Community Learning Faculty

Rabbi Leora Abelson

Rabbi Leora Abelson has served as the rabbi of Congregation Agudas Achim in Attleboro, MA since July 2016.  She is passionate about queer and feminist theology and making the ancient wisdom of the Jewish tradition accessible to social movements and anyone building a just and peaceful world. She lives with her partner Ray-ray in Jamaica Plain, MA and loves to cook, read novels, make music, and spend time in the woods or at the ocean.

Rachel Adelman, PhD

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Rabbi Jeff Amshalem

Rabbi Jeff Amshalem
Me’ah, Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

In addition to being a husband and parent of two nielughters and one son, Rabbi Jeff Amshalem teaches both kids and parents at Gann Academy, where he is also Coordinator of Spiritual Advising. Jeff worked in community and family education throughout Boston for a number of years, and then spent some years in Israel at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem and at Ben-Gurion University. In 2014 he received smicha from Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and Rabbi Daniel Landes, along with an MA in Jewish Thought from Ben-Gurion University, with a focus on Hasidism and Kabbalah. He is currently working with Ayeka: Soulful Jewish Education to bring a focus on spiritual growth into Jewish day schools across the country.

President Sharon Cohen Anisfeld

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Merry Arnold

Merry Arnold
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Merry Arnold has been a student of Mussar for over ten years, taking courses at The Mussar Institute, and studying with Rabbis Carol Glass and David Jaffe. She has led several Mussar groups at Temple Ohabei Shalom and at Temple Sinai.  Merry finds Mussar to be a natural fit with some of her interests as a clinical psychologist, especially the areas of positive psychology and professional ethics. She is an active member of the Adult Learning Committee at Temple Sinai, and has helped put together a new initiative this year, “Exploring Jewish Values, Jewish Inner Lives.” Along with Mussar, the initiative offers talks and classes on mindfulness, sacred melody, the hidden light of Shabbat candles, and personal explorations of God.

Margie Bogdanow

Margie Bogdanow
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Margie Bogdanow, LICSW, is an educator, coach and consultant working in the Boston area.  Over her many years as a facilitator for Parenting Through a Jewish Lens, Margie demonstrated both her belief that Judaism has wisdom to help us navigate our lives as well as her love of connecting the Jewish and secular worlds.  She is passionate about “educating and supporting adults to make a difference in the lives of young people.” After spending many years as a parent educator, Margie is thrilled to now work as a grandparent educator as well.  In addition to her work with grandparents, she is currently focused on finding ways to use Judaism to contribute to wellness and well-being in young people.  After 25 years in Lexington, she now lives in Cambridge with her husband Michael.  They have been active members of Temple Isaiah since 1989.

Rabbi Laura Bellows

Rabbi Laura Bellow
Open Circle Social Action

Rabbi Laura Bellows is an educator, community builder, and artist focusing on the intersection of Torah, ecology, gender, and justice issues. She pioneered the Teva Learning Alliance’s Jewish environmental community programs for teens and youth nationally, worked as an educator and rabbinic presence at the Brandeis Collegiate Institute (in California), and has taught at and designed curriculum for Jewish high school programs across the country. Laura is an alumna of the American Jewish World Service’s Global Justice Fellowship and is the founder of the Hebrew College Eco-Ritual Lab. She has a B.A. from Oberlin College and received rabbinic ordination from the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Boston. When not immersed in building a more whole world with teens and young adults, Laura can be found hiking, making music, or cooking up a storm for Shabbat with her family.

Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman

Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Audrey Marcus Berkman has been a chaplain, cantor, teacher and lifecycle officiant in the Boston area for the past seven years. She currently serves as rabbi and chaplain at Center Communities of Brookline. From 2007 to 2013, she was congregational rabbi at Congregation Shir Hadash. She is a graduate of Oberlin College, holds a master’s from Harvard University and was ordained in 2007 from Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Pennsylvania.

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
Me’ah, Open Circle Jewish Learning

David Bernat is the Executive Director of The Synagogue Council of MA, 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 Allison Berry

Rabbi Allison Berry
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Allison Berry has served since 2011 as associate rabbi of Temple Shalom in Newton, Mass. She served previously as director of education at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Chestnut Hill and as rabbi and education director at Temple Beth David in Canton. A classically trained vocalist, Berry formerly worked as a cantorial solist for several Boston-area congregations. She is a graduate of Brandeis University and was ordained in 2007 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.

Tamar Biala

Tamar Biala
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Tamar Biala is engaged with Jewish feminism as a writer and lecturer. She received her BA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her MA in Women’s Studies and Jewish Studies at the Schechter Institute. Ms. Biala has taught at IASA, Jerusalem’s high school for gifted students, at the Hartman Institute’s teacher training program, in pluralistic batei midrash in Isra,el and for the Israel Defense Forces. She also served for several years on the board of Kolech, the Religious Women’s Forum, developing developed high school curricula for the empowerment of young women and for sex and family education for both young men and young women. She is the co-editor of Dirshuni: Midrashei Nashim (Yediot Acharonot and the Jewish Agency for Israel, 2009), the first-ever collection of Midrashim written by contemporary Israeli women.

Sam Blumberg

Sam Blumberg
Rabbinical student, Eser

Sam Blumberg is a second-year Rabbinical student. Before coming to Hebrew College, he spent five years in Portland, Ore., teaching Jewish Studies in the middle school at Portland Jewish Academy. Sam holds a Master in Jewish Education degree from Hebrew College and is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program. Sam is currently the student rabbi at Temple Sinai in Brookline, as well as rabbinic intern at Congregation Betenu in Amherst, NH. He lives in Waltham with his wife Amalia, son Zamir (born April 2016), daughter Sol (born January 2018), and their dog Kishu.

