2012 Scholar in Residence

Chief Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau is an international dignitary,
gifted orator, Holocaust survivor and inspiration. Born in Poland in 1937, young
Lau was victim to the brutalities of the Nazis during WWII.
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Our Faculty

The National Jewish Retreat faculty is an unparalleled assembly of some of the
world's most sought-after Jewish thinkers, theologians, academics, and
educators.
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Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau
Tel Aviv, Israel
Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau
Tel Aviv, Israel
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau served as Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi from 1993–2003. His son, Rabbi David, is the current holder of this esteemed position. Rabbi Lau is currently Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, the position he had previously served from 1985 until 1993.
Rabbi Lau, a child-survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is Chairman of the Yad Vashem Museum. He immigrated to Israel with the only other surviving member of his family, his brother Naphtali, in July 1945.
In addition to several scholarly works, he authored a best-selling memoir about his experiences in the Holocaust entitled, Do Not Raise Your Hand against the Boy.
In 2005, Lau was awarded the esteemed Israel Prize for his lifetime achievements and special contribution to society and the State of Israel. In 2011, he was awarded the Legion of Honor (France’s highest accolade) by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in recognition of his efforts to promote interfaith dialogue.
Dennis Prager
New York, NY
Dennis Prager
New York, NY
Dennis Prager is one of America's most respected moralists and radio talk show hosts. He has been broadcasting on radio in Los Angeles since 1982. Widely sought after by television shows for his opinions, he's appeared on Larry King Live, Hardball, Hannity & Colmes, CBS Evening News, The Today Show and many others.Mr. Prager was a Fellow at Columbia University's School of International Affairs, and has taught Russian and Jewish history at Brooklyn College. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Delegation to the Vienna Review Conference on the Helsinki Accords. He holds an honorary doctorate of laws from Pepperdine University. Since 1992, he has been teaching the Bible verse-by-verse at the University of Judaism.
Rabbi Berel Bell
Montreal, Canada
Rabbi Berel Bell
Montreal, Canada
After graduating from Yale University, Rabbi Bell earned a degree in Jewish law from Rabbinical College Tomchei Tmimim. Rabbi Bell is a justice (Dayan) at the Rabbinical Court of Montreal, and a prominent authority on Jewish law. He is the founding dean of the Bais Chaya Mushka Seminary; creator of Rambam-on-the-Line; a contributing editor and columnist for the weekly L’Chaim publication; and a sought after educational consultant. Rabbi Bell is the author of the Jewish Learning Institute’s noted course, From Sinai to Cyberspace; and serves as the Director of Teacher Training and e-learning for JLI’s 350 worldwide affiliates.
Sara Blau
Brooklyn, NY
Sara Blau
Brooklyn, NY
Sara Blau is a mother of four beautiful children and the Extra -Curricular Director in Beth Rivkah High School.
She is an author of twenty children’s books and a popular blogger on thejewishwoman.org.
She lives in Crown Heights but is often traveling to lecture and run art demonstrations to varied audiences.
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz is a Senior Lecturer at Yeshivas Ohr Somayach and Rabbi of Kehillat Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem. Until his family’s aliyah in April 2010, he was the Rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue in Silver Spring, Maryland and Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Law School (specializing in contracts, bankruptcy commercial law, and bioethics). He received his rabbinic ordination from the Ner Israel Rabbinical College; his BA from the Johns Hopkins University: and a JD from Harvard Law School (Magna Cum Laude). He has written and lectured extensively both in the US and Israel on the interface of halacha and contemporary society with a special interest and expertise in medical, family, business, and legal ethics. His articles cover topics such as stem cell research, cloning, organ donation, the plight of the agunah (a woman unable to obtain a religious divorce), Jewish perspectives on war, and gun control.
Sara Bluming
Potomac, MD
Sara Bluming
Potomac, MD
Mrs. Sara Bluming serves as the Rebbetzin of the Chabad Shul of Potomac, Maryland and is a dynamic leader. Tasked with counseling and teaching the community, on how to live a devout life led by G-d.
Sara Briman
Acapulco, Mexico
Sara Briman
Acapulco, Mexico
Sara Briman is a world renowned chef who has gained outstanding recognition in her profession. Sara is a native of Mexico City where she resides with her Husband and son.
For the past 20 years, she has been involved in various aspects of catering and teaching. Sara`s specialty has always been heimish / traditional Jewish food and she has built a reputation for excellence among her many admirers. Every year, Sara single-handedly bakes over 300 challahs before Rosh Hashana in her own kitchen, for her many private customers who wish to add some home made flavor to their Yom Tov tables.
In 2013, Sara was recognized with the Five Star Diamond Award for “THE BEST CHALLAH IN THE WORLD” a very prestigious award given by The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, only to world class chefs, hotels, and restaurants. She has been asked to represent the Academy, to award the newest upcoming chefs.
Sara attributes the success of her challah to the spiritual component in her baking. Since receiving this award, Sara has been traveling around the world to share the secret behind her winning challah.
Jewish communities big and small, have invited her to demonstrate her Challah baking techniques and to hear her words of wisdom. From a European tour to a South American one with stops in various cities in the United States, she was most recently a guest in Bloomingdale's kitchen in Miami, Florida hosted by the Hadassah organization.
Holly Cohen
Holly Cohen
Holly Cohen is the executive director of the Kohelet Foundation, a private foundation that works to transform the field of Jewish day school education in the Philadelphia region and nationally. In this role, Holly's has guided the foundation's focus to address issues such as building a community of collaboration, day school affordability, transformation to blended learning, transparent business models and incentivizing parents to choose day school. Prior to her work at the Kohelet Foundation, Holly practiced law for 16 years and volunteered for numerous organizations in the Philadelphia Jewish community. Passionate about Jewish education and children, she served as a board member of OROT, The Friendship Circle and Torah Academy of Greater Philadelphia and has provided legal counsel to these organizations.
Holly is native Philadelphian, an alumna of Solomon Schechter Hebrew Day School and Akiba Hebrew Academy. She received her B.A. at New York University and J.D. at Temple University School of Law. Holly resides in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, with her husband and their family.
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik
Istanbul, Turkey
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik
Istanbul, Turkey
Rabbi Mendy Chitrik is the rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Istanbul, a small and ancient community which existed for several hundred years and even predates the much larger and famous Sefardi community (which settled in Istanbul mostly after the expulsion from Spain). Rabbi Chitrik grew up in Tsfat, Israel, and was educated in the Chabad yeshiva system. While studying in the Colel Tzemach Tzedek in the Old City of Yerushalayim he received his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Zalman Nechemya Goldberg, Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, and from his grandfather Rabbi David Moshe Lieberman, Chief Rabbi of Antwerp. He also serves as a member of the Standing Committee of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER). For the past 16 years, Rabbi Chitrik and his wife Chaya have been involved in strengthening Jewish life and Jewish learning in Istanbul through shiurim; Shabbatons; large scale Jewish holiday events; one-on-one counseling; a daily minyan in the local school for Jews; and in general they have brought a new enthusiasm for halachic practice to Istanbul. Rabbi Chitrik, who is fluent in 5 languages and has published several books in Turkish on Jewish life, is probably the last rabbi in the world to deliver a weekly Torah Lesson in Ladino and in the midst of publishing a book on the Turkish-Sefardic Minhagim. As part of his responsibilities in the Jewish community of Turkey, he works closely with the rest of the Rabbis in Istanbul and is in charge of the KTR - Turkey Chief Rabbinate’s Kashrus for export organization. His involvement in the KTR has brought new confidence and strengthened the assurance of the level of kashrus provided by the KTR. Rabbi Chitrik also serves as a field representative for the OU and other major kashrus organizations and is also a shochet and a mohel. Rabbi Chitrik and his wife Chaya and their seven children have an open house in Istanbul, where travelers from all over the world share Shabbos and holiday meals.
Robert Cait
Los Angeles, CA
Robert Cait
Los Angeles, CA
Robert Cait’s brilliant Jewish stand-up comedy has earned him the prestigious title: “George Carlin with a kippah.” With one wonderful exception: Robert works “Kosher-Clean!”
His hilarious stand-up has kept audiences rolling from “The Just For Laughs Comedy Festival” in Montreal to the “Howard Stern Show” in New York, as well as in theaters from coast to coast.
From the unaffordable, high cost of Jewish education, to what makes Israelis tick to bizarre holiday foods, Robert connects with Jewish audiences at their deepest and most hysterical levels!
His act is sprinkled with Hebrew and Yiddish (he’s fluent in both!), making him one of the most unique and sought after Jewish comedians performing today.
Robert has been lauded by critics for his comedy on MTV, A&E and Comedy Central and has been in several films honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. From the Oscar® winning Best Feature Documentary "A Long Way Home" to the DreamWorks Oscar® nominated Best Animated feature "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron", he has impressed producers with his wide interpretive range.
Dr. George Dean
Detroit, MI
Dr. George Dean
Detroit, MI
Dr. George and Vivian Dean have been collecting chess sets together. They purchased their first chess set in the Middle East and thereafter acquired a set in each country they visited. As they studied chess history, they expanded their collection more systematically. Now they travel to new countries for the sole purpose of acquiring new sets to make their collection more complete. Their collection includes over 1,000 chess sets and related objects from over 100 countries.
Shelly Dembe
Columbus, OH
Shelly Dembe
Columbus, OH
Author and teacher Shelly Dembe inspires others toward optimum physical, emotional and spiritual health through a halachic lens. Her book, Wrestling with Yoga: Journey of a Jewish Soul, helps other Jews navigate the often dangerous realm of yoga, while maintaining a physical practice that is safe for the Jewish soul. With over 30 years of life and professional experience as a Registered Nurse and health coach, Dembe inspires and entertains with her honest story of a journey out of ashrams and into observant life.
