Community Education Faculty
President Sharon Cohen Anisfeld Me'ah, Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Arthur Green Me'ah
Rabbi Dan Judson, Ph.D. Me’ah
Rabbi Daniel Klein, Rab'10 Parenting Through a Jewish Lens
Rabbi Ebn Leader Me'ah
Ruth Nemzoff Open Circle Jewish Learning (Grandparenting)
Barbara Penzner Open Circle Jewish Learning (Parenting)
Rabbi Or Rose Me'ah, Parenting Through a Jewish Lens, Open Circle Jewish Learning
Solomon Schimmel Me’ah
Rabbi Jordan Schuster Me'ah
Rabbi Jeff Amshalem
Rabbi Jeff Amshalem
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Jeff Amshalem has been in Jewish education for over twenty years in a variety of roles. For the past several years he was a Senior Educator at Ayeka Soulful Education, mentoring teachers in making their classrooms spaces for personal reflection and spiritual transformation. He has taught Me’ah, a two-year, college-level course on Jewish texts, and a number of series on mindfulness and personal growth using the teachings of Rav Kook, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and most recently Rebbe Pinhas of Korets, on whom he is writing his doctoral dissertation. He has orthodox rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes and Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg of Jerusalem and has done much of his learning and teaching in pluralistic environments, such as Pardes in Jerusalem and Gann Academy in Waltham, MA.
President Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
Deborah Anstandig
Deborah Anstandig
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Deborah Anstandig is in Shana Bet Rabbinical Student at Hebrew College. Deborah earned an undergraduate degree in English Literature at Yeshiva University, a Masters of Jewish Education from Hebrew College, and a Masters in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Deborah spent eleven years teaching middle and high school Judaic Studies at SAR High School and The Heschel School in New York City. Most recently, Deborah also served as the Dean of Instruction at Heschel, supporting the professional development of the faculty. Deborah loves being in Jewish community and engaging ideas where the questions are greater than any possible answer. Deborah is a Hebrew College/IYUN Fellow.
Merry Arnold
Merry Arnold
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Merry Arnold has been a student of Mussar for over fifteen years, taking courses at The Mussar Institute, and studying with local Rabbis Carol Glass and David Jaffe. She has led a number of Mussar groups. Merry finds Mussar to be a natural fit with some of her interests as a clinical psychologist, especially the areas of positive psychology, spirituality and professional ethics. She is an active member of the Adult Learning Committee at Temple Sinai.
Rabbi Elyssa Austerklein ‘11
As a devoted spiritual person, artist, yogi, musician and educator, Rabbi Elyssa Austerklein (MTS, MJEd) shares her love of Divine Spirit (God) and Holy Teaching (Torah) by searching for and making meaning. She is a graduate of Brandeis University, BU School of Theology, and was ordained by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. She is a Rabbis Without Borders Fellow and was named one of America’s most inspiring rabbis by The Forward. She has held pulpits in Florida, Ohio, and Maryland in both Conservative and Reform congregations. She is the Founding Director of Ivrim Jews Without Borders. Rabbi Elyssa teaches classes online touching on deep Spiritual questions to students throughout the country. Rabbi Elyssa is excited to have been selected as a Hebrew College-IYUN Fellow for the spring of 2023.
Rabbi Benjamin Barer ‘18
For Rabbi Benjamin Barer, pluralism has been his lived experience of Judaism and led to his rabbinical ordination in 2018 at Hebrew College. Raised in Vancouver, BC., Rabbi Benjamin Barer’s Jewish journey has included Conservative and Orthodox day schools, being bar-mitzvah’ed at the largest Renewal congregation in Canada, and a year spent in Meitar. As a rabbinical student, Rabbi Barer taught in Hebrew College’s Eser and Open Circle Jewish Learning programs. Rabbi Barer is passionate about making Jewish texts and traditions relevant, inspiring, and accessible to all who seek them. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Deborah, daughter Mira and son Adin. He has been teaching Jewish texts to high school students at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville MD since 2019. Rabbi Barer is excited to have been selected as a Hebrew College-IYUN Fellow for the spring of 2023
Rabbi Jay R. Berkovitz, PhD
Rabbi Jay R. Berkovitz, PhD
Me’ah
Jay Berkovitz is professor and chair of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He earned his Ph.D. degree at Brandeis University and rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Dan Chanan in Jerusalem. Berkovitz’s research and teaching focus on the early modern history of the Jews, with special emphasis on Jewish law, family, ritual and communal governance. He is the author of “Protocols of Justice: The Pinkas of the Rabbinic Court of Metz, 1771-1789” (Brill, 2014). Berkovitz has held visiting appointments at Bar Ilan University, University of Connecticut at Storrs, Yeshiva University and Hebrew University. In 2011-12, he was the Inaugural National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Scholar at the Center for Jewish History in New York. He currently serves as joint editor-in-chief of the journal Jewish History.
David Bernat, Ph.D.
David Bernat, PhD
Open Circle Jewish Learning
David Bernat is a lecturer in Judaic Studies at UMass Amherst, and a veteran and popular member of the Meah faculty. His Ph.D. is in Biblical Interpretation from Brandeis. Before entering graduate school, Bernat spent 8 years in the NYC wine industry.
Rabbi Josh Breindel `09
Rabbi Josh Breindel `09
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Josh Breindel `delights in suffusing an experience of Judaism with a celebration of the natural world as the rabbi for Congregation Beth El of the Sudbury River Valley in Sudbury. In his previous pulpit at Temple Anshe Amunim in Pittsfield (MA), he was the first rabbi to serve as the president of the Pittsfield Area Council of Congregations. Having completing master’s degrees in Jewish studies and Jewish education at Hebrew College, he was ordained in its Rabbinical School in 2009. He is a repeat instructor for LimmudBoston and has presented on Jewish storytelling, theater and folklore throughout New England. He is especially passionate about the power of Jewish science fiction and fantasy to express timeless ethical values. He finds some of his greatest pleasure while hiking in the beauty of the New England hills with his wife and two children.
Marc Brettler, PhD, H'15
Marc Brettler ’15, PhD
Me’ah
Marc Brettler is the Bernice and Morton Lerner Chair of Religious Studies at Duke University. He was formerly the Dora Golding Professor of Bible in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University, where he was awarded the Michael L. Walzer Teaching Prize. He is the author of many articles on literary and historical aspects of biblical texts, including being co-editor of “The Jewish Study Bible” (Oxford University Press; 2004), winner of a National Jewish Book Award in 2004. Brettler has been a Me’ah instructor since the program’s inception.
Rabbi Minna Bromberg `10
Rabbi Minna Bromberg `10
Open Circle Jewish Learning (Social Action)
As the founder and president of Fat Torah, Rabbi Bromberg is passionate about bringing her nearly-three decades of experience in fat activism to writing and teaching about the nexus of Judaism and body liberation. She received her doctorate in Sociology from Northwestern University in 2005, with a dissertation on identity formation in interfaith couples, and was ordained at Hebrew College in 2010. Since then, she led a 250-family Conservative congregation, released her fifth album of original music, made Aliyah, and ran the Year-in-Israel program for Hebrew College. When Rabbi Bromberg is not working on Fat Torah, she teaches voice to people who use their voices in leading prayer. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Rabbi Alan Abrams, and their two children.
Aliza Brosh
Aliza Brosh
Ulpan
Aliza has vast experience teaching Hebrew to adults and high school and college students in both Israel and the United States. For nearly 20 years, Aliza taught Hebrew literature at a leading high school in Rishon Le-Zion, Israel. In addition, she led a special Hebrew language program for young high-school age immigrants. Following her move to the Boston area 20 years ago, Aliza founded the Israeli School in Lexington and taught there for a year. Since 2002, she has been teaching Hebrew at Brandeis University and at Prozdor and Ulpan at the Hebrew College. Additionally, since 2012, Aliza has been teaching Hebrew immersion courses at Middlebury College Summer School in Middlebury, Vt., for the Life-Long Learners program. Aliza holds a B.A. in literature and sociology from Haifa University, a Teaching Certificate from Haifa University, and a M.A. in Liberal Arts from the Hebrew College.