Marc Brettler, PhD, H'15

Marc Brettler, PhD, H’15
Me’ah, Me’ah Online

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.

Sabrina Burger

Sabrina Burger
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Sabrina Burger has lived in Israel for 12 years, where she studied English literature and linguistics at Hebrew University and attended the Bezalel School of Art and Design. She studied rabbinic texts and Hasidic philosophy at the Nishmat Center for Advanced Torah Studies and Midreshet Bat Ayin. Burger has taught for Ikkarim, Pathways, Ma’ayan and in private classes, where she integrates Torah, art and parenting skills.

Rabbi Sharon Clevenger

Rabbi Sharon Clevenger
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Sharon Clevenger is the middle-school rabbi at the Rashi School in Dedham, Mass. She previously served as associate rabbi at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, Mass., where she taught numerous adult-learning classes. Clevenger is married and the mother of two young daughters.

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.

Kit Collins

Kit Collins
Eser

Misha Clebaner

Misha Clebaner
Current rabbinical student, Eser

Misha is in his final year of Rabbinical School at Hebrew College. Originally from San Francisco, Misha graduated from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia with a degree in Sociology and Religion. Misha has served with AmeriCorps and also with American Jewish World Service (AJWS) in India through the World Partners Fellowship. He has studied at the Hebrew University, as well as the Conservative Yeshiva of Jerusalem. He recently worked for his second summer at the pioneering Brandeis-Bardin Collegiate Institute in Simi Valley, CA. He is currently the rabbinic figure at Temple B’nai Israel in Revere, MA.

Eli Cohn-Postell

Eli Cohn-Postell
Eser

Eli Cohn-Postell is the Director of Israel Engagement at the JCRC of Greater Boston. Originally from Minneapolis, Eli holds a BA in philosophy from Lewis and Clark College and Masters Degrees in Jewish Leadership and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from the Hornstein Program for Jewish Leadership at Brandeis University. Eli is particularly passionate about modern Jewish history, early Zionism, and the current American Jewish experience. He has been privileged to serve in a variety of educational roles in the Jewish community, and his focus as a teacher and Israel trip leader is on finding new pathways for Jews to discuss their relationship to Israel as a Jewish state and supporting grassroots efforts to bring peace and justice to Israelis and Palestinians. He lives in Malden with his wife, Cheyenne, and their daughter, Miri.

Rabbi Shahar Colt, Rab`15

Rabbi Shahar Colt

Since 2015, Rabbi Shahar Colt has been serving Dorshei Tzedek as the Director of Congregational Learning.  Before rabbinical school, Rabbi Shahar earned her Masters in Education at Tufts University (2008), with a focus on secondary level humanities, and her Bachelors from Barnard College (2006) in American Studies, with a concentration in Education. In addition to teaching in supplementary religious schools since 2006, she has taught secular academic subjects in public and private schools, general and special education classrooms, as well as swimming, dance, cooking and woodworking in after school programs, youth groups and summer camps.

Rabbi David Curiel

Rabbi David Curiel
Open Circle Jewish Learning 20s & 30s

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.

Linna Ettinger

Linna Ettinger is the Assistant Director of the Early Childhood Institute of Hebrew College and the co-chair of Adult Education at Temple Emunah. Linna is also supervisor of Field Experience I, Coordinator for the Annual Jewish Education Conference, and Facilitator and Coordinator of the Israel Education Community of Practice. She received her Master’s in Jewish Education from Hebrew College and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her Master’s project was the compilation of 23 Torah Time Primers that have been distributed to families at the preschool. Her informal Jewish education includes completion of the Me’ah program of Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Hebrew College, completion of the Me’ah Graduate Institute Certificate of Studies in Jewish Thought and Spirituality, and participation in the Community Leadership Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem for the past seven summer sessions.

Linna has authored several articles about Jewish education for the Jewish Advocate, eJewishPhilanthropies.com, and JewishBoston.com, and has written several blogs including ScienceFunFortheHolidays.blogspot.com. Her work experience includes classroom teaching and leading workshops in the field of early childhood education in the Jewish community, and work in the software engineering field. She is also a group leader for the Community Leadership Program of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Linna is passionate about bringing modern day meaning, joy and significance of Judaism and Jewish sources to people of all ages. She and her family have been members of Temple Emunah, a Conservative synagogue located in Lexington, MA, since 1992. Linna has been co-chair of Adult Education at Temple Emunah for over a decade. As part of her Adult Education work, Linna has been a champion of the Shalom Hartman Institute video lecture series including iEngage a series designed to equip rabbis with the sources and strategy needed to comprehensively teach about Israel in all of its complexity.