Shelly travels worldwide to Jewish communities as the founder and facilitator of Soulstir, a form of movement that awakens the soul. Based on the Sefirot, this dance form welcomes all women into the circle of dance, creating community, joy and well-being. Shelly lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband, 4 children, and 4 grandchildren.
Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie
Yorba Linda, CA
Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie
Yorba Linda, CA
Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Meir HaCohen/Chabad in Yorba Linda, California and is active in local and national Jewish affairs. He is the president of the Rabbinical Council of Orange County and Long Beach and a member of the advisory committee of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. His achievements also include the leading of international and national efforts in disaster relief; he also partnered with JFNA in rebuilding efforts in New Orleans, Florida, Houston, and NY in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Rabbi Eliezrie is frequently interviewed on radio talk shows and has authored op-ed and opinion articles in several newspapers and other media outlets. He is the author of the bestselling book ‘The Secret of Chabad: Inside the World’s Most Successful Jewish Movement’
Chavi Epstein
Columbia, SC
Chavi Epstein
Columbia, SC
Co-director, Chabad Lubavitch of South Carolina; Lecturer
and Musician; Founder, Niggun Workshop Seminar
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is a teacher, philosopher, social critic and prolific author who has been hailed by Time magazine as a "once-in-a-millennium scholar."
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz is the founder of Shefa and The Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications. In 2012 he completed his monumental, 45 volume translation of the Talmud into Modern Hebrew. Adin Steinsaltz was awarded the Israel Prize, the country’s highest honor, for his educational achievements in opening Talmud study to the masses and was among the first recipients of the Israeli Presidential Award of Distinction, for his contribution to Israeli society and its standing in the world. In 2012, Rabbi Steinsaltz received a National Jewish Book Award for the English Koren Talmud Bavli from the Jewish Book Council (USA). He was also the recipient of the French Order of Arts and Literature.
Continuing his work as a teacher and spiritual mentor, Rabbi Steinsaltz established a network of schools and educational institutions in Israel and the former Soviet Union. He has served as scholar in residence at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies in Washington, D.C. and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University. His honorary degrees include doctorates from Yeshiva University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Bar Ilan University, Florida International University and Brandeis University
Kenneth Feinberg
Washington, D.C.
Kenneth Feinberg
Washington, D.C.
Kenneth R. Feinberg has been key to resolving many of our nation’s most challenging and widely known disputes. He is best known for serving as the Special Master of the Federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, in which he reached out to all who qualified to file a claim, evaluated applications, determined appropriate compensation, and disseminated awards. Mr. Feinberg shared his extraordinary experience in his book What Is Life Worth?, published in 2005 by Public Affairs Press, and in his follow-up book Who Gets What, published by Public Affairs Press in 2012.
Mr. Feinberg has been appointed to two presidential-level commissions because of his experience and expertise, and has had a distinguished teaching career as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Columbia University Law School, New York University Law School, and the University of Virginia Law School.
Kenneth Feinberg is a deeply and passionately committed Jew, at the forefront of Jewish causes and activities.
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik is a leading Jewish thinker, theologian, and public intellectual. Rabbi Dr. Soloveichik currently serves as the Director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. He is the Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, a Sephardic Synagogue, and the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Before joining Shearith Israel, Rabbi Soloveichik served as Associate Rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York City. He is the grandson of the late Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, obm and the great nephew of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik obm.
Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured throughout the United States, in Europe and in Israel to both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on topics relating to Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics, and Jewish-Christian relations. He obtained his Rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University in Religion.
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
New York, NY
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
New York, NY
Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, one of the foremost leaders in Jewish life in North America and worldwide, is executive vice-president emeritus of the Orthodox Union. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Weinreb received his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva. He has an MA in psychology from the New School for Social Research and received his PhD from the University of Maryland.
Charlie Harary
Charlie Harary
Mr. Charlie Harary is an Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at the Syms School of Business in Yeshiva University. He is also a Senior Lecturer for the Orthodox Union and NCSY. He has created dozens of educational videos that have received worldwide attention reaching hundreds of thousands of people in over 15 countries.
Charlie co-founded H3 & Company, a multimillion dollar venture capital and advisory firm. Previously, he was the First Vice President and legal counsel at RXR Realty, a billion dollar real estate firm in New York. Prior to that, Charlie worked as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Davis Polk & Wardwell. Charlie received his law degree from Columbia University where he was awarded the James Kent Scholar and the Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
Mr. Harary is an active community leader. He is the founder and president of Milvado Inc., an organization that develops innovative methods to teach spirituality in relevant and modern ways. He is a member of the Executive Board of the OU as well as the Founding Chairman of its Young Leadership Cabinet. He is also a member of the Conference of Young Jewish Presidents.
Lynda Fishman
Toronto, Canada
Lynda Fishman
Toronto, Canada
In 1970, when she was just 13-years-old, Lynda Fishman’s life was altered forever. An Air Canada plane traveling from Montreal to Los Angeles crashed in Toronto, Ontario – everyone died including Fishman’s mother and two younger sisters. The loss, of course, was devastating. Her father fell into a deep depression and she was essentially left to fend for herself.
Fishman recounts this terrible time - and the four decades since - in her moving book Repairing Rainbows: A True Story of Family, Tragedy and Choices
A powerful speaker, Fishman tells her story and talks about her eight key strategies for people who want to CHOOSE LIFE over sadness, bitterness or feeling defeated – for people who want to choose to bounce back when life has knocked them down – for people who want to choose happiness and success. She emphasizes how you have to find a way to move forward, with all situations, and to love and have faith in G-d, and to truly believe that G-d is there for us no matter what we are faced with in life.
Rabbi Ruvi New
Boca Raton, FL
Rabbi Ruvi New
Boca Raton, FL
Australian born Rabbi Ruvi New is the Director of Boca Beach Chabad in Boca Raton Florida. His weekly lectures and articles on contemporary Jewish thought are broadcast to thousands each week. A singer/ songwriter, he recently released his first studio album "Storm the World" , dedicated to the life and teachings of the Rebbe.
Rabbi Shmuel Feld
Silver Spring, MD
Rabbi Shmuel Feld
Silver Spring, MD
Rabbi Shmuel Feld proudly serves as the founding director of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge. He was a principal and classroom educator in several Jewish Day Schools before joining JEIC in 2012.
Rabbi Feld’s vision of education was shaped by his personal Torah study and day school learning. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Chicago and a Master of Science in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Additionally, he completed graduate-level coursework at the Lynch School of Education of Boston College. Rabbi Feld holds one of three ordinations granted by Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz.
His favorite job is husband and father of three sons in Silver Spring.
Sharon Freundel
Sharon Freundel
Sharon Freundel, managing director of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge, attended Jewish Day Schools followed by studying at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University and earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Maryland. She completed graduate courses at Teacher’s College of Columbia University and earned a Master of Arts in Jewish Education at the Baltimore Hebrew University.
Following several years of working in the nursing field, Ms. Freundel became engaged in the teaching of Torah. She taught and was the department chair for TaNaKH (Bible) and Torah SheBa’al Peh (Rabbinics) and was the Mashgicha Ruchanit (Spiritual Guidance Counselor) of the Upper School at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy. Most recently, she was the Director of Jewish Life at the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital.
She teaches adult Jewish education classes throughout the Greater Washington, DC, area on topics such as TaNaKH, Jewish philosophy and contemporary halakhic issues in multiple venues and has lectured in Canada, Australia, Israel, and throughout the United States.
Shahar Azani
New York, NY
Shahar Azani
New York, NY
Shahar Azani is the Executive Director for StandWithUs Northeast Region.
StandWithUs is an international non-profit Israel education organization, dedicated for supporting Israel around the world. It uses innovative programs and proactive campaigns, educational materials, speakers, conferences, online resources and fellowships, in high schools, campuses and beyond. StandWithUs was founded in Los Angeles and has sixteen offices across the U.S., Canada, Israel, Australia and the UK.
Prior to assuming this role, Shahar served as Consul for Media Affairs and Spokesperson at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, a position he held between 2011 and 2014. In that capacity Shahar was responsible for maintaining direct contact with American media in the tri-state area, focusing on political, social and business media.
Shahar also served as Assistant Spokesperson at the Embassy of Israel in London, as Deputy Spokesperson at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem; Israel’s Consul for Culture, Media and Public Affairs in Los Angeles, California; and Deputy Ambassador at the Embassy of the State of Israel in Nairobi, Kenya, also serving as Israel's liaison to the United Nations Headquarters located in Nairobi.
Before embarking on this career path, Mr. Azani practiced Law at Haim Zadok and Company, based in Tel Aviv, focusing on litigation. He has a law degree (LLB) as well as a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and is married to Elinor. They have 3 children together.
Ari Goldman
New York, NY
Ari Goldman
New York, NY
Ari Goldman is a distinguished journalist and journalism educator who has trained hundreds of young people to be better reporters and writers. He enjoyed a long career at The New York Times, where he covered a variety of beats including politics, crime, education, transportation and religion.
Goldman carried those lessons with him to a second career as a professor at Columbia University’s prestigious Graduate School of Journalism, where he heads the Scripps Howard Program in Religion, Journalism and the Spiritual Life. He is the recipient of two Fulbright teaching fellowships and is the author of four books, including the best-seller “The Search for God at Harvard.”
Rabbi Jacob Goldstein
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Jacob Goldstein
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Jacob Goldstein served as a U.S. Army chaplain for 38 years. He held the rank of colonel and was the longest-serving Jewish chaplain in the U.S. military. He and his team were eyewitnesses to the tragic events of September 11th, and one of the first military units to arrive at Ground Zero.