Rabbi Noah Cheses
Rabbi Noah Cheses
Me’ah
Rabbi Noah Cheses received his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University (RIETS) and earned his Master’s in Theology from Yale University. Rabbi Cheses is the rabbi of the Young Israel of Sharon after spending two years as the Assistant Rabbi of Shaarei Shomayim Congregation in mid-town Toronto and three years as the OU-JLIC Orthodox Rabbi at Yale University. He and his wife Sarah have been blessed with four wonderful children: Adina, Natan, Orly, and Ezra.
Rabbi Shaye J.D. Cohen, PhD
Rabbi Shaye J.D. Cohen, PhD
Me’ah
Shaye J. D. Cohen is an ordained rabbi and the Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Before arriving at Harvard in 2001, he was for 10 years the Samuel Ungerleider Professor of Judaic Studies and professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. The focus of Cohen’s research is the boundary between Jews and gentiles and between Judaism and its surrounding culture. He is also a published authority on Jewish reactions to Hellenism and to Christiaity.
Rabbi David Curiel
Rabbi David Curiel
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Not so long ago, Rabbi David Curiel was a statistic that worried institutional Jews: a Spiritual None, turned off by mainstream American Jewish practice as he had received it. Yet he always felt a spiritual longing for connection. He worked at Apple Computer, earned an MBA (2001) at Indiana University, and moved to the West Coast to work in the wine industry. Along the way, he found many folks with a shared zeitgeist: a desire for living in community and supporting each other spiritually, physically and emotionally.
Through an unexpected turn of events (you can ask him about it over coffee sometime!), he found Jewish Renewal, a daring approach to Judaism as a spiritual practice, and realized not only that this Jewish thing was for him, but also that he needed to become a rabbi.
With his wife, Amberly, he made his home in Boston, where he began his rabbinic studies with Aleph, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal, while also working at Nehar Shalom Synagogue in Jamaica Plain and at Kesher Hebrew School in Cambridge/Somerville. As part of his studies, he took classes at Hebrew College, Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, the Shalom-Hartman Institute and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
He taught and led davvening with Nava Tehila in Jerusalem, Romemu in New York City and Kol Hai in the Hudson Valley along the way to dual ordination as Mashpi’a Ruchani/Spiritual Director and Rabbi from the Ordination Program of Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal in January 2018. Along with Amberly, he is the co-founder and spiritual director of the Asiyah Jewish Community in Somerville/Cambridge.
Maya Dalzell
Maya Dalzell
Ulpan
Maya Dalzell has been a Hebrew and Jewish Studies teacher for more than 25 years. Born and raised in Israel, Maya began her studies at the University of Tel Aviv, where she received her undergraduate degree in literature and language arts. After receiving her master’s degree in translation and linguistics, Maya started her teaching career in the University of Tel Aviv School of Languages, where she taught for several years. For the last 16 years, Maya has taught Hebrew, Jewish Studies, and Israeli history at the Rashi School. This past summer, Maya taught at the Brookline Public Schools, working with high school students on subjects such as math, English and science. In recent years, Maya completed several workshops and courses at “Facing History and Ourselves” and earned a diploma after completing the course, “From an Idea to a State” with Professor Eyal Naveh of the University of Tel Aviv. She is thrilled to be joining the Hebrew College team.
Jan Darsa
Jan Darsa
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Jan Darsa was Director of Jewish Education at Facing History and Ourselves for over 20 years, and has developed curricula in the field of Holocaust History, Jewish life before WW II and Israeli History. Her recent publications are Sacred Texts, Modern Questions: Connecting Ethics and History Through A Jewish Lens, and Colliding Dreams Study Guide. Jan has taught in public and private high schools and Tufts University. She is a Jerusalem Fellow, studying for 2 years (1988-90) in Jerusalem, and in 1991 was a scholar-in- residence in South Africa. In 2010 she received the Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish Education. She taught in the Open Circle program last fall.
Rabbi Getzel Davis
Rabbi Getzel Davis
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Reb Getzel is trying to answer this question: How do we live meaningful and ethical lives in this post-modern, high-stress, computerized world? While he hasn’t yet resolved the question, many of the clues he has found are in gems of ancient Jewish wisdom.
Rabbi Getzel Davis received his Bachelor’s Degree from Brandeis University and his rabbinical ordination from Rabbinical School of Hebrew College, where he also received a Masters in Jewish Education. He works as a rabbi and educator at Harvard Hillel and also as an Harvard University Chaplain, where much of Getzel’s work is to engage unobservant students. He is also the advisor for the Student Conservative Minyan, teaches regular classes, and counsels students, faculty, and community members.
Getzel is also the founder and executive director of Unorthodox Celebrations, a service that connects unaffiliated Jews with inspiring rabbis and cantors nationwide to facilitate meaningful weddings, bar mitzvahs and baby namings, and the founder of ZIVUG Couples Classes for folks transitioning towards marriage. Getzel loves teaching Open Circle Jewish Learning and Parenting Through a Jewish Lens classes and is also pursuing a certificate in Family Systems Therapy through Therapy Training Boston. He is a contributing blogger at the Huffington Post and received an honorable mention in Newsweek’s “Top 50 Rabbis of 2015” for leading Yom Kippur Services at Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park. He recently was honored by the Combined Jewish Philanthropy’s Chai in the Hub award for his work with Unorthodox Celebrations.
Marc Dollinger
Marc Dollinger
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Marc Dollinger is the Goldman Research Chair in Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility at San Francisco State University, gifting him the platform to talk about his passion for Jewish social justice. He is a past board president of both Brandeis-Hillel Day School and the Jewish Community High School of the Bay, and has served on the board of Jewish LearningWorks, URJ Camp Newman, Brandeis Marin Jewish Day School, the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, and Ha-maqom. Currently, he serves on the board of the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Community Federation in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dollinger was named the volunteer of the year in 2008 by the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco. In 2015, the Jewish Community Relations Council awarded him the year’s Courageous Leader for his work at SF State, a sometimes-hostile campus for Jews. He has appeared in a PBS television show, American Jerusalem, offering insights into the history of San Francisco Jews, and then enjoyed 8 minutes of fame on NBC’s prime-time “Who Do You Think You Are?” teaching academy-award winning actress Helen Hunt about her San Francisco Jewish roots.
Dollinger is the author of “Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960’s,” “American Jewish History,” “Quest for Inclusion” and “California Jews.”
Rabbi Lev Friedman, Rab`18
Rabbi Lev Friedman
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Lev Friedman was ordained in 2018 by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College and has since taught the following Open Circle Jewish Learning classes: Shabbat Table Rituals – A Practical and Spiritual Guide: Creating Heaven on Earth; Torah Through a Hasidic Lens; Hasidic Stories; and Talmudic Stories. He was the owner of Kolbo Fine Judaica in Brookline for almost thirty years until 2011. In 1982, under the tutelage of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, he founded and was the spiritual leader of the B’nai Or Religious Fellowship of Boston until 1996. During his tenure in this position, he helped many Jews find a way back to their traditions in a contemporary and meaningful way. Lev is also a singer-songwriter and skilled finger-style guitarist. His CD, Breathing Still, is a collection of original songs. He and his wife Joyce live in Newton and have three grown daughters, three sons-in-law and as of this writing, four grandchildren.