Recent Publications

•  “How to Demystify the Synagogue”  (July 31, 2019, JewishBoston.com)
• “Exercising Community” (June 19, 2019, eJewishphilanthropy.com)
•  “Setting the Table for Life” (April 14, 2019, eJewishphilanthropy.com)
• “How to Leverage the Human Capital of a Community” By Rachel Raz, and Linna Ettinger (January 18, 2019, eJewishPhilanthropy.com)
• “Nurturing Intentional (American) Judaism”  (November 26, 2017,  eJewishPhilanthropy.com)
• “A Tree and Me: How the Israeli Ministry of Education Uses Agriculture to Instill Jewish Identity”  (May 11, 2017, eJewishPhilanthropy.com)

Blogs

• https://2019israeledseminar.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html
• https://jeefnews.blogspot.com
• http://2017israelbhecec.blogspot.com
• http://sciencefunfortheholidays.blogspot.com/
• http://billydalwinpre-school.blogspot.com/?zx=c06fad0dc1b5d8f3

Rabbi Lev Friedman, Rab`18

Lev Friedman was ordained in 2018 by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. He has served in a rabbinic role for almost 40 years. Under the mentorship of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, zt”l, he founded B’nai Or Religious Fellowship of Boston in 1982. Reb Zalman empowered him as Maggid, Rabbinic Pastor and Cantor in 1990. Lev was the spiritual leader of B’nai Or, a Jewish Renewal community, from 1982-1996. During his tenure in this position he helped many Jews find a way back to their traditions in a contemporary and meaningful way.  As part of his rabbinic training, Lev wrote Shabbat as a Mystical/Spiritual Practice Through Selected Teachings of the Netivot Shalom for his Capstone. He translated portions of the Netivot Shalom’s writings on Shabbat and reflects on them through the eyes of a modern seeker. His hope is that these teachings and reflections will inspire others to deepen their own Shabbat and other Jewish practices. Lev is a seasoned service leader and enthusiastic teacher who brings life experience, knowledge and wisdom along with beautiful music, meditation, and the teachings of his teachers, Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, zt”l, Arthur Green, Sharon Cohen-Anisfeld, Ebn Leader, and Nehemia Polen, to name a few, to the Jewish community. He has a warm voice and a subtle, sensitive way of playing guitar that helps bring congregations into the music. Lev believes that everyone is a singer and works wonders with willing participants to create community through music. He weaves prayer, kavvanot (teachings and intentionality about prayer) and stories that enliven and deepen the worship experience. He also believes in what Reb Zalman called “Producer Judaism,” meaning that it is up to the community to create the prayer/spiritual experience along with the Shaliach Tzibur, the community prayer leader. He was the owner of Kolbo Fine Judaica in Brookline for almost thirty years until 2011. 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 daughters, three sons-in-law and, as of this writing, two beautiful grandchildren.

Roselyn Farren, Ph.D.

Roselyn Farren, PhD
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Roselyn Farren is an English teacher at Plymouth North High School and has also taught English at the Maimonides School in Brookline, Mass.  She is the former executive director of Ma’ayan: Torah Studies Initiative for Women. She enjoys teaching Jewish texts to teens through senior adults, as well as singing and gardening with her husband and three children. Farren holds a doctorate in English literature from Brandeis University.

Rachel Fish

Rachel Fish, PhD
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Rachel Fish is the Associate Director of the Schusterman Center at Brandeis University. She completed her doctoral degree in 2013 in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department at Brandeis University, where she researched the history of the idea of bi-nationalism and alternative visions for constructing the State of Israel. She has taught at Brandeis University, UMASS Amherst and the Me’ah Adult Jewish Education program. In 2015 she held the Rohr Visiting Professorship at Harvard University, where she lectured on modern Israel and received the Derek Bok Certificate of Teaching Excellence. She is co-editor, with Ilan Troen, of the forthcoming book Essential Israel: Essays for the Twenty-First Century.

Elisha Gechter

Elisha Gechter
Eser, Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Elisha Gechter is program manager of the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. A former associate director of community engagement for adult learning at Hebrew College, she graduated from the Heller Hornstein master’s program at Brandeis University. She is the recipient of the Nachshon Leadership Award from Mayyim Hayyim and was named a 2015 Chai in the Hub honoree by Combined Jewish Philanthropies. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, daughter, and son.

Rabbi Getzel Davis, Rab`13

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. Getzel is also 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. One of Getzel’s favorite things in the world is to meet new people, so email him and let him take you out for coffee!

Dena Glasgow

Dena Glasgow
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Dena Glasgow is a students at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. Before returning to graduate school, she was the director of faculty and curriculum development in the adult learning division at Hebrew College. Before joining Hebrew College, she worked for five years as director of the Boston-area Jewish Education Program, a Sunday school community at Brandeis University. She was also a long-term member of the PJ Library Book Selection Committee. As a mother of four children, Glasgow particularly enjoys teaching on parenting topics. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree in Jewish studies and Jewish communal service from Brandeis University.

Bonnie Glickman

Bonnie Glickman
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Bonnie Glickman consults with teachers, families, schools and employers. She has worked as a classroom teacher, special-education teacher, curriculum developer, school counselor and private consultant. She founded and administered a school for high-school dropouts in Montreal, which won an award from the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Glickman holds master’s degrees in reading instruction and special education from McGill University and a master’s in counseling from the University of Vermont.

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 37^th World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem in October 2016. His writing and blogging on many issues of Jewish interest can be found at nealgold.net.

Ketriellah Goldfeder

Ketriellah Goldfeder
Open Circle Jewish Learning 

For over 20 years, Ketriellah has been actively helping women improve their physical, emotional and spiritual lives. Before moving to Sharon, Mass., Ketriellah and her husband, Rabbi Gavriel Goldfeder, led an Open Orthodox congregation in Boulder, Colo. for a decade. She now has a private practice as a Certified Hakomi Practitioner & Personal Growth Coach. You can learn more about Ketriellah at her website www.newmoonhakomi.com or by joining her Facebook group for women, Slow Jewish Home.