Rabbi Goldstein, who was born in a displaced persons camp in Paris after World War II, immigrated with his family to the United States shortly after his birth. He graduated from the Lubavitch Rabbinical Seminary, where he was ordained. He currently serves as an assistant commissioner of housing for New York State, as a chaplain with the U.S. Secret Service, and as chairman of Community Board 9 in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn.
Shimona Tzukernik
Brooklyn, NY
Shimona Tzukernik
Brooklyn, NY
Shimona Tzukernik is the creator of The Method, a therapeutic application of Kabbalah for individuals and corporations seeking spiritually based transformation. Known as “The Kabbalah Coach,” she has counseled hundreds of individuals, and now offers coaching certification in The Method. She is also an internationally recognized speaker and author for the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Shimona has been featured in media around the world including a documentary by National Geographic and NickMom’s “Take Me to your Mother.”
Dr. Jeffrey S. Gurock
New York, NY
Dr. Jeffrey S. Gurock
New York, NY
Jeffrey S. Gurock is the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University. Gurock served from 1982-2002 as associate editor of American Jewish History, the leading academic journal in that field and was twice chair of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society. He is the author or editor of fifteen books. His works include A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy and American Judaism. In 1998, A Modern Heretic...was awarded the bi-annual Saul Viener Prize from the American Jewish Historical Society for the best book written in that field. Gurock's, Orthodox Jews in America was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the area of American Jewish Studies. His most recent study is Jews in Gotham: New York Jews in a Changing City, 1920-2010.
Rabbi Mark Gottlieb
Teaneck, NJ
Rabbi Mark Gottlieb
Teaneck, NJ
Rabbi Mark Gottlieb is Senior Director of the Tikvah Fund and Dean of the Tikvah Summer Institute at Yale University. Prior to joining Tikvah, Rabbi Gottlieb served as Head of School at Yeshiva University High School for Boys and Principal of the Maimonides School in Brookline, MA and has taught at The Frisch School, Ida Crown Jewish Academy, Hebrew Theological College, Loyola University in Chicago and the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. from Yeshiva College, rabbinical ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, where his doctoral studies focused on the moral and political thought of Alasdair MacIntyre. Rabbi Gottlieb is a member of the Orthodox Forum Steering Committee and serves on the Editorial Committee of Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought. He lives in Teaneck, NJ with his wife and five children.
Rabbi Shmuel Lew
London, UK
Rabbi Shmuel Lew
London, UK
Rabbi Shmuel Lew, a Senior Chabad Emissary to London, UK, is a beloved spiritual mentor, guidance counselor and educator. He is the head of the Senior Girls School in London since 1975.
In the early 1960’s, Rabbi Lew pioneered outreach activities on college and university campuses as head of the Lubavitch Council for Universities and has positively influenced thousands during the past five decades.
Rabbi Lew is a sought after motivational speaker who lectures internationally, and is renowned for his wit, wisdom and uncanny ability to connect with the audience, regardless of their background or affiliation.
Carolyn Hessel
New York, NY
Carolyn Hessel
New York, NY
Carolyn Hessel joined the Jewish Book Council in 1994, when the JBC, created in 1941, became an independent organization. Since then she has been named to the Forward 50 five times for her work in Jewish literature.
In 1999, she founded the Jewish Book Network, a popular program that currently tours over 200 authors to hundreds of Jewish book programs around the country.
Carolyn initiates and encourages new programs to meet the changing needs and interests of its many constituents. She mentors new authors while also working with literary agents and publishers to help heighten awareness and strengthen the world of Jewish literature in North America.
Rabbi Dovid Cohen
New York, NY
Rabbi Dovid Cohen
New York, NY
Rabbi Dovid M. Cohen has served as Rabbi of the Young Israel of the West Side since 2006. During his tenure, the congregation has doubled in size and has become the "hot spot" on the Upper West Side for singles and young families with over 500 people each Shabbos morning. Rabbi Cohen received his BA from Yeshiva University in 1994, graduating with honors in History. He was ordained by the Rabbi Isaac Elchanon Theological Seminary in 1997 and holds a juris doctor degree from Columbia Law School. He worked at two major Manhattan law firms and also acquired a Masters in counseling from University of North Texas.
Rabbi Cohen is a Dayan for the Beis Din of America and serves on the national board of Yachad (OU) and spends much time speaking and advocating on behalf of individuals with special needs. He is also a member of the executive committee of the RCA and serves as a synagogue consultant for the Orthodox Union, helping to ensure that synagogues across the country are innovative and creative. He has also served as Mashgiach Ruchani at Yeshiva University and Stern College and maintains a private therapy practice on the upper west side.
He has published many articles on contemporary issues and is a frequent contributor to Mishpacha magazine, Hamodia, the Jewish Press and the Jewish Week and often serves as scholar-in-residence in communities throughout North America.
Rabbi Cohen was invited this past year to President Obama's Chanuka reception at the White House, reflecting his growing stature as a leader in the orthodox community. He has also done course work at the Tikvah Fellowship.
He is married to Ruchi (Eisenberg) Cohen, daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Austria. The Cohen's have four children.
Prof. Dovid Imbo
Chicago, IL
Prof. Dovid Imbo
Chicago, IL
Dovid Yehuda Imbo was born and raised on the Near West Side of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1988, and did his postdoctoral work at Harvard University as a member of the Harvard Society of Fellows. He has been a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 1992, where he is also the Director of the newly formed "Laboratory for Quantum Theory at the Extremes". His research focuses on the connections between quantum physics, pure mathematics, formal logic, and pure philosophy. He converted to Judaism in March 2017.
Rabbi Asher Crispe
Danby, VT
Rabbi Asher Crispe
Danby, VT
Rabbi Asher Crispe is the Founder and Executive Director of Interinclusion.org, an educational initiative celebrating the convergence between contemporary arts and sciences and Torah thought. Rabbi Crispe is a warm and engaging speaker whose talent is taking the esoteric and sometimes inaccessible texts and concepts of Kabbalah and Chassidic philosophy and making them palpable and understandable to the general public.
Prior to founding Interinclusion.org, he served as the Chief Technology Officer of Link Capital Group, a Hedge Fund dealing with emergent technologies and future trends. From 1997 to 2004, Rabbi Crispe lived in Israel where he spent a year as a research fellow for Mercaz Shalem, the national policy institute for public policy and social thought. He additionally served as the Educational Director of Torat Chesed, an advanced learning institute for Jewish women under the guidance of world renowned scholar, Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh. He was the Educational Director for the Gal Einai Institute, the Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Study of Torah, Art and Science.
Shaindy Jacobson
Brooklyn, NY
Shaindy Jacobson
Brooklyn, NY
Shaindy Jacobson is the director of JLI’s women’s studies division, The Rosh Chodesh society.
Mrs. Jacobson has been involved in the field of Jewish education for over twenty-five years, teaching at the Bais Rivkah Teacher’s Seminary and serving as a community liaison and counselor for Operation Survival – a substance abuse prevention program.
Shaindy lectures around the world, educating women about their Jewish heritage and its practical application to their daily lives.
She is also an accomplished musician and composer and frequently accompanies her lectures with song and music.
Helen Nash
New York, NY
Helen Nash
New York, NY
Helen Nash was born into an old rabbinical family in Cracow, Poland. In New York City, where she has spent most of her life, she studied with world-famous cooks Michael Field, Marcella Hazan, Lydie Marshall, and Millie Chan. An accomplished lecturer and teacher, she has given demonstrations at New York University and the legendary De Gustibus cooking school at Macy’s, as well as at numerous synagogues and Jewish community centers.
She is the author of three kosher cookbooks: Helen Nash's New Kosher Cuisine; Kosher Cuisine; and Helen Nash’s Kosher Kitchen. Since the publication of these books, she has developed many more kosher recipes, all of which embody her principles of nutritious, uncomplicated, and attractive kosher food for every day.
Rabbi Simon Jacobson
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Simon Jacobson
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Simon Jacobson heads The Meaningful Life Center (www.meaningfullife.com), which bridges the secular and the spiritual through a wide variety of live and online programming.
Rabbi Jacobson is the author of the best-selling book Toward a Meaningful Life, a William Morrow publication that has sold over 300,000 copies to date and has been translated into 10 languages.
For over 14 years Rabbi Jacobson, as Editor-in-Chief of VHH, was responsible for publishing the talks of the late Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He also headed the research team for Sefer Halikutim - an encyclopedic collection of Chassidic thought.
Rabbi Jacobson has lectured to diverse audiences on six continents and in forty states on psycho-spiritual issues. He has been interviewed on over 300 radio and TV shows. He is also the publisher of the largest Yiddish-English weekly newspaper, The Algemeiner Journal (www.algemeiner.com).
Dassie New
Atlanta, GA
Dassie New
Atlanta, GA
Mrs. Dassie New, a native of Brooklyn New York, is the founder and Director of the Chaya Mushka Children’s House, a Montessori based Jewish preschool and Day School in Atlanta Georgia, with a current student body of more than 100 students. She is also an active Rebbetzin at Congregation Beth Tefillah in Atlanta, Georgia. She and her husband, Rabbi Yossi New, are blessed with nine children and ten grandchildren.
Rabbi YY Jacobson
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi YY Jacobson
Brooklyn, NY
One of America’s premier Jewish scholars in Torah and Jewish mysticism, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (YY) Jacobson is one of the most sought after speakers in the Jewish world today, lecturing to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on six continents and in forty states, and serving as teacher and mentor to thousands across the globe. He is considered to be one of the most passionate and mesmerizing communicators of Judaism today, culling his ideas from the entire spectrum of Jewish thought and making them relevant to contemporary audiences.
