Community Learning Faculty

Rachel Adelman, PhD

View bio

President Sharon Cohen Anisfeld

View bio

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 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

David Bernat is a lecturer in Judaic Studies at UMass Amherst, and a veteran and popular member of the Meah faculty. His Ph.D. is in Biblical Interpretation from Brandeis.  Before entering graduate school, Bernat spent 8 years in the NYC wine industry.

Rabbi 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.

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.

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 Ariel Burger

Rabbi Ariel Burger
Open Circle Jewish Learning

ARIEL BURGER is the author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, and the founding director and senior scholar of The Witness Institute, a new project to empower emerging leaders, inspired by the life and legacy of Elie Wiesel. He is an author, teacher, and artist whose work integrates spirituality, the arts, and strategies for social change. An Orthodox-trained rabbi, Ariel received his PhD in Jewish Studies and Conflict Resolution under Elie Wiesel. A lifelong student of Professor Wiesel, Ariel served as his Teaching Fellow from 2003-2008, after which he directed education initiatives at Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston. As a Covenant Foundation grantee, Ariel develops cutting-edge arts and educational programming for adults, facilitates workshops for educators, consults to non-profits, and serves as scholar/artist-in-residence for institutions around the U.S. When Ariel’s not learning or teaching, he is creating music, art, and poetry.

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 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.

Rabbi Getzel Davis, Rab`13

Rabbi Getzel Davis
Open Circle Social Action, 20s & 30s

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 loves teaching Open Circles and Parenting Through a Jewish Lens Classes and is also pursuing a certificate in Family Systems Therapy through Therapy Training Boston.  He 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!

Hayley DeLugach

Hayley DeLugach
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Hayley DeLugach is a Jewish educator, with experience teaching in Jewish day schools, synagogue schools, as well as to adults through both synagogues and the Kevah Program in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a graduate of the Pardes Educators’ Program with a Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Hayley is especially interested in discussing how we can apply the ideas of Jewish tradition to our lives today and strives to help others authentically deepen their connection to Judaism through learning. She lives in Norwich Vermont with her partner Rabbi Mark Melamut, their two children Kinneret and Geffen, and their dog Shoko. In addition to teaching and learning, Hayley enjoys baking, hiking, yoga, and knitting.

Tyler Dratch

Coming soon!

Eric Feld

Eric Feld
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Eric Feld is a father of two young children and a rabbinical student at Hebrew College. Eric is passionate about teaching Jewish perspectives on parenting and healthy communities, as well as raising Jewish children in an interfaith home. Prior to rabbinical school, he was a community sustainability planner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. When not working, Eric enjoys kayaking, performing standup comedy, and spending time outdoors with his family.

Hindy FInnman

Hindy Finman
Open Circle 20s & 30s

Hindy is a rabbinical student at Hebrew College. As the daughter of Chabad Rabbi and Rebbetzin, Hindy was raised to have a strong love for community building and understanding mental health and wellbeing through a Chassidic lens. Being an experiential educator has provided Hindy the opportunity to teach on a wide range of topics and push the boundaries of what is deemed “kosher” talk. She enjoys discussing the questions that we are all thinking about but too afraid to ask. Her lifelong goal continues to be removing shame and normalizing the needs of those struggling with mental illness in faith-based communities. She loves being surrounded by books, writing, making soup, dreaming of owning goats, and swimming in cold lakes.

Rachel Fish, Ph.D.

Rachel Fish, PhD
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Dr. Rachel Fish is the founding Executive Director of the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism. Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, established the foundation to catalyze dynamic new solutions to stop the age-old hatred advanced by those who seek the elimination of Judaism and the Jewish people and the modern movement to destroy the world’s only Jewish State. The foundation focuses on positively impacting attitudes of young people around the world, leveraging social media to deliver educational campaigns and spur action by people of all backgrounds. Fish was most recently Senior Advisor and Resident Scholar of Jewish/Israel Philanthropy at the Paul E. Singer Foundation in New York City. She worked closely with grantees to support them and provided framing around their educational content and programming. She also aided in developing strategy for the Foundation’s Jewish/Israel philanthropy. Fish was also the Executive Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University where she helped train the next generation of academics in the field of Israel Studies. She completed her doctoral degree in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department at Brandeis University. Her dissertation, “Configurations of Bi-nationalism: The Transformation of Bi-nationalism in Palestine/Israel 1920’s-Present,” examines the history of the idea of bi-nationalism and alternative visions for constructing the State of Israel. She has taught at Brandeis University, Harvard University, UMASS Amherst, and in adult Jewish education programs. In 2015 Fish 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 book Essential Israel: Essays for the Twenty-First Century.

