Community Education Faculty
President Sharon Cohen Anisfeld Me'ah, Open Circle Jewish Learning
Margie Bogdanow Open Circle Jewish Learning (Grandparenting)
Dr. Yuval Evri Me'ah
Rabbi Dan Judson, Ph.D. Me’ah
Stav Meishar Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Or Rose Me'ah, Open Circle Jewish Learning
Solomon Schimmel Me’ah
Rabbi Jordan Schuster Me'ah
Rav Rachel Adelman
Rav Rachel Adelman
Associate Professor of Bible
Hebrew College
Me’ah
Rav Rachel Adelman, who joined the full-time faculty in 2012, provides a dynamic, open approach to text study, drawing on a wide range of sources, from Tanakh and classical midrash to modern Israeli poetry. She holds a M.A. in Jewish Studies from Matan/Baltimore Hebrew University and a Ph.D. in Hebrew literature, with a specialty in midrash, from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and rabbinical ordination from Hebrew College.
Her first book, The Return of the Repressed: Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer and the Pseudepigrapha, is based on her doctoral dissertation, and she began her second, The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible, under the auspices of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program (WSRP) at Harvard. She is currently working on a new book, Daughters in Danger from the Hebrew Bible to Modern Midrash (forthcoming, Sheffield Phoenix Press). When she is not writing books, papers, or divrei Torah, it is poetry that flows from her pen.
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, and has done much of his learning and teaching in pluralistic environments such as Pardes and Beit Midrash Elul in Jerusalem and Hebrew College. 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, and now teaches in the Religion Department at Tufts University.
He earned his PhD in Jewish Thought from Ben-Gurion University and has orthodox rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes and Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg of Jerusalem. He currently lives in Sharon, MA, with his wife Ariella, four children, a dog, a cat, and ten chickens.
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.
Alan Avery-Peck
Alan Avery-Peck
Meah
Alan Avery-Peck is Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, where he teaches a wide range of courses in Jewish history, religion, and culture. He specializes in Judaism in the first six centuries C.E., with particular attention to the literature of Rabbinic Judaism. Alongside involvement in accessible works such as The Encyclopaedia of Judaism (Brill, 2005) and The Blackwell Companion to Judaism (2000), he is a co-author of A Comparative Handbook to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke: Comparisons with Pseudepigraph, the Qumran Scrolls, and Rabbinic Literature (Brill, 2021) and is co-editor-in-chief of The Encyclopedia of Religious and Philosophical Writings in Late Antiquity (Brill, 2007). His commentary on 2 Corinthians appears in The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford, 2011), and he is a member of the translation team of Readings from the Roots: A New Historically Sensitive Translation of the Revised Common Lectionary (https://readingsfromtheroots.bard.edu). Alan taught some of the first Meah classes in MetroWest, some twenty-five years ago, and he very much looks forward the excitement of learning with adults this year.
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.
Margie Bogdanow
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. She and her husband Michael now live in Needham to be close to grandchildren.
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.
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.”
Dr. Yuval Evri
Dr. Yuval Evri
Me’ah
Yuval Evri is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish Studies at Brandeis University. His research focuses on the cultural and political history of Palestine/ Land of Israel focusing on Sephardi and Arab-Jewish thought. Yuval Evri was a EUME postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Berlin (2013-2014); a postdoctoral fellow at SOAS – University of London (2016-2018) Visiting Scholar at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at University of Pennsylvania and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at King’s College London (2018-2021).
Selected Publications
Yuval Evri has authored various articles on issues relating to modern Arab-Jewish culture and thought. His recent book titled: The Return to Al-Andalus: Disputes Over Sephardic Culture and Identity Between Arabic and Hebrew traces multilingual translational and cultural models that emerged in the beginning of 20th century Palestine/Land of Israel and explores how the fluidity inherent in these cultural models becomes a source of resistance to the dominant monolingual forces, and to any exclusive claims of ownership of land, texts, traditions, or languages.
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
RABBI NEAL GOLD teaches and writes about Jewish texts, Israel, and the intersections between Jewish spiritual life and the contemporary world. In 2020, he created a rapidly expanding online platform for adult Jewish learning called “A Tree with Roots.” He is adjunct faculty Hebrew College in Newton, MA, and in 2023 became the spiritual leader of Am HaYam—Cape Cod Havurah.
Neal is the Immediate Past President of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis. In 2021, he became an inaugural JJGI [J.J. Greenberg Institute for Advancement of Jewish Life] Fellow at Hadar Institute in New York.
Neal received smicha (rabbinic ordination) from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he also received a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa degree in 2022. In 2018 he earned a second Master’s Degree in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. He is the author of many academic and popular writings about Judaism and Israel, and he is the editor of Radiance: The Collected Prose and Poetry of Danny Siegel, published by the Jewish Publication Society in 2020.
