University Press, 2009)
• Lessons from Mapping Jewish Education, 2007, Brandeis University
• Mapping Professional Development, 2008, Brandeis University
• Likud by the Lake Revisited: Growth and Change at Jewish Summer Camp, 2011, AVI CHAI foundation

Rabbi Dan Judson, PhD

Provost
djudson@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8638

Education

Doctorate in Jewish History, Brandeis University, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Master in Hebrew Letters, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

B.A., Colgate University

Biography

Rabbi Dan Judson was appointed dean of the Rabbinical School in 2018. Previously, he oversaw the professional development program, and served as the placement director for the Rabbinical School. He received his doctorate in Jewish history from Brandeis University where his research focused on the history of American synagogue finances. His book, Pennies for Heaven: A History of American Synagogues and Money, was published in 2018. Rabbi Judson served on the national faculty of the Union for Reform Judaism, consulting to synagogues across the country on financial matters. His research on synagogues which have eliminated dues was featured in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, NPR, The New York Jewish Week, and Reform Judaism Magazine. He also served as the rabbi of Temple Beth David in Canton, MA for 10 years and co-authored several books on Jewish rituals for Jewish Lights Publishing, including The Rituals and Practices of a Jewish Life: A Handbook for Personal Spiritual Renewal and The Jewish Pregnancy Book: A Resource for the Soul, Body and Mind During Pregnancy, Birth and the First Three Months.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• Pennies for Heaven: The History of American Synagogues and Money, Brandeis University Press (2018)
• Are Voluntary Dues Right For Your Synagogue? A Practical Guide, UJA Federation of New York (2015)
• “When Jews Choose Their Dues,” Reform Judaism Magazine (Spring, 2014) An interview and essay appeared as the cover story for the world’s largest circulated Jewish magazine.
• “What One Chabad Rabbi Can Teach Synagogues About Money,” Ejewishphilanthropy.com (January 24, 2013) Named by web site as one of the ten best articles of the year.
• “Scrapping Synagogue Dues: A Case Study,” Ejewishphilanthropy.com (January 12, 1012). Named by web site as one of the ten best articles of the year.
• Jewish Holidays: A Brief Introduction for Christians. Co-author with Dr. Kerry Oltizky.Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2006. Part of a series of books about Jewish practice intended for a Christian audience.
• Jewish Rituals: A Brief Introduction for Christians. Co-author with Dr. Kerry Olitzky. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004. Part of a series of books about Jewish practice intended for a Christian audience.
• Meeting at the Well: A Jewish Spiritual Guide to Being Engaged. Co-author with Rabbi Nancy Wiener. New York: UAHC Press, 2002. The book provides Jewish wisdom on a variety of topics for engaged couples. These topics include: intimacy, money, religion, spirituality, dealing with in-laws, etc.

Rabbi Jane Kanarek, PhD

Associate Dean;
Professor of Rabbinics
jkanarek@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8623

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Jewish Theological Seminary

Ph.D., University of Chicago

Biography

Rabbi Dr. Jane Kanarek is associate professor of rabbinics and associate dean of academic development and advising at Hebrew College. She is the author of Biblical Narrative and the Formation of Rabbinic Law and the co-editor of Learning to Read Talmud: What It Looks Like and How It Happens and Motherhood in the Jewish Cultural Imagination, the latter two of which were finalists for the National Jewish Book Awards.

Rabbi Gita Karasov

Director of Admissions & Student Life, Rabbinical and Cantorial Programs
gkarasov@hebrewcollege.edu

Education

• Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew College (Class of 2020)
• MJEd, Hebrew College (Class of 2020)
• B.A., University of Maryland

Biography

Originally from Minnesota, Rabbi Gita Karasov spent her time prior to rabbinical school serving as director of engagement and education at the University of Michigan Hillel. Her passion has always been at the intersection of relationship building and Jewish education, and she is thrilled to be working in this capacity, accompanying prospective and current students along their own spiritual and intellectual journeys.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• “The Teshuvah of Missed Connections” (video)  from the Hebrew College Elul Together Project (5781)

Rabbi Daniel Klein

Dean of Students
dklein@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8637

Specialization
Admissions and student life

Education

• Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew College (Class of 2010)
• MJEd., Hebrew College (Class of 2010)
• B.A., The University of Chicago

Biography

Rabbi Daniel Klein grew up in Newton, MA and has been a member of the Hebrew College community for over 20 years. As a teenager, he attended Prozdor; Hebrew College’s Hebrew High School; and Camp Yavneh, an affiliate of Hebrew College. Rabbi Klein earned his B.A. from The University of Chicago. Raised to love Judaism and to have a commitment to service, Daniel found his own path into Jewish tradition beginning in college in the writings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Arthur Green, and the Hasidic masters. After teaching middle school and high school social studies at a Jewish Day School in New Jersey, Klein entered the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College and was ordained in 2010. In addition to being the Dean of Students, Klein serves as the rabbi in residence of The Boston Synagogue. He now lives again in Newton with his wife Jen and their two children, Micah and Nora.