Robin Freeman

Robin Freeman
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Robin Freeman is a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in systemically oriented family therapy. She has facilitated parenting groups and groups for adolescents. In addition to her work as a family therapist, Robin spent several years as a teacher of English literature and history. Since moving to the Boston area in 2012, she has enjoyed becoming an active and enthusiastic adult learner, taking advantage of the myriad opportunities for Jewish education and engagement in the Boston area.  She is the mother of three sons who keep her on her toes. Robin holds a BA from Oberlin College and an MSW from NYU.

Rabbi Lev Friedman, Rab`18

Rabbi Lev Friedman
Open Circle Jewish Learning

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.

Elisha Gechter

Elisha Gechter
Open Circle 20s & 30s, 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.

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.

Rabbi Carol Glass

Rabbi Carol Glass
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Carol Glass has been a rabbi and educator for over thirty-five years. Ordained among the first 100 female rabbis worldwide, Carol has served as a Hillel Director, a Pulpit Rabbi, and a Multi-faith Chaplain in both hospice and hospital settings; she also ran an ethics lab for Jewish high school students. Carol was the first Dean of Students for Hebrew College’s Rabbinical School, where she founded Ikvotecha, the School’s Spiritual Direction program and for which she continues to companion students on their spiritual journeys until today. Carol is the Board VP of Yedidya: A Center for Promotion of Spiritual Direction Within the American Jewish Community. Carol has been mentored in social justice work and in Mussar education by Rabbi David Jaffe and she has facilitated Mussar groups in eastern MA for the past 9 years. She holds an MJEd from the Jewish Theological Seminary, an honorary doctorate from HUC-JIR, and certificates in Pastoral Counseling and Level II Reiki Energy Healing. Rabbi Glass has authored chapters in books about Jews and addiction, and she has a chapter in the recent Mussar Torah Commentary, Barry Block, ed. In the past Carol helped establish and staff an overnight shelter for homeless individuals, was active in the movement to free Ethiopian Jews, and has taken Black and Jewish college students to repair a churches destroyed by arsonists in the southern US. Carol is an alumna of the first rabbinic cohort of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and she recently participated in her first 10-day Jewish silent retreat. Carol is replenished by gardening, bird watching, biking, being with family and friends, or by creatively repurposing other people’s discards.

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.”

Rabbi Arthur Green

View bio

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.

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 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.

Rachel Jackson

Rachel Jackson
Open Circle Social Action

Rachel Jackson, owner of Binah Design, is a Modern Orthodox artist, graphic designer, bookbinder, and scribe. She is an ardent feminist and passionate about craft and Judaica. She has a degree in visual art from the University of Chicago and a certificate in bookbinding from the North Bennet Street School in Boston. She lives in Cambridge, MA.

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.

View bio

Rabbi Lila Kagedan

Rabbi Lila Kagedan
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Rabbi Lila Kagedan holds degrees and certificates from Midreshet Lindenbaum, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The University of Toronto, Harvard University, The Medstar Washington Hospital Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a Shalom Hartman Institute Rabbinic Senior Fellow. She is also a Hadassah Brandeis Institute Gender, Culture, Religion and Law Research Associate. Rabbi Kagedan was ordained in 2015, by Yeshivat Maharat and served until recently as the senior rabbi of the Walnut Street Synagogue in Chelsea, MA. She was also the founder of the Sulam School in Brookline, MA. Rabbi Kagedan is a professor of bioethics in the faculty of medicine of New York Medical College and is also an ethicist at Boston Children’s Hospital as well as a clinical ethicist and a chaplain in hospitals and hospice settings nationally and internationally.

Carolyn Keller

Carolyn Keller
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

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.

Rabbi Daniel Klein, Rab'10

View bio

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.

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.

Rabbi Ebn Leader

View bio

Julie Leavitt

Julie Leavitt
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Julie Leavitt is a body-oriented spiritual director, psychotherapist, and modern dancer. She is on the faculty of the Expressive Therapies Graduate School at Lesley University and is a Spiritual Director at Hebrew College. Her theology is based in the Creative Process.

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 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

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.