For over 18 years, Neal served congregations in New Jersey and Massachusetts. He was the Jewish Chaplain and Hillel Director for the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life at Babson College. He also served as the Director of Content & Programming for ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America, and was a delegate at the 37th World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem. He serves on the boards of a variety of Jewish, interfaith, and social justice organizations. His writing and blogging on issues of Jewish interest, and his teaching schedule both online and in person, can be found at www.ATreeWithRoots.org.
Neal lives in Massachusetts with his wife Heidi Gold and their children Avi and Jeremy. He enjoys fishing, writing, Talmud, playing bass guitar, yoga, and highly amplified music.
Jonathan Golden
Dr. Jonathan Golden
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Dr. Jonathan Golden is Director of Wellspring Initiatives at Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Previously he served as the Israel Curriculum Coordinator and a history teacher at Gann Academy, a pluralistic Jewish high school in Waltham, MA. During his career at Gann, he taught AP American History, chaired the History Department, served as Assistant Head of School and Director of Academic Operations, and mentored numerous teachers and department chair. He teaches adult education courses on contemporary Israel at synagogues and homes in the Greater Boston area and is a member of CJP’s Boston-Haifa Shared Society Task Force and a Community Representative of JCRC Boston.
A graduate of Princeton University, Jonathan 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.
Jonathan has participated in the Schusterman Center Summer Institute for Israel Studies which in 2022 included participants from Abraham Accords countries (Morocco, Bahrain, UAE), and has taught the Myra Kraft Seminar on Israel to first year students of the Hornstein program at Brandeis University.
As a member of a Conservative synagogue in his childhood, a Reform community in college, modern Orthodox synagogues in his 20s and the independent Temple Beth Zion today, Jonathan is interested in historical and contemporary questions of Jewish pluralism. His professional career in the world of Jewish pluralism is a natural extension of his educational path.
In 2007, Jonathan was the recipient of Hebrew College’s Sydney Hillson Memorial Award for Distinguished Leadership in and Commitment to Jewish Education. In 2014, he received the AJC Boston Young Leadership Award. In 2018, he was given CJP’s Chai in the Hub award honoring the contributions of young professionals and lay leaders in the greater Boston Jewish community.
Jonathan lives in Brookline, MA with his wife and son, and serves as a Brookline Town Meeting member.
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.
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
Dr. Rabbi Leonard Gordon is the chair of the National Synagogue Council (NCS) and a frequent teacher in MEAH since 2017. The NCS organizes interfaith dialogues between the American Jewish community and the Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Muslim communities. He served as rabbi at congregation B’nai Tikvah in Canton, MA through June, 2023. Fascinated by the unique Jewish experience in Sepharad, he currently leads trips to Spain and Morocco for interfaith and Jewish heritage groups, including a planned MEAH trip to Spain in May, 2024.
Gordon received rabbinic ordination and an MA from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He also holds 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 in Interfaith Studies at the Andover Newton Theological School.
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 (she/her) is a rabbinical student at Hebrew College in Newton, where she is editor (and occasional writer) for the 70 Faces of Torah blog. Naomi has studied at Hadar, Drisha, and Aleph Jewish Renewal and currently serves as Rabbinic Intern for Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott, MA; Temple Ahavat Achim in Gloucester, MA; and Temple Reyim in Newton, MA.
In addition to her congregational work, Naomi is a sought-after educator, with several successful courses to her credit through Open Circle Jewish Learning, Temple Israel of Boston, Brookline Community Tikkun Leyl Shavuot, and Temple Shalom of Newton, among others. She cultivates a lively classroom with plenty of space for questioning, discovery, and connection. She has been known to move her classroom outdoors for Pop-up Mishnah Study. Also, a performer, Naomi appears frequently with the Zamir Chorale of Boston and participates in local Sermon Slams.
In her free time, she reads, writes divrei Torah on her blog Jewish Themes, solves crossword puzzles (in pencil!), and bakes a legendary challah. Naomi lives in the Boston area with her spouse and their two sons.
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. He is Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Eric is currently Director of Chaverim & Engagement for The Mussar Institute. He has served congregations in New York City; Jackson, Mississippi; Teaneck, New Jersey; in Newton and Ashland, Massachusetts.
Eric has trained with The Mussar Institute and is a certified Mussar Va’ad leader. Eric is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Hartman Institute, and has served as Adjunct Faculty at the Hebrew College Rabbinic School. He is on the Faculty for Open Circle Jewish Learning.
Eric and his wife, Laura Kizner Gurvis have four children and three grandsons and one granddaughter, 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.
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 Boston-based theatre artist, musician and educator, originally from Winnipeg, Canada. A graduate of the University of Manitoba (Bachelor of Music, Vocal Performance) and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee (M.F.A. Theatre), Elliot has performed in over 100 cities across the United States and Canada. He was most recently seen touring in the Bartlett Sher-helmed revival of Fiddler on the Roof as Motel the tailor. For more information, visit www.elliotlazar.com or follow @ElliotLazar on Instagram.
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.
Layah Lipsker
Layah Lipsker
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.
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 the author of The Pearl and the Flame: A Journey into Jewish Wisdom and Ecological Thinking. He was ordained in Jerusalem in 1990 and earned a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, 2001. He has taught at Bard College, RRC, and Hebrew College Rabbinical School.
