Faculty

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Adva Cohen Alpert

Born in Jerusalem and a native Hebrew speaker, Adva started her career as an instructor in the IDF. She then received her degree and earned a teaching certificate from the Hebrew University and David Yallin, Jerusalem. Over the past 20 years, she continued her education taking post-graduate classes including psychology and Hebrew as a second language, at Boston University, Lesley College and Hebrew College.

Adva has been with the Hebrew College since 2003, teaching Hebrew as a second language at all proficiency levels and in different programs such as Ulpan and Rabbinic. Adva enjoys integrating Israeli and Jewish culture into the curriculum to stimulate classroom learning and to help students achieve a higher level of proficiency.

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Daniel Berman

Daniel Berman is an advanced doctoral student in Hebrew Bible and ancient Near East at Brandeis University, where he is preparing a dissertation on the composition history of 1 Samuel 16–18, the story of David and Goliath. His other academic interests include comparative Semitic linguistics, Israelite religion, and Biblical Hebrew poetry. Daniel has been teaching Intensive Hebrew Grammar in the Rabbinic School of Hebrew College since 2016. In his free time, Daniel loves to cook and bake while listening to podcasts, NPR, or a book on tape.

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Edward Breuer

Edward Breuer

Adjunct Faculty Member

Edward Breuer teaches Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His work focuses on medieval and modern Jewish intellectual history, specializing in the Jewish Enlightenment of the 18th and 19th centuries. Breuer is the author of “The Limits of Enlightenment: Jews, Germans and the 18th Century Study of Scripture” (Harvard University Press, 1996).

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Cantor Vera Broekhuysen, Can`16, MAJS`16

Vera Broekhuysen is the cantor of Temple Emanu-El of Haverhill, MA. Vera was ordained by Hebrew College in June of 2016, when she also earned her Master’s Degree in Jewish Education. Vera sings as a soprano with the Zamir Chorale of Boston. She also performs in the band of Temple Emanu-El of Providence, RI, on vocals and drum, for their Shabbat Chai musical Kabbalat Shabbat services.

Vera has served trans-denominationally as cantorial soloist, professional leyner (Torah reader), and ba’alat t’fillah (prayer leader) at communities in Massachusetts and Vermont, including Boston Synagogue, the Jewish Community of Amherst, MA, Temple Hillel B’nai Torah in West Roxbury, MA, and Israel Congregation of Manchester, VT. Vera also tutors b’nei mitzvah students and adult learners privately.Vera is a Justice of the Peace in Massachusetts, and has officiated at weddings, b’nei mitzvah, baby namings, and other lifecycle events.

Vera lives in North Andover, Massachusetts, with her husband and two sons.

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David Brody

Dr. David Brody is the former academic dean chair of the Early Childhood Department of the Efrata College of Education in Jerusalem. His career spans a lifetime of work with young children, from nursery caregiver and kindergarten teacher, to academic endeavors in the field of teacher education. He has served as a consultant to Jewish schools around the world on the topic of Jewish early childhood education. His research interests include professional development of teacher educators, the use of the community of learners as a format for professional development, infusing higher order thinking into college courses, supporting early childhood educators in dealing with emotionally laden topics, and gender balance in early childhood education. His book: Men Who Teach Young Children: An International Perspective, published by the Institution of Education in London, is considered to be a milestone in research on gender balance in early childhood education. A second book: Teacher Educators Learning in Community, Routledge Press, was published in 2017. He teaches a course in early childhood curriculum development online at Hebrew College.

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Rachel Figurasmith

Rachel Figurasmith teaches courses that explore the intersection of neurodiversity and Jewish life & education. She is deeply interested in developing Jewish learning environments that actively invite people of all abilities to participate. Rachel resides in New York City, where she currently serves as the Executive Director of Repair the World NYC.

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Rabbi David Frankel

Ph.D. Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Rabbi Dr. David Frankel is Senior Lecturer of Bible at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem. He did his doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the stories of Israelite complaint in the wilderness. His publications include The Murmuring Stories of the Priestly School (Brill), The Land of Canaan and the Destiny of Israel (Eisenbrauns), and many scholarly articles. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and family and is the proud grandfather of a one-year old sabra.

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Marla Frankel

Marla Frankel made Aliyah from Montreal, Canada in 1970. She studied Bible and Jewish Thought at Hebrew University (BA); Educational Philosophy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (MA); Bible and Jewish Thought – Hebrew University (PhD Dissertation topic: “The Instructional Theory of Nechama Leibowitz”.) She has taught at the David Yellin College for most of her career and has served as the department head of Bible for the past decade.