Rabbi YY Jacobson was the first rabbi ever to be invited by the Pentagon to deliver the religious keynote to the US military Chief of Chaplains and to the National Security Agency. At the conference, he was hailed “The Jewish Billy Graham.” Rabbi Jacobson founded and serves as dean of TheYeshiva.net, teaching, via the web, one of the largest Torah classes in the world today, with thousands of students globally.
Rabbi Jacobson is the author of “A Tale of Two Souls”—a 150 audio series on the teachings of the Chassidic classic, the Tanya. He has written more than 1000 articles on diverse themes of Jewish thought, including: Biblical and Talmudic studies, Jewish law, Kabbalah and Chassidism, Jewish history, psychology, philosophy, education, relationships, Israel, and current events. Formerly, he served as editor-in-chief of the largest Yiddish English newspaper existing today, The Algemeiner Journal, and as spiritual leader of Congregation Bais Shmuel in New York.
Over the last fifteen years, Rabbi Jacobson traveled to hundreds of communities, schools, and universities across the globe, educating and inspiring people of all backgrounds with the majestic depth of Torah and Judaism.
Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson
Belgravia, London
Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson
Belgravia, London
Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson is the rabbi of Beit Baruch and executive director of Chabad of Belgravia, London, where he lives with his wife, Chana, and children. Mendel was an editor at the Judaism Website—Chabad.org and is also the author of the popular books Seeds of Wisdom and A Time to Heal.
Dr. Lisa Aiken
Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Lisa Aiken
Jerusalem, Israel
Lisa Aiken has been a clinical psychologist working with individuals and couples for more than 30 years in New York City and Jerusalem. She is also an international speaker on diverse Jewish topics who has given talks in more than 200 cities worldwide. In addition, she is a licensed Israeli tour guide and the author of 11 books, including To Be A Jewish Woman,Guide for the Romantically Perplexed,The Art of Jewish Prayer, The Hidden Beauty of the Shema, Why Me, God? A Jewish Guide to Coping with Suffering, Tuning In, Genesis—The Untold Story, The Baal Teshuva Survival Guide and The Family Guide to Touring Israel.
Rabbi Benjamin Blech
New York, NY
Rabbi Benjamin Blech
New York, NY
Rabbi Benjamin Blech is an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, author, and lecturer.
Rabbi Blech is the author of twelve highly acclaimed and best selling books, with combined sales of close to half a million copies, including three as part of the highly popular Idiot’s Guideseries. His book, Understanding Judaism: The Basics of Deed and Creed, was chosen by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations as “the single best book on Judaism in our generation”. Together with an accompanying six hour video, filmed by the producers of 20/20,featuring Rabbi Blech, it is presently being used as the basis for study groups in numerous synagogues and universities around the country. His book Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide To Rising Above Life’s Financial Ups and Downs was featured in a full page article in the Sunday New York times and one of his recent works, If God is Good, Why Is The World So Bad? has been translated into Indonesian where it has had a powerful reception in the wake of the country’s tsunami, as well as into Portuguese .
In a national survey, Rabbi Blech was recently ranked #16 in a listing of the 50 most influential Jews in America.
Rivky Kaplan
Tzfat, Israel
Rivky Kaplan
Tzfat, Israel
Rivky Kaplan grew up on shlichus in Morristown, New Jersey and completed her seminary education in Melbourne Australia and Brooklyn, NY. Soon after she married, Rivky established herself as a successful shlucha, community activist, and teacher in Tzfat, Israel where she lives today with her husband and growing family. Her teaching career goes back 20 years and her expertise covers a wide range of subjects including Medical Ethics; Text-based study of Rashi; Jewish women in Jewish Law; Interpersonal Relationships and many more.
Sherri Mandell
Tekoa, Israel
Sherri Mandell
Tekoa, Israel
Mrs. Sherri Mandell is an author and served as professor of writing in university. Together with her husband, Rabbi Seth, she led Hillel on campus in Maryland. In 1996 they traded this in for life in Israel, to make Judaism the center of their family-life. Five years later, the Mandell's oldest son, Koby, was murdered near their hometown of Tekoa. Sherri poured out her grief in a series of notebook entries that became the National Jewish Book Award winner, The Blessing of a Broken Heart. Together with her husband, Mandell founded Camp Koby, and the Koby Mandell Foundation, which work to serve those bereaved of a loved one due to terrorism. The Mandell's believe that the Jewish response to suffering is to live a fuller, more engaged life.
Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan
Baltimore, MD
Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan
Baltimore, MD
Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan is the director of Chabad-Lubavitch of the state of Maryland, overseeing its activities in more than 15 cities and towns. A noted Torah scholar and a lecturer at the University of Maryland, he hosts "Awake, Alive, and Jewish," a weekly radio program in the Washington D.C. metro area, and co-hosts "Diana, Mike, and the Rabbi," a weekly cable TV program. Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan is the chairman of JLI’s advisory board and is a member of its executive committee.
David Sacks
Beverly Hills, CA
David Sacks
Beverly Hills, CA
Born and raised in New York City, David Sacks attended Harvard College, graduating with a degree in Government. While there he began his comedy writing career as an editor of the school’s humor magazine, The Harvard Lampoon. Upon graduating, David moved to Los Angeles and began writing for television.
Among the shows he’s worked for are “The Simpsons”, where he won an Emmy Award, and “Third Rock from the Sun” for which he won a Golden Globe Award, “Malcolm in the Middle”, and “Lewis Black: The Root of All Evil”. David is the co founder and Senior Lecturer of The Happy Minyan of Los Angeles. David is married and raises his family in Beverly Hills, CA.
Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff
Miami, FL
Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff
Miami, FL
Miriam Klein Kassenoff fled Nazi Europe in 1941 with her family when she was a small child. She studied at Yad Vashem, the International Center for Holocaust Studies in Israel, and is a graduate of the prestigious international Vladka Meed Teachers Program. Currently, she is the Director of the Holocaust Teachers Institute at the University of Miami where she also serves as adjunct professor/lecturer. She is also the Education Specialist for Holocaust Studies for Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
Miriam is a frequent speaker and presenter on Holocaust Education at conferences and workshops nationwide, and has co-authored, with Dr. Anita Meinbach, Memories of the Night: Studies of the Holocaust. She has also penned Studying the Holocaust Through Film and Literature, as well as The Grolier Teacher’s Study Guide on Holocaust Studies.
She recently was chosen as one of the Outstanding Pioneer Women in Miami-Dade County for her work in Holocaust education. She was awarded the Professional Educator of the Year in May 2008 by the Miami-Dade County Social Studies organization which consists of over 900 teachers. In 2009 she was nominated as one of five people in Miami for the National Jewish Community’s Heroes Award. In 2010, Miriam was named as one of the most influential Jewish People in South Florida by the Jewish Journal.
Paula Shoyer
Chevy Chase, MD
Paula Shoyer
Chevy Chase, MD
Paula Shoyer is a former attorney and speechwriter who took advantage of living in Europe and enrolled in a pastry course in Paris for fun, which led to operating a dessert catering business in Geneva, Switzerland for 2 years. While in Geneva, she was asked to teach a few classes to raise money for Jewish organizations. When she returned stateside, she began teaching classes in French pastry and Jewish cooking and baking to adults and kids across the United States. She is the author of The Kosher Baker: 160 dairy-free desserts from traditional to trendy and the editor of two popular Kosher cookbooks: Kosher by Design Entertains and Kosher by Design Kids in the Kitchen.
Saranne Rothberg
New York, NY
Saranne Rothberg
New York, NY
Saranne Rothberg is the founder of The ComedyCures Foundation (www.ComedyCures.org), the acclaimed organization that brings joy, laughter, and therapeutic humor to kids and grown-ups living with illness, depression, and disability.
Saranne is a stage IV cancer survivor with no visible disease. As an award-winning health and happiness expert, Saranne is regularly featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and PBS. She serves as a consultant for fortune 500 companies, leading medical centers, The World Health Organization, and The United Nations. Oprah Winfrey named Saranne as one of her Heroes, Hadassah and ICRF named her as their Woman of the Year, and AOL named Saranne as their Mom of the Year.
In her popular workshops, Saranne interactively demonstrates how we can utilize comedy, joy and laughter in our family, work, friendships and healing.
Rabbi Yossi New
Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Yossi New
Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Yossi New, a native of Melbourne Australia, is Regional Director of Chabad of Georgia. He oversees the outreach activities of the thirteen centers in the state. He is the founder and spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Tefillah in Atlanta, Georgia with a current membership of more than 350 families. He is a senior member of the Southeastern Regional Beth Din and Kashrut Commission.
Shimon Mercer-Wood
New York, NY
Shimon Mercer-Wood
New York, NY
Shimon Mercer-Wood arrived in New York from Jerusalem in March 2015 to take up the post of Spokesperson and Consul for Media Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008, after a brief episode in the Israeli corporate sector, and has served as Political Officer at the Embassy of Israel in New Delhi, Desk Officer at the Ministry Head Quarters and Press Officer at the Embassy of Israel in London.
He holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics, which he completed after his three year compulsory military service and after spending a year studying at Ma’aleh Gilboa Yeshiva. He considers himself extremely lucky to have the opportunity of exploring the rich diversity of New York and the surrounding areas. His other interests include Philosophy of Language and Mediterranean cooking.
Yaakov Katz
Jerusalem, Israel
Yaakov Katz
Jerusalem, Israel
Yaakov Katz is Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post and author of “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”
He is also the co-author of "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War”. “Weapon Wizards” has been published in English, Hebrew, Czech and Polish and will come out in Chinese in 2019.
Katz served for close to a decade as the paper's military reporter and defense analyst and was a lecturer at Harvard University where he taught an advanced course in journalism. He also served as Israel correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly for five years.