Selected Publications and Presentations 

• The Human Soul is a Candle of God: Finding Meaning in Existence. Huffington Post Religion (May, 2016)
• Singing in the Dark: Leviticus and the Call for Justice. Hebrew College blog (April, 2016)
• On Joseph, Shaving, and Being Human. Huffington Post Religion (December, 2015)
• Seeing Past, Present and Future on the Road to Justice. Huffington Post Religion (August, 2015)

Rabbi Allan Lehmann

Faculty
alehmann@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8628

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

Biography

Whether in his office, the Mascott Beit Mmidrash, or the classroom, Rabbi Allan Lehmann counsels, teaches and advises rabbinical students in his role as associate dean of the Rabbinical School. Before joining Hebrew College in 2007, Lehmann served for seven years as Jewish chaplain and rabbinic Hillel director at Brandeis University. Prior to that, he served for 20 years as the rabbi of a Conservative synagogue in Gainesville, Fla. Lehmann and his wife, Joanne Schindler, often host Minyan Olat Shabbat at their house in Newton Centre on Friday evenings.

Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer

Rosh Tefilla and Artist-in-Residence

Education

Rabbinical Ordination, Hebrew College

Biography

Jessica Kate Meyer is a prayer leader, storyteller, vocalist, and rabbi, who served as rabbi-hazzan at Romemu in NYC, and most recently, at The Kitchen in San Francisco. She has studied sacred Jewish music with masters from Ashkenazi and Mizrahi traditions and has performed as a vocalist with ensembles in the United States and Israel. In a previous life, Jessica appeared in film, theater, and television projects in Europe and the United States: most notably, as a principal role in the Oscar-winning film, The Pianist.

Susan Morrel

Senior Advisor and Director of Field Experiences in the Master of Jewish Education Program at Hebrew College
smorrel@hebrewcollege.edu

Education

Executive Master Degree in Religious Education, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR)

Biography

Susan Friedburg Morrel is a Jewish educational leader with over 25 years of congregational education experience, as well as experience working in Jewish camps and organizations.

In addition to her work at Hebrew College, Susan is a consultant for Gateways: Access to Jewish Education where she coaches educators in providing special education support to enable students with diverse learning needs to succeed in Jewish learning and living. Morrel is also a teacher-educator in Philosophical Inquiry in Jewish Education (PIJE) and Instructional Leadership who specializes in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and consults nationally.

Rabbi Nehemia Polen, PhD

Professor of Jewish Thought
npolen@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8616

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Ner Israel Rabbinical College

Ph.D., Boston University

Biography

Nehemia Polen is a leading expert in Hasidism and Jewish thought. A widely published author, his books include The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto; a translation of Malkah Shapiro’s The Rebbe’s Daughter: Memoir of a Hasidic Childhood, a project that originated in Polen’s research as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow and recipient of a National Jewish Book Award; Filling Words With Light: Hasidic and Mystical Reflections on Jewish Prayer; and From Tiberias, With Love: A Collection of Tiberian Hasidism, Volume I: Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk. His most recent book, most recent book Stop, Look, Listen: Celebrating Shabbos Through a Spiritual Lens (Maggid 2022), was named a finalist for the 72nd Jewish Book Council’s Myra H. Kraft memorial Award for Contemporary Jewish Life & Practice.

Polen holds a doctorate from Boston University, where he studied with and served as a teaching fellow for Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Prior to his career in Jewish academia, Polen served for 23 years as a congregational rabbi.

Rabbi Shayna Rhodes

Co-director, Mascott Beit Midrash
srhodes@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8765

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew College (Class of 2008)

Biography

Shayna Rhodes joined the Rabbinical School as a beit midrash instructor after earning her rabbinic ordination at Hebrew College. She now divides her time between the classroom and the Mascott Beit Midrash, teaching Talmud, Tanakh (canon of the Hebrew Bible) and halakhah (Jewish law) and facilitating tefilla (prayer). Rhodes combines tradition with feminism, empowering students to discover their own voice in sacred text.

Rabbi Or Rose

Director, Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership
orose@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8636

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Private

Biography

Rabbi Or Rose is the founding director of the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Before assuming this position in 2016, he worked in various administrative and teaching capacities at Hebrew College for over a decade, including serving as a founding faculty member and associate dean for Informal Education of the Rabbinical School. Rabbi Rose was also one of the creators of CIRCLE, The Center for Interreligious & Community Leadership Education, cosponsored by Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School (2007-2017) and has taught for Hebrew College’s Me’ah Classic program.