Elisha Gechter
Elisha Gechter
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Elisha Gechter is the Senior Program Manager for Fellowships Curriculum at Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. She designs leadership learning experiences for over 100 fellows, oversees the Wexner Israel Fellowship and the Wexner Senior Leadership Program as well as the Black Family Fellowship for active duty and veteran military students. Elisha has been working in the Boston Jewish Community for 14 years – previously connecting people searching for community and for Jewish wisdom as the Associate Director of Adult Learning and Community Engagement at Hebrew College (where she founded the Eser program in 2011and has been teaching in the young adult and young family community ever since) and fundraising with local young leaders at CJP. She has a BA in psychology from Yeshiva University’s Stern College in New York and an MA/MBA from Brandeis’ Heller Hornstein Program in Jewish Leadership and Non-Profit Management. She serves as president of the board of Mayyim Hayyim Mikvah and Education Center, a co-chair of Encounter’s Boston Regional Circle, and lives in Somerville, MA with her husband and two kids. She attends minyan at Minyan Tehillah, Cambridge Minyan and the Tremont Street Shul.
Rabbi Neal Gold
Rabbi Neal Gold
Me’ah
Neal Gold is a rabbi and committed teacher and prolific writer, as well as a dedicated counselor and social activist. In May 2018 he will receive his (second) MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Neal received smicha from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and for over 18 years served congregations in New Jersey and Massachusetts. He served as the Director of Content & Programming for ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America and was a delegate for ARZENU at the 37th World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem in October 2016. His writing and blogging on many issues of Jewish interest can be found at nealgold.net.
Jonathan Golden
Dr. Jonathan Golden
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Dr. Jonathan Golden is the Israel Curriculum Coordinator and a history teacher at Gann Academy, a pluralistic Jewish high school in Waltham, MA where he has taught since 1999. He teaches adult education courses on contemporary Israel at synagogues and homes in the Greater Boston area. In the fall of 2022, he will teach the Myra Kraft Seminar on Israel to first year students of the Hornstein program at Brandeis University. In the summer of 2022, he participated in the Schusterman Center Summer Institute for Israel Studies which, for the first time, included participants from Abraham Accords countries (Morocco, Bahrain, UAE). He is a member of CJP’s Boston-Haifa Shared Society Task Force and a Community Representative of JCRC Boston. A graduate of Princeton University, he received his M.J.Ed. from Hebrew College and Ph.D. from Brandeis University. At Brandeis, he studied American Jewish history under the tutelage of Professor Jonathan Sarna and wrote a dissertation entitled From Cooperation to Confrontation: The Rise and Fall of the Synagogue Council of America.
Ketriellah Goldfeder
Ketriellah Goldfeder
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Ketriellah Goldfeder is a Certified Hakomi Practitioner and Life Coach. She is passionate about facilitating mindful, embodied, andcompassionate self-awareness and sustainable life transformation. She helps women clarify and prioritize their values and goals, take effective action, manage life difficulties, and feel more relaxed, energized, and satisfied. You can find her at NewMoonCoaching.com.
Rabbi Joel Goldstein
Rabbi Joel Goldstein is an engineer turned Rabbi who loves learning. He has taught high school Talmud, worked as a synagogue Rabbi on the North Shore of Massachusetts, and as the Campus Rabbi at Syracuse Hillel. He currently serves as a faculty member for Yashrut where he teaches Talmud and halakha, as well as the Based-In Rabbi in Ann Arbor. Rabbi Joel received ordination from Yashrut and from Hebrew College. A native of Los Angeles, Rabbi Joel spent his undergraduate years in Berkeley, CA. When not studying or teaching Torah, Rabbi Joel enjoys spending time with his spouse and his children, hiking, obsessing about the Dodgers, and practicing Shotokan Karate.
Laila Goodman
Laila Goodman
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Laila Goodman has been a high school teacher since 1985. Since 2005, she has worked at Gann Academy, a pluralistic Jewish High School in Waltham. She is a biology teacher and the Madrichat Ruchanit (Spiritual Advisor), a role in which she designs and implements experiential Jewish programming, including running a Mussar class for adults and students. Laila graduated from FSU with a degree in Marine Ecology and has a M.Ed from Harvard University.
Rabbi Leonard Gordon, DMin
Rabbi Leonard Gordon, DMin
Me’ah
Rabbi Leonard Gordon co-directs Interfaith Partners for Peace. Rabbi Gordon is rabbi emeritus of the Germantown Jewish Centre which he served as senior rabbi until 2010. He was then senior rabbi at Congregation Mishkan Tefila (Chestnut Hill, MA) until 2016.
With rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, he has a BA and M Phil from Columbia University, and an MA in Religious Studies from Brown University. In 2018, he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree at the Andover Newton Theological School with a thesis entitled, “Building Interfaith Relationships to Promote Peace.”
Rabbi Gordon has taught comparative religion and Humanities at Columbia University, Kenyon College, and the Ohio State University; and he has taught rabbinic literature, history, philosophy, and liturgy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Hebrew College Rabbinical School, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He began teaching for Me’ah in 2018. Among his publications, he was an editor of Mahzor Lev Shalem and is author of the forthcoming article, “A Jew Reads Sura Al Fatiha.”
Rabbi Arthur Green
D'vorah J. Grenn, Ph.D. and Kohenet
D’vorah J. Grenn, Ph.D. and Kohenet
Open Circle Jewish Learning
D’vorah J. Grenn is Founding Director of The Lilith Institute (1997). She co-directed the former Women’s Spirituality MA Program at Institute of Transpersonal Psychology/Sofia University, founded Mishkan Shekhinah, a movable sanctuary honoring the Sacred Feminine in all traditions, and served on the Founding Advisory Board of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute. D’vorah directs The Lilith Institute’s new Women’s Leadership Program and Mishkan Shekhinah program; recently taught “Amulets, Incantations & The Evil Eye: Jewish Magic and Folklore” for Hebrew College, and co-hosts the “Tending Lilith’s Fire” broadcast/podcast with Kohenet Annie Matan, and serves as a mashpi’ah/spiritual mentor.
Her “Talking To Goddess” anthology includes sacred writings of 72 women from 25 spiritual traditions. D’vorah’s dissertation, “For She Is A Tree of Life: Shared Roots Connecting Women to Deity” studied beliefs and rituals among South African Lemba and U.S. European-American Jewish women. Other publications include her book “Lilith’s Fire: Reclaiming our Sacred Lifeforce”; “The Kohanot: Keepers of the Flame”, in Stepping into Ourselves: An Anthology of Writing on Priestesses (Key & Cant); the Jewish priestess and Lilith entries in the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions (de-Gaia), and “The First Resister: Evoking Lilith For Transformation And Freedom” in Original Resistance: Reclaiming Lilith, Reclaiming Ourselves (Girl God Books).
Naomi Gurt Lind
Naomi Gurt Lind
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Naomi Gurt Lind (she/her) is a Shanah Gimel rabbinical student at Hebrew College, where she is editor (and occasional writer) for the 70 Faces of Torah blog and a member of the inaugural cohort of Mayyim Rabbi Fellows at Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh. Naomi has completed study programs with Hadar, Drisha, and Aleph Jewish Renewal and currently serves as Rabbinic intern at 2Life Communities, Congregation Shira Hayam in Swampscott, MA and Congregation Betenu in Amherst, NH.
In addition to her congregational work, Naomi is a sought-after educator, with several courses to her credit through Open Circle Jewish Learning, Temple Israel of Boston, Brookline Community Tikkun Leyl Shavuot, and Temple Shalom of Newton. She cultivates a lively classroom with plenty of space for questioning, discovery, and connection. This past summer, she moved her classroom outdoors with a much-praised Pop-up Mishnah Group.
In her free time, Naomi plays cards with her husband and their two genius boys, solves crossword puzzles (in pencil), and bakes a legendary challah.