Prior to taking up the role of Editor-in-Chief, Katz served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.
In 2013, Katz was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Originally from Chicago, Katz also has a law degree from Bar Ilan University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and four children.
Daniel Kestenbaum
Riverdale, NY
Daniel Kestenbaum
Riverdale, NY
Daniel was born in Japan, raised and educated in England and France.
He has been involved in the fields of rare books and Fine Judaica for almost 35 years, founding his own eponymous specialist auction house in New York in 1995. In that period of time he has consulted and handled hundreds of archives and collections ranging from the vast 18th-century library of the London Beth Din to significant portions of the celebrated Valmadonna Trust. Daniel is married to Hadassah, a kindergarten teacher, whom he met and married in Jerusalem. Currently residing in Riverdale, NY, they are the proud parents of seven children - four of whom live in Israel.
Rivkah Slonim
Binghamton, NY
Rivkah Slonim
Binghamton, NY
Mrs. Rivkah Slonim is the education director at the Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life and a lecturer on Jewish Medical Ethics at Binghamton University. A self-described "Chassidic Feminist", she lectures internationally on the intersection of Jewish observance and contemporary life with a special focus on Jewish women. She is the editor of Total Immersion: A Mikvah Anthology and Bread and Fire: Jewish Women Find G-d in the Everyday, an anthology on Jewish women’s spiritually. Mrs. Slonim serves on the Editorial Board of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and is co-author of one of JLI’s most popular courses, Fascinating Facts.
Devorah Halberstam
Devorah Halberstam
Devorah Halberstam is an American political activist.
Halberstam is noted for her advocacy of gun control. She is the mother of Ari Halberstam who was killed in the 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting in which an immigrant Lebanese gunman used automatic weapons to attack a van filled with Brooklyn school children. In the years following this tragedy, she "campaigned obsessively" to have her son's death investigated as politically-motivated terrorism rather than as simple murder, gradually transitioning from a parent traumatized by her son's violent death to "an authority on terrorism with close ties to law enforcement officials." Former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly describes Halberstam as, "a major force in the political world, and certainly those people who focus on the issues of counterterrorism know that well.” She is credited with being a major force behind the creation of anti-terrorism laws in New York State.
Devorah Halberstam is the director of Foundation and Government Services at the Jewish Children’s Museum, which is dedicated to the memory of her son Ari.
Dr. Daniel Eisenberg
Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Daniel Eisenberg
Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Daniel Eisenberg is affiliated with the Department of Radiology at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA and is an Assistant Professor of Diagnostic Imaging at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine.
Dr. Eisenberg spent two years studying at the Heiden Torah Institute in Jerusalem, where he concentrated on Talmud and Jewish law. He has taught a weekly Jewish medical ethics class for over 15 years. He has served as the medical ethics scholar-in-residence for the New England Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem since 1999. Dr. Eisenberg wrote the medical ethics column for the quarterly publication, Maimonides: Health in the Jewish World, from 1996 to 2000. Dr. Eisenberg continues to lecture around North America and now writes medical ethics articles for Jlaw.com and Aish.com.
Nira Berry
Washington, D.C.
Nira Berry
Washington, D.C.
Nira is an upbeat, inspirational Keynote speaker; founder of LaughingRx laughter wellness programs; laughter therapist and Happiness coach. Nira’s specialty is guiding people to live their happiest life through unique, uplifting and motivating presentations, LaughingRx laughter workshops, and personal development & Happiness Coaching.
Nira discovered the power and healing benefits of laughter during her recovery from cancer. Since then, her passion is to spread the message of living with joy and laughter, to thousands worldwide and has been a featured speaker at hundreds of government, health and corporate events. Combining her expertise in wellness coaching and her expertise in Laughter yoga, Nira founded the laughter wellness movement using her skills as a laughter therapist and laughter coaching. Known as the “Happiness Coach,” Nira coaches corporate/private individuals and groups, helping them live balanced, fulfilled, healthy and happy lives.
Nira is a Certified life coach by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher, and was a previous corporate exec. and recipient of a SBA award at the White House. She has a B.S. degree from University of Maryland; a Graduate degree in Health and Wellness Coaching from Maryland University of Integrative Health and is a faculty member of Montgomery College, Maryland.
Featured frequently in the media such as Forbes.com, Bethesda Magazine; The Washington Post; and international media, Nira is the author of Laugh Off Stress: Laughter Yoga Exercises DVD, and her upcoming book: Laugh Off Stress.
Rabbi Dov Greenberg
Palo Alto, CA
Rabbi Dov Greenberg
Palo Alto, CA
Rabbi Dov Greenberg is the executive director of the Chabad House of Stanford and is a highly sought-after communicator of Jewish thought and spirituality. Rabbi Greenberg has lectured throughout the United States, Israel, and Europe. He is also the former director of adult education at the Conejo Jewish Academy.
Rabbi Abba Perelmuter
Long Beach, CA
Rabbi Abba Perelmuter
Long Beach, CA
Rabbi Abba Perelmuter started The Shul by the Shore at the High Holidays. During the sub-sequent years, the rabbi has attracted all manner of worshippers. For many in his congregation, the information he provides is new and interesting, and for others his wit and humor infuses old knowledge with new insights. The rabbi's services are an opportunity for every individual to grow both spiritually and intellectually.
With the help of several dedicated families, in September of 2000, the Shul began to offer full synagogue services to the community. In addition to High Holiday services, there are now Shabbat services and educational courses, covering such topics as Torah study, Jewish History and Kaballah.
Robert Krakow
Boca Raton, Florida
Robert Krakow
Boca Raton, Florida
Robert Krakow’s film COMPLICIT blends drama, survivor interviews and actual footage to tell the story of the doomed ship included is a mock trial that confronts the Roosevelt Administration’s flawed WWII refugee policy. In addition, COMPLICIT documents the US State Department’s formal apologies to the SS St. Louis’s surviving passengers.
Robert Krakow is the Executive Director of the SS St Louis Legacy Project Foundation, a nonprofit organization that uses education through drama to enlighten audiences on events in world history, including the story of the voyage of the SS St Louis.
Sassy Reuven
Calabasas, CA
Sassy Reuven
Calabasas, CA
In July of 1976, Sassy Reuven, a veteran of the Israel Defense Special Operation Forces, participated in the famed Entebbe counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission code named Operation Thunderbolt, flying thousands of miles over enemy territory to rescue Jewish hostages being held by terrorists in Uganda.
Sassy was the second soldier to jump out of the Hercules C130 transport aircraft as it slowly taxied on the Entebbe airport runway. 100 Israeli commandos stormed the airport and miraculously rescued 102 people who were taken hostage when an Air France airliner was hijacked by Arab terrorists and flown to an airport in Uganda, ruled at the time by infamous dictator Idi Amin.
Sassy's story is the story of Israel's courageous fight to live in freedom and G‑d's miraculous hand in its survival. Sassy lives in Calabasas, CA with his wife Susan. They are the proud parents of three children.
Dr. Simcha Leibovitch
Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Simcha Leibovitch
Jerusalem, Israel
As the North American Representative of the World Zionist Organization Executives, Dr. Simcha Leibovich currently oversees the entire operation of the WZO Movement in North America, including its popular teacher emissary unit, Shlihim (www.shlihim.org). He is also a founding member of the Hebrew Literacy Council.
A master teacher, trainer, and co-editor of the Encyclopedia for Social Educational Activities, Dr. Simcha Leibovich has worked as Dean of Informal Education at Orot-Academic College for Education and Givat Washington College of Education for over three decades. For thirty years, Simcha ran the summer "Mercaz", the educational programming center of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, and developed the Ramah Program Bank for Online Educational Activities for the Ramah Camps in the U.S. and Canada. A consummate advisor and supervisor to youth movements across Israel and the world, Simcha is the Founding Director of the Outdoor Center for Leadership at Neot Kedumim (Bible Lands Reservation) for over a decade.
Dr. Sheri Fink
New York, NY
Dr. Sheri Fink
New York, NY
Sheri Fink has reported on health, medicine, and science in the U.S. and from every continent except Antarctica. Most recently her news stories about Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Isaac in the New York Times, ProPublica and The Times-Picayune were awarded the 2013 Mike Berger Award from Columbia Journalism School and the beat reporting award from the Association of Health Care Journalists. She was lead reporter and co-editor of a series of radio stories about healthcare rationing around the world for Public Radio International’s “The World,” which won the Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club and the Global Health Council’s Excellence in Media Award. Fink is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation’s Future Tense program and at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. She has taught at several universities, and previously worked with humanitarian aid organizations in more than a half dozen emergencies in the United States and overseas. She was the recipient of a Kaiser Media Fellowship in Health from the Kaiser Family Foundation, and a Public Policy Scholarship at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
Altie Karper
New York, NY
Altie Karper
New York, NY
Altie Karper is the Editorial Director of Schocken Books, a division of Random House, Inc., and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Book Council. Authors with whom she has worked include Aharon Appelfeld, Deborah Lipstadt, Arthur Miller, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Jonathan Sarna, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, and Elie Wiesel.
Nathan Lewin
Washington, D.C.
Nathan Lewin
Washington, D.C.
A graduate of Yeshiva College, Nathan (Nat) Lewin earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was treasurer of the Harvard Law Review. Since then, Mr. Lewin has championed First Amendment rights and civil liberties. Mr. Lewin has argued for the right to display public Chanukah menorahs across the country, and for the right of army personnel to wear yarmulkas and religiously-prescribed beards while on duty, as well as for the right of Jewish prisoners to obtain Kosher food. In his more than 45 year legal career, he has argued in the U.S. Supreme Court 27 times. Mr. Lewin has been listed for more than 25 years in The Best Lawyers in America. His high profile clients included former President Richard Nixon and Attorney General Edwin Meese. Mr. Lewin has lectured at many leading Law Schools and has published articles on the Supreme Court in leading publications. Mr. Lewin was president of the American Section of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, from 1992 to 1997.