Marla began an intensive training program in Spiritual Chaplaincy at Shaare Tzedek Hospital, and her time is now divided between part time teaching and palliative care.

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Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman, Rab`14

Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman serves as Director of Professional Development at Hebrew College, where she manages the rabbinic internship program, works on placement after ordination, and teaches on spirituality & social justice. Directly prior to coming back to Hebrew College, she served as the Associate Rabbi at Temple Sinai of Brookline, where she expanded and deepened social justice organizing, built a robust teen program, and strengthened engagement across the congregation. Shoshana brings strong mentoring and chaplaincy skills, a gift for music and prayer leadership, and over a decade of experience in environmental, interfaith, and social justice organizing. She and her husband Yotam Schachter co-wrote The Tide Is Rising, an anthem for the climate movement that has spread rapidly. Her writing can be found at rabbishoshana.com.

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Sandy Gold

Sandy Gold is an experienced educator with degrees in early childhood, elementary and special education. She has taught in day schools, congregational settings and at the university level. Sandy is an instructor in special education at the Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education and is also currently the director of a synagogue based early learning center.

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Joshua R. Jacobson

Senior Adviser, School of Jewish Music
D.M.A., University of Cincinnati

Joshua Jacobson is professor of music and director of choral activities at Northeastern University, where he served for nine years as chair of the music department and six years as the Bernard Stotsky Professor of Jewish Cultural Studies. He is also founder and director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, a world-renowned ensemble specializing in Hebrew music. Jacobson has written numerous articles and books, including “Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation” (Jewish Publication Society, 2002), which was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award.

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Andrea Rose Cheatham Kasper, MJEd`12

Andrea Rose Cheatham Kasper is the Head of School at Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford. She is committed to re-thinking JDS education, and developing a progressive educational approach while at the same time making Jewish life and learning meaningful to younger generations. Her creativity and ability to build coalitions throughout the community have helped invigorate the Day Schools of the Greater Hartford area. Andrea has published on critical and necessary innovation in Jewish day schools and in 2011 Andrea won the international Jewish Futures Competition for her groundbreaking ideas in Jewish education. Andrea is a Fellow in the Day School Leadership Training Institute and was part of the PEP with RAVSAK. She currently serves on the Board for the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools. She earned her BA from George Washington University and her MJEd from Hebrew College. Andrea is currently completing her Ed.D. in Jewish educational leadership at Northeastern University. She has lived in five countries and loves exploring the world with her family.

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Cantor Becky Wexler Khitrik, MAJS and Can'14

Cantor Becky Wexler Khitrik, MAJS and Can’14
School of Jewish Music
Cantorial Ordination, Hebrew College

Cantor Becky Khitrik received her ordination from Hebrew College’s School of Jewish Music in 2014. Originally from Washington, DC, she holds a bachelor of arts degree in music and religious studies from Macalester College (St. Paul, MN), a certificate of study from the Zoltán Kodály Institute (Kesckemét, Hungary), and a master’s of arts degree in religion from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (New Haven, CT). Cantor Khitrik is the cantor at Temple Sinai in Sharon, MA. Cantor Khitrik also enjoys an active performance career as a klezmer clarinetist. She has performed internationally and has received acclaim for her technical mastery, warm tone, and unique use of vibrato. She has developed several models for Jewish services based around the use of traditional nusach(prescribed melodies and modes for Jewish servies), and klezmer music.

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Jonathan Klawans

Visiting Associate Professor
Ph.D., Columbia University
(Teaching spring 2020)

Specialization
Second Temple and early Rabbinic Judaism

Education

BA: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1991
BA: Columbia University, 1991
MA: New York University, 1993
PhD: Columbia University, 1997

Biography

Jonathan Klawans is Professor of Religion at Boston University and serves also as an active member of BU’s Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies. He has served on the faculty of BU since 1997, and has been a visiting faculty member in the rabbinical school of Hebrew College since 2009.

Current Research

Klawans is working on a research project tentatively entitled, Heresy, Forgery, Novelty: Condemning, Denying and Asserting Innovation in Ancient Judaism. The project highlights ancient Jewish anxieties toward newness, and calls attention to various techniques for attributing antiquity to texts and phenomena that would otherwise have been condemned as novel.