Rabbi Eric Gurvis
Rabbi Eric Gurvis
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Eric Gurvis is a graduate of the University at Albany, with a BA in Sociology and Judaic Studies, and was ordained as a Rabbi at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.
Eric is Director of Chaverim & Engagement for The Mussar Institute. He has served congregations in New York City; Jackson, Mississippi; Teaneck, New Jersey; and in Newton, Massachusetts. In July 2019 he became Rabbi of Sha’arei Shalom – a Jewish congregation serving Ashland and Metrowest.
Eric has trained with The Mussar Institute and is a certified Mussar Va’ad leader. He has long been deeply involved in youth activities and Jewish camps, interfaith work, and Israel programming and education. Eric is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Hartman Institute.
Eric and his wife, Laura Kizner Gurvis have four children and two young grandsons in whom they take great delight.
Osnat Hazan
Osnat Hazan
Ulpan
Osnat Hazan was born and raised in Israel. She started her teaching career as an instructor in the IDF, and studied Hebrew linguistics and Hebrew literature at Ben -Gurion University. Before Ulpan, she taught in Hebrew College’s Prozdor program.
She has also at Boston University.
Christina Hayes
Christina Hayes
Me’ah
Professor Christina Hayes is a specialist in the history and literature of Judaism in late antiquity. Before joining the Yale faculty, Professor Hayes taught at Princeton University. Her most recent book, What’s Divine about Divine Law?, received numerous awards, including the 2015 National Jewish Book Award. Her class on the Hebrew Bible was selected for the pilot program of “Yale University Open Courses,” and has subsequently been one of the most watched online courses about classical Judaica.
Lynne Heller, PhD
Lynne Heller, PhD
Me’ah
Lynne Heller combines a passion for the biblical text and wide-ranging knowledge of it with her academic background in comparative literature and Jewish studies. Deeply committed to teaching adults, she has taught in Hebrew College’s Kol Isha, as well as the Ma’ayan, CJP Genesis and Parenting Through a Jewish Lens programs. She has also taught Bible in the Rabbinical School. Heller holds a Ph.D in English and comparative literature from New York University and is a graduate of the MIDRASA, Hebrew Teachers College, established by the Yeshivah of Flatbush in New York City. Her essay, “Teaching to the Head and the Heart: The Power of Weeping,” was published in “Keeping Faith in Rabbis: A Community Conversation on Rabbinical Education” (Avenida Books, 2014).
Rabbi Yaakov Jaffe, PhD
Rabbi Yaakov Jaffe, PhD
Me’ah
Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Jaffe serves as the rabbi of the Maimonides Minyan and as the Director of the Tanach program and member of the Judaic Studies Faculty at Maimonides School. He received his ordination and doctorate from Yeshiva University, where he holds graduate degrees in Bible, Jewish History, and Jewish Education. Rabbi Jaffe has lectured and written widely on topics in Bible, Medieval Jewish History, Jewish Education, and Jewish Law. Rabbi Jaffe’s unique approach to Tanach, Tefillah, and Hebrew poetry is informed by his B.A. in English literature from Columbia University and the historicist approach to the study of ancient texts.
Rabbi Dan Judson, Ph.D.
Yoni Kadden
Yoni Kadden
Open Circle Jewish Learning (Parenting)
Yoni Kadden, a 25+-year veteran teacher, joined the faculty of Gann Academy in 2000. He has since spear-headed numerous student-centered public history projects including the development of a nationally recognized museum of disability history, a published Yizkor Book of a community buried anonymously in a local cemetery, and the production of a play based on original letters from the Shoah. He has also designed and led place-based explorations for both students and educators including a Civil Rights journey to Alabama and a politics deep-dive in Washington DC.
Carolyn Keller
Carolyn Keller
Open Circle Jewish Learning(Parenting)
Carolyn Keller has been an educator and community builder in the Boston Jewish community for four decades. She has been instrumental in many successful enterprises from Me’ah to the MetroWest Jewish Day School. She is currently New England Regional Director for the University of Haifa and pleased to help support higher education in Israel. She is proud mother of three adult children and grandmother to three grandchildren.
Mikhael Kesher
Mikhael Kesher
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Mikhael Kesher is Director of Israel Programs at Harvard Hillel, where he engages students in thoughtful conversations about Israeli society, culture, and politics. He has taught at the Conservative Yeshiva and several Limmud conferences, among others, and holds Master’s degrees in Near Eastern & Judaic Studies and Jewish Professional Leadership from Brandeis University, and in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, UK. As a British-Israeli dual citizen living in the USA, he brings his lived experience as a liberal Zionist, a new immigrant, and an ex-pat to his teaching. Mikhael was formerly Director of Online Learning at Hebrew College, where he taught the Introduction to Pluralist Judaism course.
Rabbi Daniel Klein, Rab'10
Deeana Copeland Klepper, Ph.D.
Deeana Copeland Klepper, PhD
Me’ah
Deeana Copeland Klepper is associate professor of religion and history at Boston University, where she teaches classes on Christianity, Judaism and Islam, especially in medieval context. Her research focuses on Christian and Jewish approaches to biblical interpretation and medieval Christian-Jewish encounter more generally. She is the author of “The Insight of Unbelievers: Nicholas of Lyra and Christian Reading of Jewish Texts in the Later Middle Ages” and a range of articles and essays. Keeper is currently working on a project that examines the intersections between Christian theological approaches to Jews and Judaism and the practical engagement between Christians and Jews in medieval European society. She holds a PhD in medieval European history from Northwestern University.
Sara Klugman
Sara Klugman
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Raised in rural Western Massachusetts, Sara has made homes in
Brooklyn, Minnesota, Jerusalem, and now Somerville. Sara holds
a Bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Carleton College, with
a focus on dance and performance studies. She also holds a Masters in Arts in Education from Harvard Graduate School. She has worked at the nexus of arts education, and liberatory work for the past 10 years — in NYC, Boston and Jerusalem — and understands artistic and spiritual work as necessary pathways to individual and collective
transformation. She is interested in exploring and interrogating
what the work of clergy could be: exploring where spiritual work
meets artistic work, where ritual work meets micro-level care work,
and the place of religious hybridity in contemporary religious
experience. She is particularly interested in thinking about how we could approach spiritual and artistic work as complementary forms of research. This year, among other things, Sara is developing curriculum for a graduate course on arts-based research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, serving as the student Rabbi at Centre College in Kentucky, teaching a class on the politics of binding, and cutting hair. Sara loves to dance, write, cook big meals, sing, walk, lay on the ground, and be near dogs.
Ruth Langer, Ph.D.
Ruth Langer, PhD
Me’ah
Ruth Langer is Professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department at Boston College and Associate Director of its Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. She received her Ph.D. in Jewish Liturgy in 1994 and her rabbinic ordination in 1986 from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.She writes and speaks in two major areas: the development of Jewish liturgy and ritual; and Christian-Jewish relations. Her newest book, Cursing the Christians?: A History of the Birkat HaMinim (Oxford University Press, December 2011) combines these two interests, tracing the history of a Jewish prayer that was, in its medieval forms, a curse of Christians. She is also author of To Worship God Properly: Tensions between Liturgical Custom and Halakhah in Judaism, published in 1998 (Hebrew Union College Press; pbk 2005). She also co-edited Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue (Eisenbrauns, 2005) and has published a long list of articles.
Elliot Lazar
Elliot Lazar, MFA
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Elliot Lazar is a performer, writer, and educator originally from Winnipeg, Canada. He studied music at the University of Manitoba before moving to Boston to pursue an M.F.A. in Theatre at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Elliot has performed across Canada and the United States, appearing in plays, musicals, operas, films, and in concert. As an educator, Elliot has taught theatre and music classes with Wheelock Family Theatre, Berklee Summer Programs, Rainbow Stage, and the Manitoba Conservatory for Music & Arts. He also offers private lessons through his home studio teaching voice, piano, guitar, songwriting, audition technique, acting and dialects to students ranging in age from early teens into adulthood. For the 2021/22 season, he is on the national tour of the recent Bartlett Sher-directed Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Rabbi Ebn Leader
Lori Hope Lefkovitz, Ph.D.