Barbara Hines
Houston, TX
Barbara Hines
Houston, TX
Barbara Hines is an international artist based in Texas, with studios in multiple cities. Her impressionistic, yet contemporary canvases which incorporate gold leaf, metallic, paint, and actual soil from Israel, capture the heart and soul of Jewish spirituality, core Torah values, and the essence of our Holy Land. Hines' works bear titles inspired directly from the Book of Psalms (Tehillim), so evocative of her innate love and passion for furthering peace and understanding in the world.
Miriam Lipskier
Atlanta, GA
Miriam Lipskier
Atlanta, GA
Mrs. Miriam Lipskier is the co-founder and director of the Chabad Student Center at Emory University in Atlanta. In addition to giving lectures and classes on Jewish law, philosophy, and ethics, Miriam and her husband Rabbi Shneur Zalman Lipskier, along with their eight children, host hundreds of students every Friday night to celebrate Shabbos in a spiritual and intellectually stimulating way. Creative programs which take place before holidays raise Jewish consciousness and pride among the students at Emory. They also take the time to meet and counsel individual students on an ongoing basis.
During summer breaks, Mrs. Lipskier teaches at Bais Chana Women’s International, lectures at the National Jewish Retreat, and leads other adult and teen educational programs in the U.S., Israel, and abroad.
Rabbi Yossi Paltiel
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Yossi Paltiel
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Yossi Paltiel is a popular teacher and mentor with a gift for communicating his passion for Torah and Judaism. His classes weave together classic commentaries, Jewish Law, history and philosophy, personal stories, and a deep knowledge of Chassidus and Kabbala into a whole that's both intellectually challenging and heartwarming. He currently teaches at Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim Chovevei Torah (United Lubavitcher Yeshiva), Machon Chana Women's Institute for the Study of Judaism, and at the Beis Midrash L'Nashim (Women's and Girls' Beis Midrash and Seminary for Higher Learning) at 770 Eastern Parkway, Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He also gives lectures at many events in Brooklyn and travels to speak in Jewish communities throughout the country and is the founder of insidechassidus.org.
Deborah E. Lipstadt
Atlanta, GA
Deborah E. Lipstadt
Atlanta, GA
Deborah E. Lipstadt is an American historian and author of the books Denying the Holocaust and The Eichmann Trial. She is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University.
Lipstadt was a consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In 1994, she was appointed by Bill Clinton to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, on which she served two terms.
Professor Lipstadt is frequently called upon by the media to comment on a variety of matters. She has appeared Good Morning America, NPR’s Fresh Air, the BBC, Charlie Rose Show, and is a frequent contributor to and is widely quoted in a variety of newspapers and journals including the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
Rabbi Shais Taub
New York
Rabbi Shais Taub
New York
Rabbi Shais Taub is an internationally known speaker, writer and teacher on topics of Jewish spirituality who is also known for his work in the field of addiction recovery. NPR dubbed him “an expert in Jewish mysticism and the 12 Steps” and The New York Times called him “a phenomenon.”
Rabbi Taub is the author of the bestselling book, G-d of Our Understanding: Jewish Spirituality and Recovery from Addiction which was a #1 Jewish bestseller on Amazon.com and was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a singular resource for those in need."
He is a leading exponent of the fundamental Chasidic text, Tanya, and created two groundbreaking works on the book: The Map of Tanya and the JLI course, Soul Maps.
Rabbi Taub is a frequent and popular contributor to The Huffington Post. He also writes a weekly advice column for Ami Magazine.
Carole Basri
New York, NY
Carole Basri
New York, NY
Carole Basri is the Executive Director of the Fordham Law School Corporate Compliance Institute and she is an Adjunct Professor at Fordham Law School and Peking University. She has written the four treatises as follows: Corporate Legal Departments by Practicing Law Institute, International Corporate Practice by Practicing Law Institute, eDiscovery for Corporate Counsel by West, and Corporate Compliance Practice Guide by Lexis.
Ms. Basri is also a documentary film producer and her films have been shown at film festivals and PBS. Recently, she produced a documentary on hemophiliacs in Iraq who got AIDS through tainted blood parts. She has advised, on a pro bono basis, a preparatory PBS production of Saddam’s trial. She has been a commentator on the Iraqi elections and its constitution for MSNBC, CNN, FOX and Al Iraqiya TV.
David Magerman
Gladwyne, PA
David Magerman
Gladwyne, PA
David Magerman is an American computer scientist and philanthropist. After a long career as a quantitative hedge fund manager at Renaissance Technologies, David co-founded Differential Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, where he is a managing partner. He is the founder and president of the Kohelet Foundation, a private foundation that has contributed tens of millions of dollars to Jewish day schools in North America over the last decade.
David received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania. He resides in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and their four children.
Rabbi Boruch Kaplan
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Boruch Kaplan
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Boruch Kaplan was born in Vancouver Canada and moved to Israel in 1976. He completed his Rabbinical studies in Jerusalem in 1981 and has been teaching and lecturing in Israel and around the world since. He has been a senior lecturer in Talmud and Chassidus at Mayanot Yeshiva in Jerusalem since its inception 15 years ago. He also teaches in various Lubavitch seminaries for young women in Israel.
His wife Rivka, originally from NY, is a doctor and works in the well-known TEREM clinic in Jerusalem. They are blessed with ten children and many grandchildren
Rabbi Nissen Mangel
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Nissen Mangel
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Nissen Mangel is a renowned philosopher, author, and lecturer. He is a recognized authority on Kaballah and Chabad Chassidus, as well as Jewish Jurisprudence. He is the widely acclaimed translator of the Siddur Tehillat Hashem for Weekdays and Festivals and the Machzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, of which close to a million copies have been sold throughout the English-speaking world, and which have been translated into a number of languages, including Spanish and Russian. Rabbi Mangel is also the translator and editor of the basic text of Chassidic philosophy, the Tanya. He is the author of numerous works on Jewish philosophy and mysticism, jurisprudence (halachah), and history. He has lectured internationally on Jewish philosophy and mysticism and on Jewish social and ethical issues. Born in Czechoslovakia, Rabbi Mangel is a Holocaust survivor. His personal experiences, as well as his extensive knowledge of Jewish history, are clearly evident in his writings and lectures. Rabbinical ordination and an advanced degree in Jewish Jurisprudence were conferred upon him by the Rabbinical College of Canada in Montreal. He completed his secular studies at Sir George Williams University in Montreal, the University of Detroit, Michigan, and New York University.
Rabbi Yosef Shusterman
Beverly Hills, CA
Rabbi Yosef Shusterman
Beverly Hills, CA
Rabbi Yosef Y. Shusterman is the Spiritual Leader of Chabad of North Beverly Hills, and serves as the Halachic authority for the Chabad community of Greater Los Angeles and across the country. Rabbi Shusterman is a member of the worldwide Committee of Lubavitch Rabbis and serves as Judge on its central Beit Din.
Rabbi Shusterman is recognized worldwide for his knowledge of complex Jewish law and mystical teachings, as well as his keen insight into human relationships and education. He is an internationally sought-after speaker and counselor.
Robert Messing
Woodstock, NY
Robert Messing
Woodstock, NY
Robert Messing graduated from Clark University with a BA in Philosophy and has MBAs from NYU and CUNY. Bob has gone on numerous archeological digs in Israel where he found ancient coins, mosaics and Roman glass. He also identified and cleaned artifacts that came from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Bob has spoken about ancient and modern Jewish coins and medals at the National Jewish Retreat and Limmud NY conferences as well as synagogues on the East Coast. He has also written articles on this topic that have appeared in Hadassah Magazine and The Shekel.
Izzy Ezagui
Brooklyn, NY
Izzy Ezagui
Brooklyn, NY
Izzy Ezagui is an American-born one-armed squad commander in the Israel Defense Forces. He was injured in combat, losing his dominant arm and returned to the fight. In, May of 2011, Shimon Peres, the president of Israel, awarded him the highest accolade a soldier outside the battlefield can receive.
Izzy has addressed audiences on the topics of motivation, success, overcoming obstacles, and the Israeli army. He has appeared on Al Jazeera America as well as The Huffington Post Live.
Shmuel Reichman
New York, NY
Shmuel Reichman
New York, NY
Shmuel Reichman is an inspirational speaker who has lectured internationally at conferences, synagogues, and Jewish communities on topics of Jewish Thought and Jewish Medical Ethics. He is the founder and creator of "Shmuel Reichman Inspiration: Think. Feel. Grow.", a platform from which he shares inspirational Torah videos that have reached over one hundred thousand people.
In addition to this, he writes a weekly Jewish thought column for the Queens Jewish Link, The Jewish Weekly, and several other Jewish newspapers. Shmuel previously delivered weekly lectures at the Lincoln Square Synagogue and served as the Educational Director of NCSY's Hatzalah program in Israel.
Shmuel's passion in life is taking the deepest and most profound principles of Jewish Thought and make them both accessible and inspiring to his students and audiences. His mission is to help Jews of all backgrounds connect to the beauty, depth, and meaning of Torah and Judaism.
Molly Resnick
New York, NY
Molly Resnick
New York, NY
Mrs. Molly Resnick has produced numerous documentaries on the Middle East, Jews, and Judaism. A veteran newswoman, she has worked for Israeli TV, PBS, NBC News, and The Jewish Press and has interviewed VIPs such as Menachem Begin, Yizhak Rabin, Moshe Dayan and Henry Kissinger. An international speaker, fluent in five languages, Mrs. Resnick is the founder and director of the grassroots organization MATCKH (Mothers Against Teaching Children to Kill), an organization that has drawn attention to the dangers of teaching bigotry and violence to Arab children.