Laila Goodman

Laila Goodman
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Laila Goodman is a high school educator since 1985, first as a public school teacher and for the bulk of her career in independent schools.  Since 2005, she has worked at Gann Academy, a pluralistic Jewish high school in Waltham Massachusetts.  She currently teaches The Biological Basis of Behavior and Biology.  Laila is also the Madrichat Ruchanit (Spiritual Advisor) a diverse position which includes designing and implementing Jewish experiential educational programs. Laila graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Marine Ecology and she has an M.Ed from Harvard University with a focus on Science Education.   Laila and her husband, Barry Moir have two young adult children, one dog, one cat and 6 chickens who have yet to lay a single egg but have great potential.

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.”

Rachel L. Greenblatt, PhD

Rachel L. Greenblatt, PhD
Me’ah, Open Circle Jewish Learning

Rachel L. Greenblatt teaches at Dartmouth College, and has previously taught at Harvard and Wesleyan Universities. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and B.A. in History from Cornell.  She has also studied biblical and rabbinic text at the Pardes Institute and at Matan – the Sadie Rennert Women’s Institute for Torah Study, both in Jerusalem.

Rachel’s scholarship focuses on the cultural and social history of Jews in central and eastern Europe. She is the author of To Tell Their Children: Jewish Communal Memory in Early Modern Prague (Stanford University Press, 2014), which incorporates a wide variety of material and textual sources in reconstructing the ways in which Prague’s early modern Jews—women and men, young and old—told their own stories of their communal past and familial histories.

Rabbi Hillel Greene, Rab'14

Rabbi Hillel Greene, Rab’14
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Hillel Greene is an educator at Gann Academy in Waltham, Mass. He formerly served as a rabbinic adviser and Jewish chaplain at Boston College and Northeastern University. He is a graduate of Columbia University and was ordained in 2014 from the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College, An avid reader, Greene is slowly working his way through the complete works of William Shakespeare.

Rabbi Eric Gurvis

Rabbi Eric Gurvis
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Rabbi Eric Gurvis is a graduate of the State University of New York 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 has served congregations in New York City; Jackson, Mississippi; Teaneck, New Jersey; and in Newton, Massachusetts. In July 2019 he will begin serving 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 in 2013, where he serves on the Rabbinic Advisory Council. Eric and his wife, Laura Kizner Gurvis have four children and a grandson in whom they take great delight.

Christina Hayes

Christina Hayes
Me’ah Online

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).

Cheryl Harris

Cheryl Harris
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Cheryl Harris has worked for the past 20 years as a school psychologist at Sharon (Mass.) High School. Prior to that, she worked for eight years as a teacher of students with learning disabilities at The Ramaz School in New York City. Harris holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Barnard College and three master’s degree — an M.A. in remedial reading, an Ed.M. in learning disabilities and an Ed.M. in school psychology — from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz

Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz
Eser

Eliana Jacobowitz, was appointed to rabbi of Temple B’nai Brith in Somerville in 2010, following her rabbinic ordination from Hebrew College, where she also earned an MA in Judaic studies.

Raised in a secular Israeli family, Rabbi Eliana first studied fashion design and attended law school at Tel Aviv University. She served in the Israeli Defense Forces during the first Gulf War in 1991. In the U.S., she earned a BA in history from Colorado University, and an MA in medieval history from Boston University. She edited the Hebrew translation of “These Are the Words,” by Arthur Green (Yediot Acharonot Press, 2008).

Rabbi David Jaffe

Rabbi David Jaffe
Open Circle Jewish Learning, Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

David Jaffe is the school chaplain at Gann Academy: The New Jewish High School and the founder and dean of The Kirva Institute for Torah and Spiritual Practice. A graduate of the Columbia University School of Social Work and the Jewish Theological Seminary Communal Service program, Jaffe received his rabbinic ordination from the Bat Ayin Yeshiva in Israel. He is a veteran Ikkarim instructor and has taught widely throughout the Boston community.

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.

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Dr. Orit Kent

Dr. Orit Kent
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Dr. Orit Kent is a long time educator, teacher-educator, researcher and writer, with experience working with both children and adults in the Greater Boston area. She is the co-creator of The Pedagogy of Partnership, an innovative research-based approach for the design of relationship-centered education.  She has authored many articles on peer learning and its impact on social-emotional and ethical learning and is co-author of the award winning book, A Philosophy of Havruta.  Dr. Kent consults with schools and educational organizations. She has a Ph.D. in Judaic Studies and Education from Brandeis University, an Ed.M. in Teaching and Learning from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in history from Yale.

Rabbi Daniel Klein, Rab'10

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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.

Rabbi Yaakov Komisar

Rabbi Yaakov Komisar
Eser

Rabbi Yaakov Komisar is a co-director of beit midrash at Gann Academy. He studied for rabbinic ordination under Rabbis Adin Steinsaltz, Ariel Holland, and Menachem Froman, at Yeshivat Hesder Tekoa, while also serving in the IDF’s artillery unit. He holds a BA in Political Science, a MA in International Affairs, and a MA in Jewish Education. Previously, he was a managing editor of Rabbi Steinsaltz’s Koren translation of the Talmud Bavli. Rabbi Komisar lives with his wife and children in Sharon, MA.

Rav Claudia Kreiman

Rav Claudia Kreiman
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Claudia Kreiman has served since 1997 as associate rabbi of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Mass. Originally from Chile, she moved to Israel and entered the Rabbinical School of the Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies, where she was ordained in 2002. Prior to accepting her position at TBZ, Kreiman was director of Jewish studies at the Jewish Community Day School of Greater Boston, in Watertown. She is married to Rabbi Ebn Leader, a faculty member at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College.

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.