In addition to his work at Hebrew College, Rose has taught for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships, The Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and in a variety of other academic, religious, and civic contexts throughout North America, and in Asia, Europe, and Israel. A prolific author and editor, his writings have appeared in  Beliefnet; the Forward; The Huffington Post;  Interfaith America; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency;  Patheos; MyJewishLearning;  Religion News Service; The Times of Israel; Tikkun; Sh’ma; The Washington Post; as well as various scholarly publications. Rose is the senior Publisher of  The Journal of Interreligious Studies, as well as co-editor of  Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid’s Table, and the award-winning anthology,  My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation. His most recent publication is the co-edited volume, Rabbi Zalman Schachter: Essential Teachings. Rose is currently working on two new anthologies: a contemporary multifaith commentary on the Psalms, tentatively entitled The Book of Psalms: Here & Now (Paraclete Press, 2023) and With the Best of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps & Unexpected Learnings (Orbis 2023).

Selected Publications and Presentations 

• “PsalmSeason: A Soundtrack for a Time of Upheaval” (with Rev. Paul Raushenbush)
• “Psalm: 114—On Liberation & Connecting to the Earth” (with Ruth Messinger)
• “Elijah the Prophet & Intergenerational Connection”
• “Building Bridges of Compassion: Preparing for Passover & Easter Virtually”
• “Life in the World House: Cultivating Leaders for a Pluralistic Age”

Rabbi Shoshana Rosenbaum

Co-director, Mascott Beit Midrash
srosenbaum@hebrewcollege.edu

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew College (Class of 2021)

B.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

Biography

Rabbi Shani Rosenbaum joined the Hebrew College faculty in 2021. Her teaching focuses on rabbinic and halakhic literature.

Shani holds a B.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University and rabbinic ordination from her teachers at Hebrew College. She has also pursued immersive Torah study in a range of yeshiva settings, including Midreshet Lindenbaum, Matan, Beit Midrash Har’el, Yeshivat Hadar, Yashrut, and the Pardes Kollel.

Rosenbaum spent her early career working on the programming teams of several organizations pursuing justice through a Jewish lens, including Encounter and OLAM, where she produced the Global Torah podcast. In 2020, she conducted a “Jewish Law and Ethics Hackathon for the Age of COVID-19” for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.

In addition to her courses in the Rabbinical School, Rosenbaum teaches Talmud, Halakha, and Midrash through Hebrew College Open Circle Jewish Learning, and has represented the Hebrew College faculty at Hadar and Hebrew College’s annual Halakha Intensive in New York. She served as managing editor for Hiddushim: Celebrating Hebrew College’s Centennial, a volume of essays on Jewish studies and education, which was published by Academic Studies Press in 2022.

Rosenbaum lives in Somerville, MA, with her spouse, Aaron, and the occasional borrowed cat or dog.

Rev. Rob Schenck

Rev. Rob Schenck, D.Min. is an ordained evangelical minister and a progressive voice of dissent in his religious community.

Over a 40-year career, he has served as an addictions counselor, youth director, pastor, global humanitarian outreach worker, and a minister to top elected and appointed officials in Washington, DC. In the aftermath of 9/11, Schenck helped lead an unprecedented international dialogue between North American evangelical leaders and North African Islamic scholars. Shortly afterward, he was the subject of Abigail Disney’s Emmy Award-winning documentary, The Armor of Light, a critique of the American evangelical embrace of popular gun culture, eventually leading to his break from evangelical orthodoxy on guns, abortion, and the public display of religious symbols.

Schenck holds degrees in Bible and Theology, Religion, and Christian Ministry and a Doctor of Ministry in strategic leadership with a concentration in church and state. He has been a visiting academic at Oxford University where recently co-convened a historic colloquium on racialized Christian Nationalism. Schenck tells the story of his religious journey in a memoir, Costly Grace: An Evangelical Minister’s Rediscovery of Faith, Hope and Love (HarperCollins). His essays on the intersection of religion and public life have been published by Religion News Service, USA Today, TIME Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and The New York Times, among other national journals.

Rabbi Jordan Schuster

Education

Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew College (Class of 2018)

Biography

Before matriculating in the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in 2014, Jordan taught Yiddish at Columbia University, managed a yoga studio in San Francisco, and tended the gardens and greenhouse of a small grocery store in southeastern Wisconsin.

After his ordination in 2018, Jordan worked for Hebrew College’s Adult Education Department, then joined the Rabbinical School as a full-time faculty member and advisor a year later.