George Rohr
New York, NY
George Rohr
New York, NY
George Rohr is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and President of NCH Capital Inc, a private equity firm.
Rohr’s principal philanthropic focus has been on Jewish education, particularly through initiatives such as the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and the establishment of more than 100 Chabad Houses across college campuses in North America, as well as on the revival of Jewish communal life in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union in partnership with Chabad.
Rachelle Fraenkel
Israel
Rachelle Fraenkel
Israel
Rachelle Sprecher Fraenkel studied at Bar-Ilan University.
She was in the first graduating class of Matan's Advanced Talmud Institute. She is the head of the new Advanced Halakha (Hilkhata) Program at Matan. She teaches Talmud and Halakha at Matan, and she has been working as a Yoetzet Halakha (Halakhic Advisor) for close to 10 years.
She also teaches at Nishmat, The Jeanie Schottenstein Center For Advanced Torah Study For Women.
Dr. David Rosmarin
Boston, MA
Dr. David Rosmarin
Boston, MA
David H. Rosmarin, PhD, is director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, part-time, at Harvard Medical School. He supervises the provision of spiritually-integrated services in clinical units throughout the hospital’s divisional structure, and collaborates with laboratories to study the clinical relevance of spirituality to anxiety, mood, psychotic, substance use, and other disorders.
Dr. Rosmarin is a clinical innovator whose work on integrating spirituality into cognitive behavioral therapy has wide acclaim. He is also a prolific researcher, having authored over 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications, numerous editorials/book chapters, and over 100 abstracts. Dr. Rosmarin’s clinical work and research have received media attention from ABC, NPR, Scientific American, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.
Natan Sharansky
Jerusalem, Israel
Natan Sharansky
Jerusalem, Israel
Natan Sharansky, the international human-rights activist who spent nearly a decade in Soviet prison as a refusenik, has served in ministerial positions in several Israeli governments. He has recently stepped down after nine years as chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. He is the author of Fear No Evil, The Case for Democracy, and Defending Identity.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov
Washington, D.C.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov
Washington, D.C.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov is the Executive Vice President of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad). He serves the Jewish community of Washington, D.C., and the daily governmental and diplomatic needs of the international Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the world's largest and fastest growing Jewish network of educational and social service institutions, with over 3,500 centers in 49 states and over 80 countries. He maintains close relationships with numerous members of the United States Congress, senior Administration officials and leaders in the international community, including a number of heads of state and government. Rabbi Shemtov chairs the organizing committee of the International Chabad-Lubavitch Conference - Living Legacy, which facilitates high-level interaction between rabbis and communal leadership from around the globe and prominent US and international figures in the arenas of government, diplomacy, academia and the arts. Shemtov is the founder and spiritual leader of TheSHUL of the Nation’s Capital. TheSHUL offers a unique place for Jewish life, regardless of formal affiliation, children's programs, Torah study programs and celebrations of Shabbat and Jewish holidays. He has also been dubbed numerous times as "the rabbi of Capitol Hill", "a Washington institution", "one of the most unlikely players in the nation's capital" "a fixture on the diplomatic circuit" and "one of the savviest politicos in town". Programs he organizes include several signature events such as the annual lighting ceremony of the National Chanukah Menorah drawing thousands to The Ellipse (across from the White House) every year, and seen by millions more via various media and the internet. In 2012, for example, the total TV viewership - in the US alone - was close to 50 million. Shemtov appreciates technology, being one of the first to bring the Chanukah celebration online. In addition, he founded and directs the Capitol Jewish Forum, which is the largest (apolitical) Jewish group on Capitol Hill, designed to "create and enhance a sense of identity and community among Jewish Congressional staffers and members of Congress" and which enjoys strong support of the Leadership and members of both parties in the US Senate and House of Representatives. Rabbi Shemtov is often at the White House, Pentagon, United States Department of State and other venues in official Washington, seen by many as an effective, bipartisan unifier and premier Jewish resource. He has overseen the koshering of the White House for the celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month and Chanukah in the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Nechama (Feldman), and their seven children.
Dr. Miriam Isaacs
Washington, D.C.
Dr. Miriam Isaacs
Washington, D.C.
Miriam Isaacs is a linguist and a Yiddishist who has been active in Klezkamp and other
venues for cultural continuity. Born in a German DP camp to a Yiddish speaking family
and raised in multi-ethnic Montreal and Brooklyn, she grew up speaking Yiddish along
with several other languages. Dr. Isaacs has just retired after 16 years of teaching
Yiddish language and culture at the University of Maryland, College Park and has
lectured and taught internationally. She has published on various aspects of Yiddish
among Hasidim in Israel and America, as well as on questions of language loyalty in the
postwar Displaced Persons Camps in English and Yiddish. She is presently working
on two books, one a memoir of her father’s wartime experiences and another on the
supernatural in Jewish culture.
Mrs. Nechama Shemtov
Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Nechama Shemtov
Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Nechama Shemtov is Director, Women's issues and Educational programs at American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington DC. She is the founder of AURA Jewish Women, a dynamic network of prominent and influential Jewish women in the nation's capital. In addition, Mrs. Shemtov has taught and mentored hundreds of women throughout her community. For nearly 25 years, she has created, developed and directed numerous programs of Jewish identity for women, children and families in many locations in the US, Latin America, South Asia and Australia. On any given week, she hosts dozens of guests - from students and young professionals to members of Congress, diplomats and communal leaders - at her family's acclaimed Shabbat table.
Chana Slavaticki
Baltimore, MD
Chana Slavaticki
Baltimore, MD
Mrs. Chana Slavaticki has been teaching high school and adult learners for nearly 20 years. She currently teaches Judaic Studies at the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, and the Mercaz Dahan Center, and lectures at various Chabad centers, and on Chabad.org. Chana holds a Master's Degree in Education, and specializes in curriculum development with a focus on Tanach, Jewish ethics and Chassidic philosophy. She lives with her husband and seven children in Baltimore, MD.
Professor Lawrence H. Schiffman
New York, New York
Professor Lawrence H. Schiffman
New York, New York
LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN
Lawrence H. Schiffman is the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Director of the Global Network for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies. He has served as the Chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Between 2011 and 2014, he served as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Professor of Judaic Studies at Yeshiva University.
He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and Talmudic literature.
His publications include Who Was a Jew? Rabbinic Perspectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism (1985); From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (1991); and Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (1995); The Courtyards of the House of the Lord: Studies on the Temple Scroll (2008); Qumran and Jerusalem: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism (2010) and more than 200 articles on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Judaism. In 2006 he was the recipient of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture Scholarship Award. He coedited the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford, 2000) and the award winning Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture.
He has been a visiting professor at Yale University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Duke University, the University of Toronto, the Johns Hopkins University, the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), the University of Hartford, Queens College, Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome), Yeshiva University, and the University of Vienna.
Active in many professional societies, Dr. Schiffman served as President of the Association for Jewish Studies and is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Friends of the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem and Chair and Representative of the Orthodox Union for the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultation (IJCIC), the Jewish liaison committee to the Vatican and other religious groups. He is a member of the steering committee of the Orthodox Forum of Yeshiva University and has edited several volumes in the Orthodox Forum Series.
Dr. Schiffman was featured in the PBS Nova series documentary, “Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” four BBC documentaries on the scrolls, a Discovery special, the series “Mysteries of the Bible” (A&E) and “Kingdom of David” (PBS) and other documentaries. He recorded two audio lecture series for Recorded Books, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Truth behind the Mystique and The Hebrew Bible and is a contributing editor of the Long Island Jewish World newspaper. Most recently he served as the academic advisor to the exhibition at Discovery Times Square entitled, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times.
Rabbi Ari Sollish
Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Ari Sollish
Atlanta, GA
Rabbi Ari Sollish, a noted author and lecturer, is the founder and director of the Intown Jewish Academy in Atlanta, GA, a warm and non-judgmental community that gives people from a diverse spectrum of Jewish life the opportunity to experience the richness of their Jewish heritage through study and participation.
Joannie Tansky
Montreal, Canada
Joannie Tansky
Montreal, Canada
Joannie Henya Tansky was born in Montreal Canada where she still resides. She came to Judaism late in life when, at forty, she realized her then-teenage children were losing their rich heritage and were also at risk of losing their spiritual connection. With the unswerving support of her husband, she embarked on a journey that brought beauty and purpose into the family home and into the lives of her loved ones. Most of all, she found a woman's way of connecting to G-d. Joannie began writing two decades ago, reflecting on her life as a baal teshuva. Through the years, she honed her skills and was the creator and editor of the Mosaic Magazine, a Chabad publication, for more than seventeen years. She serves on the lay board of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) and works part-time in Beth Rivkah Academy in Montreal. With a global following, The Blanche Report is a bi-weekly newsletter that provides the perfect mix of information and humor. Joannie is not afraid to tackle any subject, which has earned her a devoted fanbase of loyal readers. Distributed by leading publisher Urim Publications, Girl Meets God: The Gift of Being a Jewish Woman is a powerful novel that chronicles Joannie's path to embracing Orthodox Judaism from a feminine point of view. Audiences around the world have had the pleasure of listening to Joannie deliver keynotes, moderate discussion panels, and conduct engaging interviews. Her breathtaking honesty is deeply moving and compelling and leaves her audiences wanting more.