Courses

Second Temple and Early Rabbinic Judaism

Recent Presentations

“Identities Masked: Sagacity, Sophistry and Pseudepigraphy in Aristeas” (Society of Biblical Literature, Boston, November 19, 2017)
“Judaism was a Civilization: Toward the Reconstruction of Ancient Jewish Peoplehood” (World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 6, 2017)
“Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount: For the Law or Against the Law?” (Boston College School of Ministry and Theology, September 20, 2016)
“The Essene Hypothesis: Insights from Religious Studies” (Graduate Seminar Presentation, Fordham University (Rose Hill), March 12, 2015)
“Was Kristeva Right… About Qumran? Methodological Implications of a Theoretical Coincidence” (University of Cambridge, UK, May 21, 2014)

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Cantor Jeff Klepper

Cantorial Ordination, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Jeff Klepper is one of the world’s leading composers of contemporary synagogue music. Several of his compositions, including Modeh Ani and Lo Alecha (both written with Klepper’s former music partner, Rabbi Dan Freelander), have become synagogue standards. Their setting of Shalom Rav, composed in 1974, is the defining Jewish melody of a new style of worship, bridging varied traditions and connecting multiple generations. Klepper, who served from 2003 through 2019 as cantor of Temple Sinai in Sharon, Mass., and is now cantor emeritus, holds an honorary Doctor of Music from his alma mater, Hebrew Union College.

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Orah Levin-Minder

B.A.; Bryn Mawr College M.A.; Lesley University (2007) M.A,; Middlebury College

Orah Levin-Minder taught middle school English at a Boston-area Jewish day school. Orah worked on a doctorate in Jewish Education at Brandeis University for five years; her research focused on the teaching and learning of Jewish literature to and by Jewish students. She also taught writing to first year students; she’s continued teaching writing part-time while she focuses on her growing family.

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Amy Lieberman

M.M., Yale University

Amy Lieberman teaches in the School of Jewish Music and is the conductor of Kol Arev, Hebrew College’s choir-in-residence. She is also equally at home conducting orchestral and choral music. For five years, she was director of choral activities at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she conducted the NEC concert choir, chamber singers and women’s chorus. Lieberman has also been a visiting assistant professor at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where she was director of choral activities and music director for the opera and theater division.

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Cantor Dr. Brian Mayer

Brian J. Mayer, a recognized scholar of hazzanut (cantorial music), served as Dean of the School of Jewish Music from 2009 through 2019. Prior to his appointment at Hebrew College, Mayer taught for 14 years at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York as an assistant professor of hazzanut. Since 1989, he has also served as cantor of Temple Emanu-El in Providence, R.I. Mayer was featured in the ABC-TV documentary “To God’s Ear,” which was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2002. In 2008, he was the artistic director of “Shining Through Broken Glass: Kristallnacht Concert,” a highly acclaimed multimedia production featuring Leonard Nimoy. In 2003, he produced the CD Kolot Emanu-El.

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Keren McGinity, Ph.D.

Director, Interfaith Families Jewish Engagement
Ph.D. Brown University

Keren R. McGinity is the Founding Director of the Love & Tradition Institute. She is the author of Still Jewish: A History of Women & Intermarriage in America (NYU Press, 2009) and Marrying Out: Jewish Men, Intermarriage, and Fatherhood (Indiana University Press, 2014) among other publications. She was the inaugural Mandell L. Berman Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Contemporary American Jewish Life at the University of Michigan’s Frankel Center for Judaic Studies (2008-2010) and earned her Ph.D. from Brown University, where she subsequently held an appointment as a visiting assistant professor of history (2005-2008). Dr. McGinity is affiliated with Brandeis University.

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Rabbi Richard (Rim) Meirowitz

Rabbinic Ordination, Jewish Theological Seminary

After serving as Educational Director at the New City (NY) Jewish Center for six years and as the Rabbi at Temple Emunah in Lexington MA, Rim became the Founding Headmaster of the Rashi School, the Boston Area Reform Jewish Day School currently in Dedham, and the Rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Waltham. While at the Rashi School, after considerable soul-searching, Rim realized that his ministry was no longer compatible with the Conservative Movement. He resigned from the RA and was accepted into the CCAR. He has continued to serve the Reform Movement since that time at the Rashi School for seven years, as the Educational Director at the Joint Temple Sinai/Temple Ohabei Shalom school in Brookline, and as the Rabbi at Temple Shir Tikvah in Winchester MA from which he retired in 2014. For a number of years he served as the only Rabbi on the Board of interfaithfamily.com. Rim continues to serve as a mentor for a number of Rabbis and finds a particular satisfaction in helping people move along their spiritual paths.