Natan is currently Interim Dean of Faculty and chair of the Rabbinic texts Department at the Aleph Ordination Program. He is also Director of AOP’s Earth-Based Judaism program and founder of the non-profit Organic Torah. He lives in Newton, MA with his wife, two sons and dog.
Rabbi Cantor Michael McCloskey
Rabbi-Cantor Michael McCloskey of Temple Emeth, Chestnut Hill, MA, a graduate of Hebrew College’s Cantor-Educator program, is an engaging educator, poet, musician, and teacher of text. The President of the New England Cantors Assembly and a member of the Conservative/Masorti movement’s Committee for Jewish Laws and Standards, he also has taught courses at The Brookline Tikkun Leil Shavuot, Toronto Jewish Music Week, at Hebrew College, where he is a cantorial coach, and through the Cantors Assembly online learning.
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.
Stav Meishar
Stav Meishar
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Stav Meishar (she/they) is an award-winning performance maker, interdisciplinary stage artist, researcher and educator. As a dedicated historic researcher, writer and lecturer, Stav’s research spans their many interests — intersecting Jewish history, circus history and/or queer history. Stav has taught courses and presented her talks at many academic conferences, festivals and public events throughout the world, including The Leo Baeck Institute (NY), Paideia The European Institute for Jewish Studies (Sweden), Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture (Canada), and many more. Stav’s work has been published in books, academic journals and magazines in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and soon-to-be French.Stav received her MA in Contemporary Circus Practices from the Stockholm University of the Arts. They hold a BFA in Musical Theatre from The New School in New York with a double minor in Gender Studies and Jewish Culture.
Jacob Meskin, Ph.D.
Jacob Meskin, PhD
Me’ah
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.
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 Rachel Putterman
Rabbi Rachel Putterman `’20
Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Rachel Putterman was ordained by Hebrew College’s Rabbinical School in 2020. She is currently the Director of Hillel and Associate Chaplain at Trinity College. Previously, she served the following communities: Temple Emanu-el in Haverhill; Bowdoin College Hillel; Beth Israel Congregation in Bath, Maine; and Boston College Hillel. Rabbi Rachel has also participated in chaplaincy training at McLean Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In her prior career as a public interest attorney, Rabbi Rachel represented veterans, tenants, and domestic violence survivors in civil matters.
Rabbi Or Rose
Rabbi Or Rose
Director, Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership
Me’ah, Open Circle Jewish Learning
Rabbi Or Rose is the founding director of the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Before assuming this position in 2016, he worked in various administrative and teaching capacities at Hebrew College for over a decade, including serving as a founding faculty member and associate dean for Informal Education of the Rabbinical School. Rabbi Rose was also one of the creators of CIRCLE, The Center for Interreligious & Community Leadership Education, cosponsored by Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School (2007-2017) and has taught for Hebrew College’s Me’ah Classic program.
In addition to his work at Hebrew College, Rose has taught for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships, The Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and in a variety of other academic, religious, and civic contexts throughout North America, and in Asia, Europe, and Israel. A prolific author and editor, his writings have appeared in Beliefnet; The Forward; The Huffington Post; Interfaith America; The Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Patheos; MyJewishLearning; Religion News Service; The Times of Israel; Tikkun; Sh’ma; The Washington Post; as well as various scholarly publications. Rose is the Senior Publisher of The Journal of Interreligious Studies, as well as co-editor of Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid’s Table, and the award-winning anthology, My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation. His most recent publication is the co-edited volume, Rabbi Zalman Schachter: Essential Teachings. Rose is currently working on two new anthologies: a contemporary multifaith commentary on the Psalms, tentatively entitled The Book of Psalms: Here & Now (Paraclete Press, 2023) and With the Best of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps & Unexpected Learnings (Orbis 2023).
Rabbi Sonia Saltzman ’08
Rabbi Sonia Saltzman ’08
Open Circle Jewish Learning
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 J. 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 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.
Dr. David Sanders
Dr. David Sanders is the Founder and Spiritual Director of Kabbalah Experience in Denver, CO. Through study and practice, his students regularly change their perceptions and awareness leading to positive change in their relationships and life purpose. David studied Talmud in Israel and later in the U.S with Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, and Kabbalah since 1980 with academic scholars and Hasidic masters. David is a clinical psychologist and has been a therapist for close to 40 years.
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 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.
Natasha Shabat
Natasha Shabat is an independent scholar who learned Hebrew as an adult and has been teaching Biblical and Modern Hebrew full- time to adults since 1997, in congregations, community centers, and private homes. Her students — whom she teaches in groups, individually, and by video and telephone — include rabbis and rabbinical students, cantors, lay leaders, Me’ah graduates, Hebrew-school teachers, Hebrew-school dropouts, and Jews-by-choice. Among her students are doctors, lawyers, professors, business leaders, homemakers, grandmothers, great-grandfathers, West Point graduates, and Christian clergy. Natasha is a graduate of Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
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).
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
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
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 a 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.