Currently, Jordan teaches courses in Tanakh, Mishna, and Classical Jewish Thought. His frameworks for analysis are often influenced by 20th and 21st century poetics, queer theory, Hasidic drashot, and a neo-Buberian (relational) mode of reading. His approach to class facilitation and student advisement is primarily influenced by a feminist ethics of care, first learned בכתב from Carol Gilligan and Nell Noddings, and שבעל פה from Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Rabbi Dan Judson, and Kohenet Alumah Schuster.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• “We Who Fall Asleep, We Who Wake Up” (video)  from the Hebrew College Elul Together Project (5781)

Rabbi Michael Shire, PhD

Academic Director, Master’s in Jewish Education
mshire@hebrewcollege.edu | 617.559.8617

Education

• Hon. Doctorate, Jewish Religious Education, Hebrew Union College
• Doctorate in Jewish Education, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
• Rabbinical Ordination, Leo Baeck College, London
• MA Jewish Studies, Leo Baeck College, London
• MA Jewish Education, Hebrew Union College, New York
• BA Hons. Hebrew Literature and Jewish History, University College London

Biography

Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire grew up in Birmingham England and completed his B.A. Hons in Hebrew Literature and Jewish History at University College, London. He continued his studies at Hebrew Union College both in New York and Los Angeles completing a M.A. and Ph.D. in Jewish Education. His research work, later to be published, proposed a curriculum orientation for spiritual enhancement in Jewish educational settings. He concurrently served as director of education at Temple Beth Hillel, a large Reform synagogue in North Hollywood, California. On returning to Great Britain in 1988, he took up the post as the national director of the Centre of Jewish Education developing the infrastructure, day schools and professional and academic learning of Jewish education in the UK. Following further study, he was ordained as rabbi at Leo Baeck College in 1996. In 2001, he merged the Centre of Jewish Education with the rabbinic training school, Leo Baeck College, and became its vice-principal for an additional eleven years. He became the professor and dean of the Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education in 2011 and subsequently was appointed as chief academic officer of Hebrew College from 2015-2020. He has been widely published in the field of Jewish education and spiritual education. In addition, he has published four books of creative liturgy with medieval illuminations in association with the British and Bodleian Libraries. He is founder of the Torah Godly Play pedagogic methodology and serves as trustee of the Pursuit of History, the Association of Institutions of Graduate Jewish Education.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• Judaism and Childhood, The Sage Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies (Sage Publishing, 2020)
• Mazal Tov: The Rituals and Customs of a Jewish Wedding, Frances Lincoln (UK) and Stuart, Tabori and Chang (USA), 2003.
• The Illuminated Haggadah, Frances Lincoln (UK) & Stuart, Tabori and Chang (USA), 1998 (Co-productions in Germany, Holland, France, Russia and Israel).
• “Responding to the Questions of Uncertainty Online,” Wabash Center website, May 12, 2020
• “Torah Godly Play: An Innovative Approach to Religious Education for Shlemut”  in “Gleanings: A dialogue on Jewish Education” Volume 6:2 2019
• Leo Baeck and Oppeln, Poland in Manna Spring 2011
• Rabbinic Training and the Interfaith Imperative in Open Theology No. 11 December 2011

Dr. Devora Steinmetz

Faculty, Rabbinical School

Education

Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Columbia University

M.A. in English Literature, Fordham University

B.A. in Biology, Barnard College

Biography

Devora has taught at Drisha, Yeshivat Hadar, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Havruta: a Beit Midrash at Hebrew University. She serves on the faculty of the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership and has recently been involved in establishing Drisha’s new yeshiva in Israel. Dr. Steinmetz is the founder of Beit Rabban, a Jewish day school profiled in Daniel Pekarsky’s Vision at Work: The Theory and Practice of Beit Rabban.

She is the author of scholarly articles on Talmud, Midrash, and Bible and of two books, From Father to Son: Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis and Punishment and Freedom: The Rabbinic Construction of Criminal Law.

Dr. Susie Tanchel

Vice President
stanchel@hebrewcollege.edu

Education

Ph.D., Brandeis University

B.A., Brandeis University

Biography

Dr. Susie Tanchel joined Hebrew College in the summer of 2020, after serving as the head of school at JCDS, Boston’s Jewish Community Day School.

During her nine-year tenure at JCDS, Tanchel was an accomplished and deeply beloved leader, guiding the school to preeminence as a national model of excellence in pluralistic Jewish education, and creatively embodying its abiding commitments to community, centrality of Hebrew language, and teaching the whole child.

She was a recipient of the 2018 Covenant Award for Jewish Educators.

Selected Publications and Presentations

• “A Reflection on Teshuvah” (video)  from the Hebrew College Elul Together Project (5781)