Lori Hope Lefkovitz, PhD
Me’ah
Lori Hope Lefkovitz holds the Ruderman Chair in Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, where she is professogr of English and director of both the Jewish studies program and the Humanities Center. Lefkovitz is a scholar of narrative and narrative theory and has published widely on the Hebrew Bible. She has taught at Kenyon College, the Reconstructionist Rabbincal College, Northeastern University and as scholar-in-residence throughout the Jewish community for several decades. She has published four books, the most recent of which, “In Scripture: The First Stories of Jewish Sexual Identities,” was a finalist for the 2010 National Jewish Book Award in the category of women’s studies. Lefkovitz holds a Ph.D. from Brown University.
Rabbi Darby Jared Leigh
Rabbi Darby Jared Leigh
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Darby Jared Leigh is the Rabbi of Congregation Kerem Shalom in Concord MA and is committed to creating an inclusive, caring community with intellectual honesty and spiritual depth. Honored as one of The Forward’s “most inspiring rabbis of 2016,” Rabbi Leigh is a Truth seeker, a passionate snowboarder and a former leading actor with the Tony award-winning National Theater of the Deaf. He was featured in the televised, Emmy-nominated documentary A Place For All: Faith And Community For People With Disabilities. Tablet Magazine listed him as one of “15 American Rabbis You Haven’t Heard Of But Should,” and he has performed on stage with rock and roll bands, Jane’s Addiction and Twisted Sister!
Rabbi Leigh was published in Deaf Identities- Exploring New Frontiers (2019), in which he is
the second author of a chapter on Religion and Deaf Identity. Rabbi Leigh also served as a
consultant for the Oscar-nominated documentary Sound and Fury and for “Hands On,” an
organization that provides sign-language interpreting services for Broadway and off-Broadway
productions. He worked with RitualWell.org to create on-line videos of ASL translations of
Jewish songs and prayers. Rabbi Leigh serves on the Mayors Commission on Disability in
Newton MA, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis.
Rabbi Leigh was selected to be one of the first fellows of “Rabbis Without Borders,” an initiative
of CLAL (National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.) Rabbi Leigh has taught at the
Academy for Jewish Religion in NY, Hebrew College in MA and internationally. Rabbi Leigh has
served as the associate/sabbatical rabbi at Bnai Keshet in He holds an MA in religion from Columbia University and received Rabbinic Ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Rabbi Leigh also studied for one year at Gallaudet University in Washington DC and received the President’s Scholar Award. He is married to Dr. Randi Leigh and they have three daughters.
Rabbi Noam Lerman `20
Rabbi Noam Lerman `20
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Noam Lerman (they/them) is a trans Jewish educator, musician, story-collector, ritual-holder, Restorative Justice Circle Keeper,
and Hebrew scribe. They received their rabbinical ordination from Hebrew College in 2020. In addition to serving as an associate clergy
member at Lab/Shul in NYC, Noam serves as rabbi and Jewish student advisor at Smith College. Noam founded Der Tkhines Proyekt,
which provides experimental and songful workshops that give life to Yiddish Tkhines, Ashkenazi spontaneous supplications that were
once regularly written and prayed by women, trans, and gender non-conforming people. They have facilitated workshops about tkhines
and spontaneous prayer at KlezKanada, Romemu Yeshiva, Matir Asurim – Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People, Nehar
Shalom Community Synagogue, Merhav: Experiments in Jewish Distance Education, Yiddish Vokh, Open Circle Jewish Learning, and
The Jewish Ancestral Healing Podcast. Noam is one of the co-founders of Let My People Sing!, an intergenerational and liberatory
Jewish singing retreat that uplifts diasporic singing traditions. Noam is a facilitator for Tzelem, a spiritual community- building group
for Jewish trans teens. They have previously acted as a chaplain for elders, incarcerated youth, and previously incarcerated fathers
resiliently fighting for survival and healing. Noam is a TEVA outdoor educator, loves spending time with the Earth, and strongly
supports reparations and indigenous sovereignty.
Rabbi Navah Levine `10
Rabbi Navah Levine `10
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Levine has worked as a pulpit rabbi, chaplain and educator, and through this work finds purpose when connecting with others and nurturing community. She graduated from the RabbinicalSchool of Hebrew College, which she entered after a career in finance and enthusiastic lay leadership and participation in Jewish life.
Through the Community Beit Midrash in Providence RI, Navah is helping to develop continuing educational and social opportunities for pre- and post-b’nee mitzvah youth. She serves currently as the rabbi in-residence for Boston Synagoguein downtownBoston and in the chaplain’s office at Brown University.
Layah Lipsker
Layah Lipsker
Open Circle Jewish Learning, Me’ah Select
Layah Kranz Lipsker is a Boston based Jewish educator and spiritual coach. For three decades, Layah has been sharing Jewish wisdom through engaging text study in Biblical literature and Midrash, through the lens of Kabbalah. A research associate at the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, Layah is passionate about issues related to religion and gender and is the director of the Boston Agunah Taskforce, an organization focused on eliminating gender disparities in Jewish divorce practices. Layah serves as scholar in residence for spiritual retreats, trips to Israel, and lectures widely. She lives in Swampscott, MA, and is the mother of six amazing human beings.
Allen Lipson
Allen Lipson
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Allen Lipson is a rabbinical student at Hebrew College with a background in finance, labor organizing, and traditional Jewish learning. His previous experience includes a stint as finance coordinator and organizer at UNITE HERE, the hotel and food service employees’ union; and two years as an internal consultant at AXA, a global insurance company. An alumnus of Yeshivat Hadar’s year fellowship and a major in rabbinic literature and economics at the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia, respectively, he has written on economics and rabbinic law in The Review of Rabbinic Judaism and Jewish Currents.
Shari Lowin, Ph.D.
Shari Lowin, PhD
Me’ah
Shari Lowin is professor of religious studies at Stonehill College. She previously taught at the University of Chicago, Yeshiva University, Brooklyn College and in Ma’ayan. Lowin is fluent in Arabic and has researched and published on a number of topics comparing Judaism and Islam. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
David Magazine Malamud
David Magazine Malamud is a Shanah Bet rabbinical student at Hebrew College and a passionate teacher! In 2022, David taught the Jewish Learning Fellowship through Hillel Council of New England. Before rabbinical school, David was a graduate student at Boston University, where he loved teaching discussion sections far more than doing research. David has also guest lectured at Boston College and numerous synagogues. David is excited to have been selected as a Hebrew College-IYUN Fellow for the spring of 2023.
Maud Mandel, Ph.D.
Maud Mandel, PhD
Me’ah
Maud Mandel is associate professor of Judaic studies and history at Brown University. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. She teaches courses on many aspects of modern Jewish history, including history of the Holocaust, Zionism and the birth of the state of Israel, and history of American Jews.
Rabbi Richard Meirowitz
Rabbi Richard Meirowitz
Me’ah
Rabbi Richard “Rim” Meirowitz was ordained as a Conservative Rabbi in 1975 and joined the Reform movement in 1989. He is currently a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the organizing body of the Reform movement. In 1985, he was chosen as a founding head of The Rashi School and presided over its opening in September 1986 and its early years until 1992.
Most recently he was the rabbi at Temple Shir Tikvah in Winchester from 1997-2014 and is now rabbi emeritus. He loves teaching adults. Last year he taught at Shir Tikvah a course called, “Judaism for Scientists, Skeptics, and Agnostics.” He is presently finishing up a course on “Exploring Dying, Death, and Life after Death.”