Elie Leaderman-Bray

Elie Leaderman-Bray
Open Circle Social Action

A non-binary community organizer, Elie will be pulling texts from social struggles, traditional Jewish writing, and modern social theory to explore and strengthen our understandings of Jewish queer survival.  An alum of the Join for Justice Fellowship, they have been organizing and facilitating in the Jewish community for 6 years.

Joan Leegant

Joan Leegant
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Joan Leegant is the author of two books of fiction, as well as numerous additional stories and essays. Her work has won the PEN/New England Book Award, the Wallant Award for Jewish Fiction, and been a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Formerly a lawyer, Joan has taught creative writing for 20 years at institutions including at Harvard, Framingham State University, Hebrew College, Oklahoma State University, and Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. From 2007-2013 she was a visiting writer at Bar-Ilan University in Israel where she also lectured on American culture and literature under the auspices of the U.S. State Department and was a volunteer ESL teacher for African refugees. For more about Joan and her work visit: www.joanleegant.com

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 professor 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 Navah Levine, Rab'10

Rabbi Navah Levine, Rab’10
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Navah Levine is the rabbi at Temple Beth Abraham in Canton, Mass. Previoulsy, she served as rabbi-educator at Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill, where she focused on adult education and spiritual engagement. She was ordained by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in 2010, and is a proud mother who finds much inspiration and guidance when parenting “through a Jewish lens.”

Ryan Leszner

Ryan Leszner
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Ryan is a third-year Rabbinical Student at Hebrew College. Previously, Ryan served as the Educator for the Riverway Project, a twenties and thirties group at Temple Israel in Boston. Before moving to Boston, Ryan served as the Director of Youth Engagement for Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael, CA.  One of his passions is providing educational musical experiences that help connect to Jewish concepts and traditions. He was born in Toronto, Canada, and spent most of his formative years at URJ Camp George and NFTY-NEL, the Reform movements youth group. Ryan also loves watching hockey, playing sports, travelling, hiking, listening to music, making music, and going to live shows.

Rabbi Dan Liben

Rabbi Dan Liben
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Daniel Liben has served since 1991 as spiritual leader of Temple Israel of Natck, Mass. A prolific teacher, he is a recipient of the Bureau of Jewish Education’s Keter Torah Award for his work in family education. He received his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1983.

Layah Lipsker

Layah Lipsker
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Layah Kranz Lipsker is a Jewish educator currently teaching for Kevah and Eim Chai. She is also a research associate at the Hadassah Brandeis Institute and the creator of www.getyourget.com, a website that supports women seeking Jewish divorce. Lipsker is part of the newly formed Boston Agunah Taskforce, and serves as a liaison for women with the Boston Bet Din. She lives with her husband and six children in Swampscott.

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.

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 Natan Margalit, Ph.D.

Rabbi Natan Margalit, PhD
Me’ah, Open Circle Jewish Learning

Natan Margalit  is spiritual leader of The Greater Washington Coalition for Jewish Life, in western Connecticut, and visiting rabbi at Congregation Adas Yoshuron, in Rockville, Maine. After graduating from Reed College with a degree in anthropology, he went on to receive rabbinic ordination at The Jerusalem Seminary and earn a Ph.D. in Talmud from the University of California, Berkeley.

Leora Mallach

Leora Mallach, MEd
Open Circle Social Action

Leora Mallach, MEd, is executive director & co-founder of of Beantown Jewish Gardens in Boston, MA. She first worked for the Teva Learning Center in the Fall of 1997. Since then, she has worked for a variety of other experiential learning programs including: the Hulbert Outdoor Center, Tresslercare Wilderness Services, Vermont Global Village Project, American Jewish World Service, Project Adventure and the Boston Natural Areas Network. She helped design the Green Apprenticeship program at Kibbutz Lotan in the southern Arava and is proud to see how it has grown since its inception.

Rabbi Emily Mathis

Rabbi Emily Mathis
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Emily Mathis serves as the Director of Community Development at theTremont Street Shul in Cambridge. Ordained by Hebrew College in 2009, she also served as rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Peabody for seven years. Prior to her work in Jewish settings, Rabbi Mathis directed programming in the fields of environmental education, urban gardening and family literacy. She and her spouse, Hali Diecidue, live in west Newton with their three girls (18, 8, and 2) and their labradoodle.

Rabbi Todd Markley

Rabbi Todd Markley
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Todd Markley serves as one of the senior rabbis of Temple Beth Shalom on Needham. He has a passion for Jewish learning and has helped to reimagine many of Beth Shalom’s learning programs for children and adults. He is a graduate of Hebrew Union College’s School of Jewish Education as well as their rabbinical school.

Jacob Meskin, Ph.D.

Jacob Meskin, PhD
Me’ah

Jacob Meskin is an instructor and faculty adviser at Me’ah, Hebrew College’s signature adult-learning program. He also teaches in the Tzion program and is a co-author of the Parenting Through a Jewish Lens curriculum. Meskin teaches a variety of adult Jewish education classes in Greater Boston and works as a consultant on adult Jewish education and teacher training. He has also taught at Princeton University, Rutgers University, the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University, Williams College and Lehigh University.

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.

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.

Barbara Penzner

Barbara Penzner
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

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.