Ayelet Lipton

Ayelet Lipton
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Ayelet Lipton is the Hebrew and Spanish Languages Department chair at The Rashi School in Dedham, MA. She has been a classroom teacher of Modern Hebrew, Tanakh, and T’fillah for 9 years, and has a broad range of experience in teaching multiple aspects of Jewish and Israeli culture, for children and adults alike. Ayelet has an MA in Teaching Hebrew from Brandeis University, and has served as a mentor for teachers pursuing graduate degrees in teaching Hebrew as a second language at Middlebury College. For over four years, Ayelet has been an instructor with Pedagogy of Partnership (Hadar, NYC), helping to lead workshops on pedagogy for teachers and administrators. As a parent, Ayelet particularly enjoys applying her passion for Jewish Education to parenting topics. In addition to this specialized teaching experience, Ayelet has also completed a two-year program in Educating for a Jewish Spiritual Life at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (Chicago), and is one of the organizers of the Jews of Color of Greater Boston, an organization that seeks to foster a safe space for Jews of Color in the Greater Boston area.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Jackson Mercer

Jackson Mercer
Open Circle Jewish Learning

Jackson is an Ordination Candidate at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Newton, MA. He grew up at Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael, CA, where he cultivated a love of Judaism, emboldened with music, spirituality and justice. He served as Rosh Shira/Rosh Tefillah at URJ Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, CA, for several years. Recently he was the Musical Director at Asiyah Jewish Community in Boston and is the “Head Shadchan” at Unorthodox Celebrations.

His two newest adventures: intentional Judaica called Hiddur Mitzvah, partnering with Binah Designs to create innovative, tangible aspects of ritual; and beginning work on an album of original Jewish music, set for release in Fall 2020.

Jacob Meskin, Ph.D.

Jacob Meskin, PhD
Me’ah, Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Dr. Jacob Meskin is currently Academic Advisor and Senior Lecturer in the Me’ah Program at Hebrew College. He teaches in, and has taught for the Me’ah and Me’ah Select programs, the Tzion program, and for various synagogue and professional groups in the Boston area. In addition to having served for many years as teacher trainer for the Me’ah Program, he is co-author of the curriculum for Parenting Through A Jewish Lens, and works as a consultant on adult Jewish education and teacher training in the Boston area. Meskin was the inaugural holder of the Ruderman Chair in Jewish Studies at Northeastern University, and has taught at Princeton University, Rutgers University, the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University, Williams College, and Lehigh University. His articles have appeared in Modern Judaism, The Journal of Religion, Soundings, Levinas Studies, Judaism, Cross Currents, Educational Philosophy and Theory, and in several edited volumes. Despite being a transplant from New York City, Meskin has become an avid Boston sports fan. His hobbies include chess (which he thinks he’s good at), Go (which he wishes he were good at), nineteenth century English novels, old movies, and Indian vegetarian food. He lives with his wife and daughter in Brookline.

Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison

Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison
Me’ah

Jeremy S. Morrison has served since 2001 as rabbi at Temple Israel of Boston. In addition to his pulpit responsibilities, he currently directs Temple Israel’s education programs. Morrison is the founder of the Riverway Project, a nationally recognized synagogue-based outreach and engagement initiative for adults in their 20s and 30s. He was ordained from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and is currently a doctoral student at Brandeis University.

Paul E. Nahme, Ph.D.

Paul E. Nahme, PhD
Me’ah

Paul Nahme is the Dorot Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and assistant professor of religious studies at Brown University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and has studied rabbinic literature and Jewish law at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Nahme’s research interests focus on modern Jewish philosophy and rabbinic thought, intellectual history, ethics, hermeneutics and the philosophy of law. His current book project examines the philosophy of Hermann Cohen in the context of late-19th-century Wilhelmine Germany and interrogates Cohen’s response to the philosophical problem of secularity for German-Jews living in a Protestant state.

Ruth Nemzoff

Ruth Nemzoff
Parenting Through a Jewish Lens

Dr. Ruth Nemzoff is the author of Don’t Roll Your Eyes: Making In-Laws Into Family (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2012) and Don’t Bite Your Tongue: How to Foster Rewarding Relationships With Your Adult Children (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2008) and a frequent speaker on family dynamics. She is a resident scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center.Currently, Dr. Nemzoff serves on the board of Interfaith Family and is the advice columnist for the American Israelite. She and her husband have four adult children, four in-law children and eleven grandchildren

Barbara Penzner

Barbara Penzner
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.

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

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.

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 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.

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

Yehudit Schimmel

Yehudit Schimmel
Ulpan

Yehudit has taught at Hebrew College Ulpan for 15 years and loves teaching Hebrew. She taught at Hebrew College Prozdor  prior to teaching at Ulpan. She loves her students, the classroom, and the beauty and depth of Hebrew language and literature and the vitality and richness of Israeli culture. She looks forward to sharing that love with her students and to learning with them and from them. Yehudit studied music at Rubin Academy and at Wayne State University.

Rabbi Jordan Schuster

View bio

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.