As a pulpit rabbi, Rim wants to teach to the hearts, minds, and souls of his students. As Rim has found Judaism and Torah a way to live well, he wants to bring that to his adult students.
Rim and his wife Anne have been happy residents of Brooksby Village in Peabody since 2011 and are blessed with seven grandchildren under the age of six.
Jacob Meskin, Ph.D.
Jacob Meskin, PhD
Me’ah, Parenting Through a Jewish Lens
Dr. Jacob Meskin is currently Academic Advisor and Senior Lecturer in the Me’ah Program at Hebrew College. He teaches in, and has taught for the Me’ah and Me’ah Select programs, the Tzion program, and for various synagogue and professional groups in the Boston area. In addition to having served for many years as teacher trainer for the Me’ah Program, he is co-author of the curriculum for Parenting Through A Jewish Lens, and works as a consultant on adult Jewish education and teacher training in the Boston area. Meskin was the inaugural holder of the Ruderman Chair in Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, and has taught at Princeton University, Rutgers University, the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University, Williams College, and Lehigh University. His articles have appeared in Modern Judaism, The Journal of Religion, Soundings, Levinas Studies, Judaism, Cross Currents, Educational Philosophy and Theory, and in several edited volumes. Despite being a transplant from New York City, Meskin has become an avid Boston sports fan. His hobbies include chess (which he thinks he’s good at), Go (which he wishes he were good at), nineteenth century English novels, old movies, and Indian vegetarian food. He lives with his wife and daughter in Brookline.
Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison
Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison
Me’ah
Jeremy S. Morrison has served since 2001 as rabbi at Temple Israel of Boston. In addition to his pulpit responsibilities, he currently directs Temple Israel’s education programs. Morrison is the founder of the Riverway Project, a nationally recognized synagogue-based outreach and engagement initiative for adults in their 20s and 30s. He was ordained from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and is currently a doctoral student at Brandeis University.
Paul E. Nahme, Ph.D.
Paul E. Nahme, PhD
Me’ah
Paul Nahme is the Dorot Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and assistant professor of religious studies at Brown University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and has studied rabbinic literature and Jewish law at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Nahme’s research interests focus on modern Jewish philosophy and rabbinic thought, intellectual history, ethics, hermeneutics and the philosophy of law. His current book project examines the philosophy of Hermann Cohen in the context of late-19th-century Wilhelmine Germany and interrogates Cohen’s response to the philosophical problem of secularity for German-Jews living in a Protestant state.
Akiva Nelson
Akiva Nelson
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Akiva Nelson is a rabbinical student in Shanah Bet at Hebrew College. Born and raised in North Carolina, he graduated from Columbia University in 2012. Post-college, Akiva worked in renewable energy for 4 years in Detroit, Michigan. Simultaneously, he began exploring the Jewish roots he had left dormant since his teenage years, falling in love with a Judaism infused with song, meditation, joy, and justice. For the past 5 years, Akiva has designed curricula and taught about the Divine, Jewish identity, the changing American religious landscape, and entrepreneurship to groups ranging from Jewish clergy and teens to recent college graduates and university-based scientists and engineers. A dedicated meditation practitioner and song leader, he has studied Jewish text, prayer, and mysticism in communities like the Pardes Institute, Nava Tehila, the Romemu Yeshiva, Yeshivat Hadar, and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Akiva is excited to teach inclusive and accessible forms of Jewish wisdom to learners of any faith or Jewish educational background.
Ruth Nemzoff
Ruth Nemzoff
Open Circle Jewish Learning (Parenting)
Dr. Ruth Nemzoff is the author of Don’t Roll Your Eyes: Making In-Laws Into Family (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2012) and Don’t Bite Your Tongue: How to Foster Rewarding Relationships With Your Adult Children (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2008) and a frequent speaker on family dynamics. She is a resident scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center.Currently, Dr. Nemzoff serves on the board of Interfaith Family and is the advice columnist for the American Israelite. She and her husband have four adult children, four in-law children and eleven grandchildren
Barbara Penzner
Barbara Penzner
Open Circle Jewish Learning (Parenting)
Barbara Penzner has served as the rabbi of Temple Hillel B’nai Torah since 1995. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, she has raised two adult children and is enjoying being a grandparent.
Amy Grossblatt Pessah
Amy Grossblatt Pessah
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Amy Grossblatt Pessah graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a double B.A. in History and Jewish Near-Eastern Studies. She continued her education by attending HUC-JIR where she received a Master’s degree in Jewish Education. In January 2019, Amy was ordained as a rabbi by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
Throughout the years, Amy has studied a variety of religions, participated in interfaith work, and has been a student of mindfulness and Jewish mysticism. In addition, she has been trained in Spiritual Direction, Jewish energy healing, Reiki, Integrated Energy, and chaplaincy.
Amy’s new book, Parenting on a Prayer: Ancient Jewish Secrets for Raising Modern Children, is the inspiration for her upcoming class for Parenting Through a Jewish Lens.
Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Marcia Plumb is the senior rabbi of Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Brookline. She has studied and taught Mussar for many years. She teaches Mussar at Mishkan Tefila in Newton and in Winchester. She lived and worked in London for many years and now lives in Needham with her husband and two children.
Rabbi Matthew Ponak
Rabbi Matthew Ponak Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Matthew Ponak is a teacher of Jewish mysticism, a spiritual counselor, and the cofounder of the Mekorah Institute – an online spiritual centre for embodied practice. Ordained with honors as a rabbi at the neo-Hasidic Rabbinical School of Hebrew College, he also holds a Master’s degree in Contemplative Religions from Naropa University. Matthew lives in Victoria, British Columbia and is certified as a Focusing Professional to guide others to deep self-knowledge and healing through their bodies. Previously, Matthew has taught The Healing Wisdom of the Hebrew Letters, Torah as Inner Journey, and Jewish Paths of Transformation through Open Circle. To learn more about him and his upcoming courses and speaking engagements, please visit matthewponak.com.
Heather Renetzky
Heather Renetzky (she/her) is a Shana Dalet rabbinical student and enjoys bringing Jewish wisdom to everything from encountering seahorses to baking cookies. She is currently interning at Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland and is the program advisor and past director of the Boston-Area Jewish Education Program, an independent learning community that cultivates experiential learning and radical amazement for students in K-7th grade. Previously, Heather was a teaching assistant and facilitator for Hebrew College’s Centennial. Lecture Series, taught about Mussar, prayer, and wild and wacky Talmud stories through Prozdor and Makor. Heather taught in Hebrew College’s Eser program. She has served as the Rosh Chinuch (Education Director) at Ramah Galim in Northern California and has taught at Congregation Dorshei Tzedek (Newton), 2Life Communities (Brighton, Brookline), Yachad (Minneapolis), and Temple Beth Shir Shalom (Los Angeles). Heather believes firmly in the power of Shabbat, song, and deep listening
Rabbi Hazzan Kenneth Richmond '21
Rav Hazzan Richmond has served as cantor and family educator at Temple Israel of Natick MA since 2006. He has coached and taught courses primarily for Cantorial students as well as for students in the Rabbinical and Education programs at Hebrew College including the teaching and facilitating of Tefillah (prayer) and Professional Seminar. Ken has taught adult, youth, and families, on a variety of topics, most recently courses on Music of the Shoah, Deathbed Scenes of Biblical Heroes, and a series on the Movements and Postures of Prayer. He has taught adult bnai mitzvah, classes in Yiddish, and a variety of classes on prayer and Jewish music. He was ordained as a cantor at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2004 and as a rabbi at Hebrew College in 2021 and received a certificate in Jewish Family Education at Hebrew College in 2010. Rav Hazzan Richmond is a frequent contributor to the Hebrew College blog. He is a musician and composer of Jewish music. Ken is excited to have been selected as a Hebrew College-IYUN Fellow for the spring of 2023.