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Rabbi Margot Meitner, LICSW, MSW

Rabbinic Ordination, Hebrew College
Masters in Clinical Social Work, Smith College School for Social Work
(Teaching fall 2019)

Margot Meitner is a Boston-based community rabbi and psychotherapist. She holds a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies and History from Yale University, an M.S.W. from Smith College School for Social Work, and rabbinical ordination and a Masters in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College. Margot is committed to accompanying people on their journeys toward emotional and spiritual health. She has a private psychotherapy and pastoral counseling practice at The Meeting Point and approaches her work with the understanding that individual healing is inextricably linked with collective healing and social change. She has served in a rabbinic capacity at Harvard Hillel, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue in NYC, and Congregation Agudas Achim, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Attleboro, Mass.

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Barbara Merson, PhD

Ph.D. Lesley University & Hebrew College
BA: Brandeis University
MA: Colombia Univeristy
MA: SUNY Stony Brook
MA: Hebrew Union College

Barbara Merson is the executive director the Maine Jewish Film Festival. With extensive background in non-profit leadership, Barbara most recently served as the Executive Director of Temple Shaaray Tefila in Westchester, New York. Barbara’s experience also includes senior leadership positions at the Stamford Jewish Community Center, the ISEF Foundation, and the Slifka Foundation. An avid kayaker and hiker, Barbara lives in North Yarmouth with her glass artist husband Marty Kremer.

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Rabbi Carl Perkins

Rabbinic Ordination, Jewish Theological Seminary
J.D. Harvard Law School

Carl Perkins has been the spiritual leader of Temple Aliyah in Needham, MA, since 1991. Educated at Haverford College, Harvard Law School and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Carl has taught and lectured widely in the Boston area, including at Hebrew College and Boston College Law School. He is the author of the revised edition of Embracing Judaism and numerous short essays on the Jewish Values Online website. (On leave for the 2019-2020 academic year only.)

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Judith S. Pinnolis

M.M., College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati
M.S., Simmons College

Judith S. Pinnolis has taught at the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is creator and editor of The Jewish Music WebCenter, a go-to resource in Jewish music. Currently she works as Collection Assessment Librarian at Berklee College of Music/Boston Conservatory and previously was a Librarian at Brandeis University for over 20 years. She has been active as former Chair of the Chapters Council of the Association of College and Research Libraries; President of the ACRL New England chapter; and Chair of the Jewish Music Roundtable of the Music Library Association.

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Ina Regosin

M.A., Wheelock College

A national leader in the field of early-childhood education, Ina Regosin is the founding director of the Early Childhood Institute in the Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education. She serves as editor of “Milk and Honey: A Curriculum Compendium for Early Childhood Educators.” A veteran Jewish educator who has worked in all aspects of Jewish education, from days schools to Jewish camps, Regosin has undertaken graduate Jewish studies at Yeshiva University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

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Cantor Ken Richmond

Cantorial Investiture, Jewish Theological Seminary

Cantor Ken Richmond has served since 2006 as cantor and family educator of Temple Israel of Natick, MA. He began his Jewish studies locally as a student at Solomon Schechter and Prozdor and as an apprentice to Cantor Charles Osborne. Richmond served as cantorial soloist for five years in Swampscott before graduating in 2004 from the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He plays several instruments, including violin, and his compositions include a Friday night Klezmer service.

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Susie Rodenstein

M.A., Harvard University

Susie Rodenstein is an experienced instructor in Jewish education and a certified school counselor. From 1992 to 1996, she was a Jerusalem Fellow. Upon her return to the United States, she joined the Mandel Teacher Educators Network, an organization that provides opportunities for text-based learning with colleagues from the United States, Canada and Israel.

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Francine Ferraro Rothkopf, MJLS'10

Francine Ferraro Rothkopf is tefillah coordinator and Web director at MetroWest Jewish Day School in Framingham, MA, and was a member of the school’s founding board of directors. An independent torah teacher for b’nai mitzvah students, she served for 13 years as cantorial soloist for the High Holy Days at Congregation Sha’arei Shalom in Ashland, Mass. The focus of Rothkopf’s Master of Arts in Jewish Liberal Studies at Hebrew College was biblical and rabbinic text interpretation, concentrating on educating people with special needs.