Jonah Peretz-Lange

Jonah Peretz-Lange
Eser

Nina Piken

Nina Piken
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Nina has been an educator for over three decades.  She began her career with a Bachelor of Music Degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston.  After specializing in arranging and composition, she taught and performed in the Boston area. She returned to college for an MBA from Babson College, where she specialized in systems analysis.  She formed her own consulting firm, designed and installed turnkey systems, developed curriculum and taught computer classes for many local and national companies. Her quest for harmony and balance led her to pursue yoga, meditation and mussar. Nina completed a three year teacher certification program for Jewish Meditation from Chochmat Halev and taught in the Miami area for over a decade.   She was on the board of Directors of The Mussar Institute and involved in developing curriculum for this unique and inspiring Jewish Spiritual practice.  Combining her rich Jewish spiritual heritage with yoga, meditation and mussar is her passion. Teaching from the heart is her path.

Rabbi Marcia Plumb

Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Marcia Plumb is the 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 Nehemia Polen, Ph.D.

View bio

Allison Poirier

Allison Poirier
Rabbinical student, Eser

Allison is a fifth year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, where she is also pursuing a Masters in Jewish Education. Allison graduated from Barnard College and spent two years living and working for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, MS. She is happy to be back home in Boston, and excited to be serving as the Rabbinic Intern at Temple Israel in Sharon. When she is not studying or teaching, Allison loves to be outdoors, and is a super obnoxious Boston sportsfan.

Matt Ponak

Matt Ponak is a rabbinical student at Hebrew College who helps spiritual seekers of all backgrounds follow the call of their soul. As a teacher, Matt uses tools from religion and psychology to help people find and embody their inner truth. As a musician and song-leader, he specializes in leading nigunim: wordless melodies from the Jewish mystical tradition that awaken groups to shared sacred experiences. A practitioner of Qi Gong, Focusing, and Kedumah, Matt weaves Jewish mystical insights with movement and body-centered contemplation to guide people through inner constrictions and into emerging stages of their journey. Matt is currently the rabbinic intern at the Common Street Spiritual Center and Asiyah Jewish Community.

Simon Rabinovitch, PhD.

Simon Rabinovitch, PhD
Me’ah

Simon Rabinovitch teaches modern Jewish, European and Russian history at Boston University, and has served since 2010 as an associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He is a graduate of McGill University and holds masters and doctoral degrees in comparative history from Brandeis University. Rabinovitch’s published work has examined different aspects of Jewish intellectual history, Jewish politics in revolutionary Russia and the history of folklore and ethnography. He is also an occasional contributor to Haaretz (English) and an editor at The Marginalia Review of Books.

Rachel Raz

Rachel Raz joined Hebrew College, Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education in 2006. She serves as the directors of the Early Childhood Institute, The chair of the Annual Jewish Education Conference since its inspection in 2011. Director of the Boston Haifa Early Childhood Educators’ Connection, a program sponsored by Combined Jewish Philanthropy (CJP) and the Haifa Municipality, department of early childhood education. Likewise, Rachel designed and led educational seminars in Israel and Boston for educators and professionals. In 2015 she founded the national Jewish Early Engagement Forum (JEEF), a platform to share the state of the field and strategic action to ensure a stronger foundation for young children and their families. In 2016 she held a national symposium at Hebrew College to advance the field.

Rachel Raz, an Israeli-American, has an extensive experience in the field of education, she is a consultant and a frequent speaker. She has been an active member of IAC (Israeli-American Council) Boston since its inception in 2014 and serve on the advisory committee of KESHET program of the IAC national. In addition, she is a board member of UMass Amherst Hillel; a member of the Boston’s Israel Academic Forum, and for the past 20 years, she and her family have been members of Temple Emunah, a Conservative synagogue in Lexington MA. As a member of the synagogue, Rachel serves on the Israel Committee and focuses on strengthening connection to Israel and bringing together the Israeli-Americans and American-Jews.

Since 2016, she serves as the executive producer of a documentary film about Dr. Jeff Hoffman American Jewish Astronaut and MIT Professor, who in addition to his inspiring professional journey has a fascinating Jewish story including the taking of the first Torah scroll to space in 1996 (spacetorahproject.com). She is the author of the Children books “ABC Israel” (2012) and “The Colors of Israel” (2015). Rachel has a BA from Bar-Ilan University, and MJED (Master of Jewish Education) from Hebrew College.

Recent Articles

• How to Rebalance the Jewish Ecosystem (March 28)
• How to Leverage the Human Capital of a Community (January 18)
• Another Kind of Birthright (Jan 2018)
• From Sinai to Outer Space (May 2018)
• The Multiple Dimensions of Israel (oct 2018)
• Jewish Early Engagement Forum One Year Later: Dayenu? Is it enough? (8/24/2017)
• Ayeka, Where are you? Jeduationworld (3/2017)

Books 

• ABC Israel (2012 Lerner Publishing)
• The Colors of Israel (2015 Kar-Ben Publishing)

Blogs

• Who is Wise? One who learn from all people (Hebrew College Blog)
• 2017 Israel Educational Journey Blog
• 2014 Israel Education Seminar Blog

• Science Fun for the Holidays Blog: http://sciencefunfortheholidays.blogspot.com/p/home.html

Video Recordings

• Torah in Orbit: Jewish Journeys in Space: Jeffery Hoffman with Rachel Raz (Global Day of Jewish Learning, November 11, 2018)
• JEEF Hebrew College Forum Video

Cantor Ken Richmond

Cantor Ken Richmond
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Ken Richmond is a graduate of the H.L. Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary and has served since 2006 as cantor and family educator at Temple Israel in Natick, Mass. He enjoys leading the congregation in participatory prayer and teaching and learning with students of all ages. Richmond and his wife, Rabbi Shira Shazeer, are klezmer musicians and speak Yiddish with their two sons.

Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Rabbi Michelle Robinson
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Michelle Robinson is rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Newton, Mass. She is deeply committed to sharing her love of text study with others and has greatly enjoyed teaching in Hebrew College’s Parenting Through a Jewish Lens program since its inception. She is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and received ordination in 1999 from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.

Emily Rogal

Emily Rogal
Open Circle Jewish Learning 20s & 30s

Emily Rogal is a third year Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School where she focuses her studies on personal and communal healing and the politics of transformation. In addition to serving as the Network Weaver and Relational Coordinator for Temple Israel’s Riverway Project, she is a trained birth and postpartum doula, mikveh guide, and Jewish educator. Emily is invested in cultivating Jewish spaces which center reflection, joy, and justice. She spends the majority of her free time drinking oat milk lattes, hunting down weird midrashim, and finding her perpetually lost water bottle.

Rabbi Or Rose

View bio

Rabbi Micha’el Rosenberg

View bio

Shani Rosenbaum

Shani Rosenbaum
Open Circle Social Justice

Shani Rosenbaum grew up in Worcester, MA and Seattle, WA, and has spent the past several years living, working, and learning in Jerusalem. She has served as Program Coordinator for Encounter and most recently as Program Manager for OLAM, where she produced and hosted the Global Torah podcast. Shani has studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum, Matan, Beit Midrash Har’el, and in the Pardes Kollel. She holds a BA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, and is currently pursuing rabbinic ordination at Hebrew College.

Renee Rudnick

Renee Rudnick
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Renee Rudnick’s passion for education and Jewish education have converged for over 20 years in her various roles in the Jewish education world. As parent, teacher, administrator, consultant, and head of a Jewish day school, she has found tremendous fulfillment working with children, parents, and fellow educators, including her own three grown daughters. Renee holds a BA in Elementary Education from Goucher College and a MA in Near Eastern Judaic Studies from Brandeis University.

Rabbi Benjamin Samuels

Rabbi Benjamin Samuels
Me’ah, Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Benjamin Samuels has served since 1995 as rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Tefillah in Newton, Mass., and is a co-curriculum designer, educational consultant and instructor for the Parenting Through a Jewish Lens program. 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. Samuels is a doctoral candidate in science, philosophy and religion at Boston University. He serves on the faculty of Me’ah and Ma’ayan and is a Genesis scholar at Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

Frankie Sandmel

Frankie Sandmel (they/ them)
Eser, Open Circle Social Action

Sara Sandmel is a second year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, an educator and a community organizer! Before moving to Boston Sandmel worked as Program Director for SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, where they coordinated queer-centered Talmud study. They also have taught at Jewish after-school programs focused on child-driven, pluralistic Jewish learning, and currently teach 6th grade at Dorshei Tzedek. When not teaching, organizing or studying, Sandmel enjoys baking, living communally, and jumping in ponds.

Jonathan D. Sarna

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

View bio

Rabbi Daniel Schaefer, Rab`18

Rabbi Daniel Schaefer is the associate rabbi at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline MA.  He has worked as an entrepreneur and ghostwriter, taught at a wilderness school, and served in AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. He is passionate about Torah study, experiential learning, spiritual exploration, and building multi-generational Jewish community. In his free time, he loves swimming at Walden Pond, hiking in the White Mountains, and cheering on the Boston Celtics.

Rabbi Rachel Dvash Schoenfeld

Rabbi Rachel Dvash Schoenfeld
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Leann Shamash

Leann Shamash
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Leann Shamash has worked for years in the field of Jewish education, in day schools, summer camps and religious school. Most recently, Leann was the director of education at Congregation Beth Elohim in Acton for 15 years. She has created many family education programs including Purim Shpiels (plays) that united adults and children of all ages in Jewish theater experiences, as well as Jewish travel experiences for adults and children across the generations. Leann is currently working at photographing the elderly and is most grateful to be a bubby to a group of wonderful grandchildren.

Julie Seltzer

Julie Seltzer
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Julie Seltzer holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Brown University, and has been working as a scribe and educator since 2009, when she wrote a Torah on display at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Before learning the scribal arts, Julie worked as a baker at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, a Jewish Studies teacher at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, and, for one glorious day, a shepherd on a Kibbutz. She is currently writing her fourth Torah, as well as a memoir chronicling her spiritual journey. Originally from Philadelphia, Julie now resides in the Hudson Valley with her Israeli mutt, Shusha. Her hand is featured on the homepage of Sefaria.org [https://www.sefaria.org/].

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.

Rabbi Phillip Sherman, Rab`13

Rabbi Phillip Sherman, Rab`13
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Philip Sherman has served since 2013 as associate rabbi of Temple Beth Elohim, in Wellesley, Mass. He is a graduate of Indiana University and was ordained in 2013 from the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. He is a proud parent of two young children and looks forward to exploring Judaism and parenting in new and meaningful ways.

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.