Rabbi Or Rose
Emily Rogal
Emily Rogal
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Emily Rogal is proud to be beginning her rabbinic education at Hebrew College. She graduated from The New School in 2017 with a degree in Religious Studies, where she focused on the mikveh as a site of contemporary feminist ritual intervention and care, before pursuing a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. She is a trained birth and postpartum doula, mikveh guide, and a Jewish educator invested in cultivating Jewish spaces which center reflection, resilience, joy, justice, and just the right amount of angst. Most recently, she has spent time working for Fat Torah (an organization centered on fat and body liberation in the Jewish community), USY(the USCJ’s youth group), and Harvard Hillel. She spends the majority of her free time drinking oat milk lattes, hunting down weird midrashim (which is basically rabbi fanfiction in her book), reading and writing fantasy, and finding her perpetually lost water bottle.
Rabbi Sonia Saltzman ’08
Rabbi Sonia Saltzman ’08
Open Circle Jewish Learning (Social Action)
Rabbi Saltzman served as Senior Rabbi at Ohabei Shalom, Brookline from 2011 to 2018 and as the rabbi of Sha’arei Shalom, Ashland, MA from 2008-2011. She was ordained at Hebrew College in 2008. Prior to becoming a rabbi, she worked in economic development, eleven years in the field of micro-finance at ACCION International and seven years at Bank of Boston. She chose to enter the rabbinate because “I believe in the wisdom and beauty of Judaism and hope to inspire others to deepen their relationship to Judaism by offering opportunities to engage in study, to experience the richness of prayer and to build a caring and committed community. “She grew up in Chile, in a home imbued with Jewish values, but at a time when opportunities for Jewish learning were especially limited for women. Rabbi Saltzman holds a Masters Degree from Columbia University in International Affairs as well as a Masters in Bible and Jewish Thought from Brandeis.
Rabbi Benjamin Samuels, PhD
Rabbi Benjamin Samuels
Me’ah
Benjamin Samuels has served since 1995 as rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Tefillah in Newton, Mass., and has been a member of the Me’ah faculty since 1996. He is a Genesis Scholar at Combined Jewish Philanthropies and a Master Educator at Ma’ayan. He received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University and is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship program. Rabbi Samuels earned his PhD in Science, Philosophy and Religion at Boston University.
Jonathan D. Sarna, PhD
Jonathan D. Sarna
Me’ah
Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University and director of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program.
Sarna attended Brandeis University, Hebrew College, Mercaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, Israel and Yale University, where he obtained his doctorate. Sarna is regarded by Forward newspaper as one of the most prominent historians of American Judaism.
Sarna’s book, American Judaism: A History, won a number of awards, including the National Jewish Book Award for 2004 and the Publishers Weekly Best Religion Book 2004 award. Sarna is a contributor on religion to the Newsweek-Washingtonpost.com joint project On Faith, the author of Lincoln and the Jews: A History, St. Martin’s Press and is a member of The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s Academic Advisory Board.
Michael Satlow, Ph.D.
Michael Satlow, PhD
Me’ah
Michael Satlow is professor of Judaic studies and religious studies at Brown University. He is the author of “Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice” (Columbia University Press, 2006) and “How the Bible Became Holy” (Yale University Press, 2015).
Satlow holds a Ph.D. in ancient Judaism from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and has taught in the Me’ah program for the last decade. He has held fellowships from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fulbright Scholar Program and the American Council of Learned Societies, among others.
Solomon Schimmel
Rabbi Daniel Schaefer ‘18
Rabbi Daniel Schaefer is the Interim Director for Jewish Life at Georgetown University, where he leads the Jewish community. Studying Jewish texts with a committed cohort through Kevah was integral to his journey to rabbinical school and he loved teaching young adults in Greater Boston through Hebrew College’s Eser program. He is excited to bring this model of Jewish learning engagement, and community building to the students of Georgetown. Rabbi Schaefer is excited to have been selected as a Hebrew College-IYUN Fellow for the spring of 2023. for the spring of 2023.
Yael Linda Schiller
Yael Linda Schiller
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Yael Linda Schiller is a body/mind/spiritual psychotherapist, author, trainer, and consultant. She has presented and taught dreamwork from multiple perspectives for the past 35 years internationally, and is the author of the recently published book, “Modern Dreamwork: New Tools for Decoding Your Soul’s Wisdom.”
She has been on numerous radio and television shows, blogspots, and written articles for both professional and lay journals on dreamwork.
Linda has also published numerous articles about mindfulness, trauma treatment and group work. As professor emeritus of Boston University School of Social Work, she pioneered the relational model of group development.
Linda consults, supervises, has been running dream circles for over 30 years, and has been a member of her own dream group for almost 40 years. She is a member of IASD (the International Association for the Study of Dreams). She offers group and individual dreamwork sessions both in person and on-line.
One student writes about her teaching: “Linda is a master educator . . . Her confident and inviting demeanor makes participants feel at ease immediately. She is engaging, articulate, and inspiring. Her ideas are clearly presented and the interactive activities make learning more interactive. She lovingly guides participants to another level of understanding. It was a pleasure to experience someone who has mastered the art of teaching.”
Matthew Schultz
Matthew Schultz
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Matthew Schultz is an author, educator, and current rabbinical student at Hebrew College in Newton, MA. Since graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in 2010, he has worked as a Jewish educator in schools from Manhattan to Tel Aviv. He is a columnist with the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles and author of the essay collection “What Came Before.” Matt is a Hebrew College/IYUN Fellow.
Rabbi Jordan Schuster
Rabbi Meir Sendor, Ph.D.
Rabbi Meir Sendor, PhD
Me’ah
Rabbi Meir Sendor has served for more than 20 years as spiritual leader of Young Israel of Sharon. He holds rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University and a doctorate in medieval Jewish history from Harvard University. Sendor lectures widely on Jewish history, philosophy, law and mysticism.
Leann Shamash
Leann Shamash
Open Circle Jewish Learning, Parenting Through a Jewish Lens
Leann Shamash has worked in a variety of Jewish education roles, including working as an education director both at Temple Sinai in Brookline and at Congregation Beth Elohim in Acton where she created, directed and produced the synagogue’s long running community Purim Shpiel; organized four congregation trips to Israel, a trip to Jewish Cuba and to Jewish Spain. She has developed her interest in photography, writing and dancing. She leads a yoga dance class online and is writing a compilation of poetry for parshat hashavua. She reads her poetry weekly at the morning minyan at Congregation Kehillath Israel. She created a unique project photographing her 95-year-old mother in a century of hats, called, “Irma G: A Century of Hats and Spirit.” During Covid, she compiled reflections, poetry and photographs of the Kehillath Israel morning minyan called, “The Memory Room.” Leann minored in Judaic Studies at UMass and has a Master’s degree from Brandeis University’s Hornstein program in Jewish Communal Service with a concentration in Jewish Education.
Jeffrey Shoulson, Ph.D.
Jeffrey Shoulson, PhD
Me’ah
Jeffrey Shoulson is the Konover Chair in Judaic Studies, director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, and professor of literatures, cultures and languages at the University of Connecticut. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge and PhD from Yale University.
His scholarship focuses on Jewish-Christian relations in the medieval and early-modern periods, especially the ways in which Jews and Judaism are represented within Christian writings and Christianity influences or is thematized in Jewish writings.
Adam Teller, Ph.D.
Adam Teller, PhD
Me’ah
Adam Teller is associate professor of history and Judaic studies at Brown University, where he teaches history of the Jews in Eastern Europe, the history of Jewish family, the development of modern Jewish mysticism and Hasidism, and Jewish popular culture.