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Cantor Elana Rozenfeld

Elana Rozenfeld is a cantor, performer, songwriter and theatre artist, who grew up steeped in musical theatre, jazz, chazzanut (traditional cantorial singing) and Yeshiva music, while also having a secret love of all things Sephardic. After receiving her BFA at the Tisch School of the Arts in NYU, focusing on solo performance, she entered the HL Miller Cantorial School at JTS to develop mastery of her Jewish musical traditions. Since then, she has served as cantor at Temple Beth El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, NJ, Park Avenue Synagogue in NYC and Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott, MA, and she is currently serving as Artist-In-Residence at Congregation Mishkan Tefilah in Brookline, MA. Passionate about teaching and supporting the next generation of cantors, Elana is delighted to join Hebrew College as Interim Program Director and Advisor for the School of Jewish Music. When not davening, performing and teaching, Elana enjoys spending time in with her husband, Raphael Rozenfeld, and their two children: Ariel and Carmel.

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Cantor Neil Schwartz

Cantorial Ordination, Jewish Theological Seminary

Neil Schwartz is cantor at a synagogue in Saskatoon, Canada, and Jewish chaplain for the University of Saskatchewan. He has taught in the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s Imun program for adult lay religious leaders, and he notates nusach and trope for Kinnor Software.

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Rav-Hazzan Scott Sokol

Rav-Hazzan Scott M. Sokol, PhD is completing his fifth year as Head of School at MetroWest Jewish Day School. A multi-professional, Scott is a cantor, rabbi and pediatric neuropsychologist, with 30 years experience in the field of education broadly defined. Scott began his academic career at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he was a research scientist, clinician and professor of neurology. He then moved on to Hebrew College where he served for seventeen years in senior academic leadership, founding both the cantorial program and the special education program. He was the first Dean of the School of Jewish Music and later served as the inaugural Korman Family Professor of Jewish Special Education. In 2014, Hebrew College awarded Scott the Benjamin Shevach Memorial Award for Jewish Educational Leadership, the highest award of the college, in recognition of his many contributions to the field. He is delighted to be returning to the college as an adjunct faculty member.

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Jeffrey Spitzer

M.Phil., Jewish Theological Seminary

Jeffrey Spitzer is a master teacher and educational leader in the field of Jewish studies and Jewish educational technology. He is former chair of the rabbinic literature department at Gann Academy in Waltham, Mass., and is currently on the Jewish studies faculty at American Hebrew Academy, a Jewish, college-preparatory boarding school in Greensboro, N.C. Spitzer holds a Master of Philosophy in ancient Judaism with distinction from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

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Rabbi David Starr

PhD. and Rabbinic Ordination, Jewish Theological Seminary

Rabbi David Starr, PhD is the Executive Director of Tzion, a Program for Israel Literacy, and a visiting Research Associate of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry, Brandeis University. He previously served as Scholar in Residence for Israel Education & Programs at Gann Academy, the pluralistic Jewish high school in greater Boston. He was the founding Dean of Me’ah and Vice President at Hebrew College, and teaches on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Program. He lectures on topics related to history and religion. David is currently writing a biography of Solomon Schechter and a study of Me’ah and its impact on adults and community. He holds a doctorate in history and Jewish studies from Columbia and rabbinic ordination from JTS.

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Rabbi Jeffrey Summit

Rabbi Jeffrey A. Summit, PhD is the Director of the Hebrew College Innovation Lab. He received an honorary degree from Hebrew College in 2018.

Rabbi Summit holds an appointment as Research Professor in the Department of Music and Judaic Studies at Tufts University. He is a Senior Consultant for Hillel International directing the project “Living Our Values.” He holds emeritus appointments at Tufts as Emeritus Neubauer Executive Director of Tufts Hillel and Emeritus Jewish Chaplain. He is the author of Singing God’s Words: The Performance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism (Oxford University Press) and The Lord’s Song in a Strange Land: Music and Identity in Contemporary Jewish Worship (Oxford University Press). His CD Abayudaya: Music from the Jewish People of Uganda (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings) was nominated for a GRAMMY award. His CD with video Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music and Interfaith Harmony in Uganda (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings) was awarded Best World Music CD by the Independent Music Awards. His research and writing focus on music and identity, music and spiritual experience, music and advocacy, and the impact of technology on the transmission of tradition. Rabbi Summit lectures widely around the country and has been invited to speak at Harvard University, Stanford University, Yale University, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Amherst College, Wesleyan University, the University of California Santa Barbara, Indiana University and the University of Chicago.