Rabbi Rachel Silverman

Rabbi Rachel Silverman
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Rabbi Rachel Silverman joined the Temple Israel community in July 2016. Rabbi Silverman grew up in Easton and graduated from Brandeis University with an undergraduate degree in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS). She received a Masters in Jewish Education from the Davidson School and was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2010. She previously served Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline as their Rabbi for Congregational Learning. In that capacity, she was part of the founding team that built KICKS, an award winning Friday evening prayer experience, and transformed the educational program. Rabbi Silverman lives in Sharon with her husband Josh, their children Anna and Danny, and their yellow lab named Abby

Rabbi Becky Silverstein

Rabbi Becky Silverstein (he, him)
Open Circle Social Justice

Rabbi Becky Silverstein believes in the power of community, Torah, and silliness in transforming the world. He strives to build a Jewish community and world that encourages and allows everyone to express their full selves. Becky currently serves as the Rabbi-in-Residence for Keshet Shabbatonim, and Program Manager / Co-teacher at the Boston Teen Beit Midrash. He is the chair of the boards of The Jewish Studio Project and SVARA: A traditionally radical yeshiva, and sits on the board of Keshet. You can find him speaking and teaching Torah to the world we live in throughout the Greater Boston Area. Becky grew up in New York, holds a B.S. in Engineering from Smith College and Rabbinic Ordination from the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. Becky is a lifelong NY Mets fan, has no problem rooting for the Red Sox (unless they are playing the Mets), and resides in Jamaica Plain, with his spouse, Naomi.

Pete Sperber

Pete Sperber
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Pete Sperber is a licensed independent clinical social worker with a range of experience working with children and adolescents. He is currently the school social worker at the Jewish Community Day School of Greater Boston, where he works with children and families to support them in managing social, emotional and behavioral challenges as they work to be successful in their academic, peer and adult relationships. Prior to earning his Master of Social Work, Sperber taught middle-school and high-school math for eight years at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Mass.

Talia Stein

Talia Stein
Eser

Talia is a fourth year rabbinical student at Hebrew College Rabbinical School, where she is also pursuing a Masters of Jewish Education. She is also working at Temple Beth Shalom in Needham as their Social Justice Rabbinic Intern. Talia grew up in the great city of Philadelphia before moving to Maryland to study economics and public policy at University of Maryland. After school, she moved to Chicago to participate in Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps. In Avodah, Talia worked to organize clergy around workers rights, and in particular, an increase to the Illinois state minimum wage. Before Rabbinical School, Talia was living and working in Seattle where she was enjoying all of the natural beauty in the Pacific Northwest and working at the Hillel at University of Washington. There, she ran Hillel’s social justice and undergraduate programming. When she is not working or in school, you can find her watching or playing almost any sport, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors. Talia is very excited to join the Eser this spring and share meaningful conversations with the community.

Michele Tamaren

Michele Tamaren
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Michele Tamaren is an author, presenter, life coach, spiritual director, and former special educator who speaks widely at national, international, and regional conferences and retreat centers. Positive Psychology and Spirituality enliven her keynotes and courses on healing, happiness, parenting, compassionate care, and self-discovery. Michele’s original program, Journey to Your Jewish Soul, guides individuals to explore their soul’s wisdom, purpose and path. In 2012 she authored the acclaimed spiritual memoir, ExtraOrdinary: An End of Life Story Without End. Michele is a recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s Leonard P. Zakim Humanitarian Award for her work in fostering interfaith harmony. www.micheletamaren.com.

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).

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.

Reb Moshe Waldoks, Ph.D.

Reb Moshe Waldoks, PhD
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Moshe Waldoks is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Mass. He has been active in creating a center for Jewish-Muslim Relations in Boston and has initiated and supported TBZ’s affiliation with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. He is an active member of the Brookline Clergy Association, a storyteller and stand-up comedian. He holds a doctorate in Jewish intellectual history and received “smicha” from Rabbis Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Arthur Green and Everett Gendler.

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.

Alona Weimer

Alona Weimer is currently a JOIN for Justice Fellow organizing Boston-area Jews around Racial Justice. A graduate of Brandeis University with a degree in African & African American Studies and Legal Studies, Alona loves linking her love for Torah & Jewish people with her commitment to intervening in systemic oppression.

Ronit Ziv-Kreger, Ph.D.

Ronit Ziv-Kreger, PhD
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Ronit Ziv-Kreger is principal at Ziv-Kreger & Associates and has been serving as a consultant to innovative initiatives in day schools and congregational schools in Israel and the Boston area since 1998. She is a consultant for CJP’s Innovators Community of Practice initiative to help revitalize and reinvent supplementary education in the Boston area. She is a graduate of the Pardes Educators Program and holds a doctorate from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Heather Zacker

Heather Zacker
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

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.

Eugene Zeleny

Eugene Zeleny
Eser

Eugene Zeleny graduated from Northeastern University with a BA in mechanical engineering and a minor in technological entrepreneurship. He currently works for the MIT Media Lab as a mechanical engineer in its OpenAg Initiative. A freelance woodworker since 2009, he focuses on creating functional art such as furniture, interior decor, humorous novelty items and fashion accessories. As a resident of Boston’s RSJ Moishe House, he hosts one hands-on workshop a month to inspire creativity in his community. He brings a love of crafting and free-form construction in a variety of accessible materials (but mainly wood) to the classroom.

Ilana Zietman

Ilana Zietman
Rabbinical student, Eser

Ilana Zietman is a fifth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, where she is also pursuing a master’s degree in Jewish Education. During her time in rabbinical school, Zietman continues to enjoy teaching, learning and praying with people of various ages and flavors of Jewish identity and practice. She currently serves as the Rabbinic Fellow at Tufts University Hillel. Zietman graduated in 2011 from the Double Degree program between Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is excited to be returning to Eser for her third year.

Rabbi Julie Zupan

Rabbi Julie Zupan
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Julie Zupan is on the staff of Reform Jewish Outreach Boston, working with interfaith couples, families and individuals exploring Judaism. She guides and accompanies couples, individuals and families on their spiritual journeys. She has served previously as a congregational rabbi, an elder-care chaplain and a Jewish family educator. Zupan is a graduate of Tufts University and received ordination in 1999 from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.