Prior to joining Brown in 2010, he was on the faculty of the University of Haifa. Teller is a graduate of Oxford University and holds a Ph.D. in modern Jewish history from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Aaron Tillman, Ph.D.
Aaron Tillman, PhD
Me’ah
Aaron Tillman is a fiction writer, Associate Professor of English at Newbury College, and Director of Newbury’s Honors Program. His short story collection, Every Single Bone in My Brain, was published by Braddock Avenue Books in July of 2017. Aaron received a Short Story Award for New Writers from Glimmer Train Stories and won First Prize in the Nancy Potter Short Story Contest at University of Rhode Island. Two pieces of his flash fiction were nominated for inclusion in The Best Small Fictions of 2015 anthology, and his novel was a finalist in the 2016 Molly Ivors Prize for Fiction.
His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Mississippi Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Sou’Wester, upstreet, The Tishman Review, The Madison Review, Arcadia Magazine, The Carolina Quarterly, great weather for MEDIA, Prick of the Spindle, Burrow Press Review, and elsewhere. He has recorded two stories for broadcast on the Words & Music program at Tufts University and another for Functionally Literate Radio. His essays have appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle, Studies in American Humor, Symbolism, The CEA Critic, and The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America(Mythopoeic 2009).
Jaz Twersky
Jaz Twersky is a queer Jewish educator and shana aleph Hebrew College rabbinical student. They’ve taught people ranging from preschoolers to adults, and cohosted the weekly parsha (Torah portion) podcast Kosher Queers for two years. They have a deep love for both Jewish texts and practical Judaism that affects our daily lives. In their free time, Jaz can often be found crafting and bemoaning that there aren’t more Jewish romance novels. Jaz is excited to have been selected as a Hebrew College-IYUN Fellow for the spring of 2023.
Alan Verskin, Ph.D.
Alan Verskin, PhD
Me’ah
Alan Verskin is an associate professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University and an M.A. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is active in both formal and informal Jewish education. His academic work ranges in topic from nineteenth-century Yemen to medieval Spain, and from Islamic law to Jewish philosophy. He is an avid translator of Arabic, Judeo-Arabic, and Hebrew.
Rabbi Miriam-Simma Walfish
Rabbi Miriam-Simma Walfish
Me’ah
Rabbi Miriam-Simma Walfish is pursuing a doctorate in Talmud at Harvard University and directs Boston’s Teen Beit Midrash. A graduate of the Pardes Educators Program, she has taught Tanakh, Talmud, and Jewish Law in numerous settings including Yeshivat Hadar, Harvard University, Hebrew College, and the National Havurah Committee’s summer institute.
Her specific interests include rabbinic approaches to Shabbat, gender, parenting, and education, and her article, “Upending the Curse of Eve: Reframing Maternal
Breastfeeding in Bavli Ketubot” was published in 2017. Miriam-Simma revels in the process of learning Torah with and from her students.
Aron Wander
Aron Wander
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Aron Wander (he/him) is rabbinical student at Hebrew College, writer and organizer. He has served as the rabbinic intern at Temple Emunah in Lexington and of Ohel Ayalah in New York, Queens, and as an educator at Temple Israel in Brookline. His previous Open Circle Jewish Learning classes were “Realistic Utopias; What’s the Best Future We Can Hope For?” and “Is Diaspora Good for the Jews?” Before beginning rabbinical school, he worked as the Northeast Campus Organizer for J Street U. When he’s not working or studying, Aron likes to practice yoga, read sci-fi, and scavenge for used books.
Alona Weimer
Alona Weimer
Open Circle Jewish Learning (Social Action)
Alona Weimer (she/her) is a white Ashkenazi woman living on Munsee Lenape land in Brooklyn, NY. She is currently a year fellow at the Hadar Institute studying Talmud and Rabbinic Literature. She previously received an MA in Race and Migration Studies at Freie Universitat Berlin and a BA in Black Studies from Brandeis University. Alona is a trained community organizer and has worked with Jewish communities across the United States and Germany. www.alonaweimer.com
Rabbi Joshua Weisman ’18
Rabbi Joshua Weisman ’18
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Weisman is Senior Program Officer for Racial Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the East Bay at the Jewish Community Federation (Bay Area). Recently, he served as Senior Jewish Educator at Hillel at the University of Washington and Jconnect Seattle. Prior to that, he was the Jewish Emergent Network Rabbinic Fellow at the Kavana Cooperative in Seattle. He was ordained at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in 2018. Prior to rabbinical school, he worked as a grass-roots organizer, including with congregations. As an organizer, he discovered the way that Jewish text can be a powerful inspiration and guide to social change work, and how both learning and social change can build community. He continues to work at the intersection of Jewish learning and practice, social change, and community building. He has taught Jewish text to adults, young adults, graduate students, college students, teens, and middle school students in a variety of settings including congregations, Hillels, and social justice contexts.
Heather Zacker
Heather Zacker
Open Circle Jewish Learning (Parenting)
Heather Zacker, M.S., is a consultant and certified personal and professional coach. She holds an undergraduate degree in religion from Brown University and a Master’s from Harvard School of Public Health. Heather served as a parenting columnist for the Jewish Advocate and currently works with adolescents preparing for b’nei mitzvah, young adults transitioning to independence, parents, health educators and others. She and her husband have two young-adult sons and a teenage daughter. Heather is passionate about sharing ways that Judaism strengthens families through fun, meaningful, and creative engagement. Learn more about Heather at her website.
Naomi Zipursky
Naomi Zipursky is thrilled to begin her Hebrew College journey this year in Mekorot! Naomi grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and attended Emory University in Atlanta, GA, where she studied Linguistics and Religion. After graduating in 2017, Naomi moved out west to work at San Francisco Hillel, where she spent 4.5 years engaging undergraduate and graduate students across the city, first as a Springboard Fellow, Innovation Specialist, and then as the Director of Campuses. One of the greatest joys in her time at SF Hillel was facilitating meaningful and dynamic educational programming, from an annual Beyoncé-themed Passover seder to undergraduate and graduate student learning cohorts. Naomi has spent summers in the Pardes Beit Midrash and dancing barefoot at BCI – Brandeis Collegiate Institute. Before beginning her studies at Hebrew College, Naomi spent 7 weeks immersed in Modern Hebrew at Middlebury University’s School of Hebrew Summer Immersion Program. Naomi is excited to have been selected as a Hebrew College-IYUN Fellow for the spring of 2023.
Shlomi Zan
Shlomi Zan
Ulpan
Shlomi is an experienced educator with both children and adults. In Israel, Shlomi taught Hebrew and History in high school for four years, and served as a head of an elementary school for five years. Currently, Shlomi teaches Hebrew both at Gann Academy High School and Hebrew College. He holds a bachelor degree in History from Hebrew University, Jerusalem, an M.A in Public Policy, from Tel Aviv University, a Teaching Certificate from Beit-Berl College, and a Public School Principal Certification from Kibbutz Seminar College in Tel Aviv. Shlomi lives in Brookline with his husband and their dog, Joy.
Cantor Lorel Zar-Kessler
Cantor Emerita of Congregation Beth El Sudbury, Lorel Zar-Kessler has led weekly Torah study groups, and taught Midrash, text study, prayer, Talmud, Rabbinic literature, Mussar and Mitzvot. Cantor Lorel Zar-Kessler has supported and strengthened Jewish voices in the Boston community including at Mayyim Hayyim, Boston Jewish Music Festival, congregation-based Women’s Seders, Koleinu and Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center. She is an active member of the Women Cantor’s Network, part of the alumni/hevraya group of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and completed a certificate of Jewish Music at Hebrew College. Recently she taught at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College.