Rabbi Summit has a special interest in the values that shape a meaningful and fulfilling life. Together with Rev. Scotty McLennan of Stanford University, he teaches a summer seminar addressing those issues at the Tufts European Center in Talloires, France entitled “What Happens Next?” He also works in the field of oral history and for four summers has conducted an oral history project with the Jewish community of Annecy, France, for American students, under the auspices of Tufts European Center. For three additional summers he taught a seminar at the Tufts European Center on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in France. He has co-directed a project funded by the Department of Homeland Security establishing Muslim, Jewish, Christian dialogues and inter-religious education on five university campuses. He directs the Cummings/Hillel Program on Holocaust and Genocide Education under the auspices of Tufts Hillel. An accomplished musician, he has performed Jewish and traditional American music throughout the United States, as well as in England and Israel. During the Yom Kippur War, he performed for Israeli soldiers in the Sinai and Golan Heights. His songs examining those experiences were recorded on his record album Shepherd of the Highways.

Rabbi Summit was the inaugural recipient of the Edgar M. Bronfman Award for Lifetime Accomplishment in Hillel Professional Leadership, serving the movement “with distinction and honor.” He was awarded Tufts University’s Hosea Ballou Medal, established to recognize members of the Tufts community who have rendered exceptional service for the institution. He He received Combined Jewish Philanthropies (Boston Jewish Federation) Rabbinic Leadership Award and was the inaugural recipient of the Anne Heyman Spirit Award, for work to further the mission of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda, a village for survivors of the Rwandan genocide. As part of this honor, the village’s music building was named the “Jeffrey A. Summit Music Center.” He has been named an Exemplar of Excellence by Hillel International. He has also received the Benjamin J. Shevach Memorial Award for distinguished achievement in Jewish educational leadership, Hebrew College’s highest academic award. The programs he has initiated at Tufts examining ethical perspectives on the role of the university, sexual ethics, interfaith dialogue and the parent/child relationship have received national grants and awards. As a graduate student, he received both the James T. Koetting Memorial Prize for the outstanding graduate student paper presented at the annual meeting of the Northeast Chapter of the Society of Ethnomusicology and the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Jaap Kunst Prize for the outstanding paper published by a student in the Journal of Ethnomusicology. His book on Jewish music and identity was awarded the Musher Publication Prize by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Rabbi Summit is past-president of the National Hillel Professional Association and has served on the Executive Committee of the National Board of Directors of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

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Sam Zerin

Sam Zerin is a music scholar, composer, and pianist based in Providence, RI. He has held teaching positions at New York University, Brown University, and the Borough of Manhattan Community College, in addition to privately tutoring children and adults. He is also active as an online educator, blogging about music at DisneyMusicTheory.com and SocialMediaMusicTheory.com.

Sam’s PhD dissertation, for defense in late 2019 at New York University, is the first critical biography of the Russian-Jewish violinist and composer Joseph Achron (1886-1943) and a theoretical investigation of late Romantic paradigms surrounding child prodigies and performer-composers. He is a specialist in early 20th century Jewish musical nationalism and has broader research interests in 21st century Yiddish pop songs, Disney music, virtuosity, and musical transcription.

Sam’s work in Jewish music has involved a variety of projects, from archiving and digitization work to public lectures, networking musicians, fundraising, score editing, and participating in Jewish religious life as a Torah/Haftarah reader and shaliach tsibbur. He is the founder of the Joseph Achron Society, created an online archive of rare Jewish classical scores at the website of the American Society for Jewish Music, and wrote finding aids for uncatalogued materials at Hebrew Union College.

Become a Rabbi

Become a Cantor

Become anEducational Leader

Rachel Adelman Associate Professor, Bible

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld President

Tzilla Barone Hebrew Language Coordinator and Director of Ulpan

Harvey Bock Hebrew Language Coordinator, Rabbinical School

Deborah Skolnick Einhorn, Ph.D. Associate Dean for Academic Development Assistant Professor of Jewish Education

Rabbi Art Green Rector, Rabbinical School

Marion Gribetz Director, Congregational Education Initiative Director of Educational Initiatives, Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education

Rabbi Dan Judson Dean, Rabbinical School

Rabbi Jane Kanarek Associate Dean for Academic Development and Advising; Professor of Rabbinics

Rabbi Daniel Klein, Rab`10, MJEd`10 Associate Dean for Admissions and Student Life

Rabbi Ebn Leader Faculty, Rabbinical School

Rabbi Allan Lehmann Associate Dean, Rabbinical School Co-director, Beit Midrash

Barry Mesch, H'13 Stone-Teplow Families Professor of Jewish Thought

Rabbi Nehemia Polen Professor of Jewish Thought

Rabbi Shayna Rhodes, Rab'08 Co-director, Beit Midrash

Rabbi Or Rose Director, Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership

Rabbi Micha'el Rosenberg Associate Professor of Rabbinics

Solomon Schimmel Professor Emeritus

Rabbi Jordan Schuster, Rab`18 Mekorot Program Director, Rabbinical School

Rabbi Michael Shire Chief Academic Officer; Dean, Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education and Graduate Programs in Jewish Studies; Professor of Jewish Education

Cantor Lynn Torgove, MAJS'11, Can'12 Head of Vocal Arts and Adjunct Instructor, School of Jewish Music

Cantor Louise Treitman Senior Advisor and Faculty, School of Jewish Music

Rachel Adelman

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld

Tzilla Barone

Harvey Bock

Deborah Skolnick Einhorn, Ph.D.

Rabbi Art Green

Marion Gribetz

Rabbi Dan Judson

Rabbi Jane Kanarek

Rabbi Daniel Klein, Rab`10, MJEd`10

Rabbi Ebn Leader

Rabbi Allan Lehmann

Barry Mesch, H'13

Rabbi Nehemia Polen

Rabbi Shayna Rhodes, Rab'08

Rabbi Or Rose

Rabbi Micha'el Rosenberg

Solomon Schimmel

Rabbi Jordan Schuster, Rab`18

Rabbi Michael Shire

Cantor Lynn Torgove, MAJS'11, Can'12

Cantor Louise Treitman

Adjunct Faculty

Adva Cohen Alpert Hebrew Teacher/Mekorot

Daniel Berman Adjunct Rabbinical Faculty

Edward Breuer Adjunct Faculty, Jewish Education

Cantor Vera Broekhuysen, Can`16, MAJS`16 School of Jewish Music

David Brody Adjunct Faculty, Jewish Education

Rachel Figurasmith Adjunct Faculty, Shoolman School

Rabbi David Frankel Adjunct Faculty, Shoolman School

Marla Frankel Adjunct Faculty, Jewish Education

Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman, Rab`14 Adjunct Faculty and Director of Professional Development

Sandy Gold Adjunct Faculty, Jewish Education

Joshua R. Jacobson Senior Advisor and Adjunct Faculty, School of Jewish Music

Andrea Rose Cheatham Kasper, MJEd`12 Adjunct Faculty, Jewish Education

Cantor Becky Wexler Khitrik, MAJS and Can'14 School of Jewish Music

Jonathan Klawans Adjunct Faculty, Rabbinical School

Cantor Jeff Klepper Adjunct Faculty, School of Jewish Music

Orah Levin-Minder Adjunct Faculty, Shoolman School

Amy Lieberman Adjunct Faculty, School of Jewish Music

Cantor Dr. Brian Mayer Adjunct Faculty, Cantorial Program

Keren McGinity, Ph.D. Director, Interfaith Families jewish Engagement Program

Rabbi Richard (Rim) Meirowitz Adjunct Faculty, Rabbinical School

Rabbi Margot Meitner, LICSW, MSW Adjunct Faculty, Rabbinical School

Barbara Merson, PhD Adjunct Faculty, Jewish Education

Rabbi Carl Perkins Adjunct Faculty, Rabbinical School

Judith S. Pinnolis Adjunct Faculty, School of Jewish Music

Ina Regosin Adjunct Faculty, Shoolman School

Cantor Ken Richmond Adjunct Faculty, School of Jewish Music

Susie Rodenstein Adjunct Faculty, Shoolman School

Francine Ferraro Rothkopf, MJLS'10 Adjunct Faculty, Shoolman School

Cantor Elana Rozenfeld Interim Program Director, Cantorial Program

Cantor Neil Schwartz Adjunct Faculty, School of Jewish Music

Rav-Hazzan Scott Sokol Adjunct Faculty, School of Jewish Music

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