Chava Shapiro
Brooklyn, NY
Chava Shapiro
Brooklyn, NY
Chava Shapiro is the Associate Director and Director of Curriculum for the Rosh Chodesh Society, JLI’s women’s studies division. She is a published editorialist and blogger on Judaism-related topics and has served on panels addressing issues related to women and Judaism. Chava is also a classical singer and has performed across the U.S. for audiences of up to 3,000 women. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Michoel and son, Moshe Aharon.
Yael Trusch
Houston, TX
Yael Trusch
Houston, TX
Yael Trusch is the creator of the bilingual Jewish lifestyle Blog and weekly Podcast for women, Jewish Latin Princess. She is an influencer, communicator and promoter of ‘a joyful, richer Jewish life,’ inspiring women around the globe with her positivity and colorful persona.
Yael began a healthy obsession with Judaism while in college, which took her to adopt an increasingly observant lifestyle. Her message to Jewish women is always honest, approachable and relatable, profound yet practical. Yael’s bilingual classes include local and international lectures across the globe — from Guatemala to Shanghai — over a range of topics, relevant to observant and not-yet-observant women alike.
As a wife and mother of four children, Yael is dedicated to building a Jewish home, which provides real-life content for her blog, podcast and new courses for women. She also authors a monthly column The Jewish Herald Voice “Defining Jewish Women,” and contributes regularly to TheJewishWoman.org. Yael has a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Tufts University, and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business. A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Yael has since globe trotted from New York to Argentina to Chile to China to Israel and back.
Dr. Lev Virine
Calgary, Canada
Dr. Lev Virine
Calgary, Canada
Lev Virine, Ph.D., P.Eng. born in Moscow. He received a doctoral degree in Engineering and Computer Science from Moscow University. He is currently President of Intaver Institute, Canadian-based firm focused on project risk management and decision analysis. His clients include NASA, US Department of Energy, US Department of Defence, major aerospace, defense, oil and gas, and pharmaceutical companies. Lev Virine is an author of more than 50 papers and articles and three books. Lev is a frequent speaker on conferences and symposiums worldwide on the psychology of judgment and decision making, risk analysis and risk management.
Rabbi Chaim Block
San Antonio, TX
Rabbi Chaim Block
San Antonio, TX
Rabbi Chaim Block is the director of the South Texas Chabad-Lubavitch branch since 1985. A highly articulate presenter of Jewish thought and mysticism, Rabbi Block’s educational and outreach work has sparked a Jewish renaissance in San Antonio and surrounding areas in South Texas.
Rabbi Block is a founding member of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s executive board and the Chairman of the JLI Teens division.
Alicia Wilbur
Oxnard, CA
Alicia Wilbur
Oxnard, CA
From her first experiences tasting fine Chardonnay while bartending at the upscale Valeriano’s Restaurant in Los Gatos, California, Alicia Wilbur has been fascinated with the process of crafting truly great wine. In 2002, while working together with a Jewish non-profit organization, Alicia had the opportunity to meet Benyomin Kantz of Four Gates Winery in Santa Cruz, CA; who while discussing “what makes a wine great”, recognized her passion for the industry and inspired her to pursue it. From this pivotal moment, Alicia knew that she wanted to not only move the needle in the wine world, but to revolutionize kosher wine making and close the gap between Kosher and non-kosher wines.
In 2004, Alicia moved to Sonoma, California to work harvest at Loxton Cellars–while at the same time working in the tasting room at B.R. Cohn Winery. Under the guidance of Chris Loxton, she learned to scale barrels, wash out tanks, drive fork lifts; and perhaps most importantly, that wine making is largely about spending the day making huge messes and cleaning them up–and having a huge amount of fun doing it! The Loxton Family also recognized Alicia’s passion for wine making, and encouraged her to study Enology at Fresno State University.
From 2005-2008, Alicia achieved her degree in Enology with a minor in Chemistry, studying sensory tasting, chemistry, bio chemistry and micro biology; while at the same time working two harvests at the Fresno State Winery. This experience, along with being a part of the Enology Society, Sensory Research Program and working as Research Assistant for Ken Fugelsang, both humbled and galvanized her to master her craft.
In 2010, while living in New York City with her family, Alicia learned about the Court of Master Sommeliers and began her journey as a certified Sommelier. At the same time, Vintage 1891 Kitchen–a high end restaurant and wine lounge was opened, where Alicia was hired as the Sommelier and Wine Director. Here she selected and designed the wine program, taught classes and held tastings; all while learning the ins-and-outs of the wine business.
In 2012, Herzog Wine Cellars reached out to Alicia and asked if she would ever get back into the production side of the wine industry–and her mind was made up. In 2013, she began working together with Herzog Wine Cellars as Enologist, and an integral part of the wine making team. In her work there, Alicia examines the characteristics and quality of the grapes–from harvest to the bottle and beyond. She is also a critical member of the blending team, tasting samples from all of the barrels in the cellar to find the best wines for each project. The work that Alicia does at Herzog Wine Cellars not only helps them to produce award-winning wines year over year, but also is the realization of her passion to revolutionize kosher wine making. In 2016, Alicia was promoted to Assistant Winemaker with emphasis on the Jeunesse and Variations brands.
Alyza D. Lewin
Washington, D.C.
Alyza D. Lewin
Washington, D.C.
Alyza D. Lewin is a lawyer specializing in litigation and government relations. She currently practices law together with her father, Nathan Lewin, at Lewin & Lewin, LLP. Her work involves criminal defense and civil litigation matters.
Her clients include individuals and corporations under investigation by the Department of Justice, individuals who have been denied a security clearance and government employees who are the subject of inquiries relating to their official duties. In addition, together with her father, Ms. Lewin has won landmark cases defending First Amendment rights and civil liberties.
In December 2011, Ms. Lewin was elected President of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (“AAJLJ”), co-sponsors of the National Conference of Jewish Lawyers. In January 2012, Ms. Lewin was named by the Washington Jewish Week as one of D.C.’s “Ten Most Interesting Jews.”
Ami Eden
Ami Eden
Ami Eden is the Editor-in-Chief of the JTA, the premier Jewish news service whose articles and columns are syndicated worldwide. He previously served as Executive Editor of The Forward newspaper.
Avi Liberman
Los Angeles, CA
Avi Liberman
Los Angeles, CA
Avi Liberman's quirky style has made him a favorite in comedy clubs from Los Angeles to New York. Born in Israel, raised in Texas, having gone to college in New York, and now living in Los Angeles, his style is a winning combination of life experiences and topical issues told through a varied blend of characters and voices with worldwide expertise.
A successful commercial actor, Avi has appeared in spots for "Mercedes," "L.A. Cellular," "Miller Lite" and most recently "Starbucks" and "Net Zero." he has appeared at the prestigious Montreal Just For Laughs Festival.since 2001. Avi has successfully arranged widely acclaimed stand-up comedy tours in Israel to help boost morale while donating all of the proceeds to a charity. The successful "Comedy For Koby" tour is now a bi-annual event, benefiting the Koby Mandell Foundation.
Avraham Duvdevani
Avraham Duvdevani
Avraham Duvdevani is the Chair of the World Zionist Organization. He chairs The Jewish Agency's Holocaust Restitution Committee. Prior to the current position he served as the Co-Chair of JNF and before that as the head of the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization.
Before joining the WZO in 1991, he served as secretary general of World Bnei Akiva for thirteen years. He has also headed the department of informal education at Orot Israel College. He previously spent a decade at the Jewish Agency directing various educational programs, culminating in a three-year stint in Europe on behalf of the Agency.
Avraham Duvdevani holds a BA and an MA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Avraham Duvdevani has been a member of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors since October 1991. He is a member of the Jewish Agency Executive and chairs the Holocaust Restitution Committee.
Avram Cohen
Oranit, Israel
Avram Cohen
Oranit, Israel
Abraham Cohen is the youngest brother of Eli Cohen, Israel’s most famous spy. Before retiring in 2009, Abraham Cohen was the senior economist for the Industrial Development Bank of Israel, in charge of feasibility studies for the electronics, high-tech, and defense industries. He currently does volunteer work for the Weizmann Historical Archive and is active in the Association for the Preservation of the Legacy of Eli Cohen.
Baila Olidort
Brooklyn, NY
Baila Olidort
Brooklyn, NY
Baila Olidort is Director of Communications at Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters. She was the long-time editor of Wellsprings, a journal of Jewish thought, and the editor of Feeding Among the Lilies, published by Wellsprings, 1999.
She is is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Lubavitch International, the news and editorial publication of Chabad-Lubavitch representing Chabad emissaries globally.
Baila lectures on Jewish themes for communities in the U.S. and abroad.
Bella Miller
Wanaque, NJ
Ben G. Frank
Miami, FL
Ben G. Frank
Miami, FL
Ben G. Frank, author, and journalist, is considered one of this country’s most distinguished travel writers and commentators on Jewish communities around the world. The Scattered Tribe, Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond, (Globe Pequot Press), breaks new ground in reporting on far-flung exotic Jewish outposts. He is the author of 3 other well received travel guides to distant Jewish communities.
Bernd Wollschlaeger, M.D.
Bernd Wollschlaeger, M.D.
Bernd Wollschlaeger , is the son of a highly decorated World War II, German tank commander. He considered his father’s Nazi allegiance to be a cardinal sin. This led him to study the suffering of the Jewish people; an ultimate conversion to Judaism; and a decision to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.
Bronya Slavin Shaffer
Brooklyn, NY
Bronya Slavin Shaffer
Brooklyn, NY
Bronya Slavin Shaffer was born in France and raised in Montreal where she attended Bais Yakov High School, Hebrew Teacher's Seminary, and Sir George Williams University. Mrs. Shaffer is noted lecturer on Jewish women's issues, bringing to her listeners a refreshingly modern view grounded firmly in Torah values.
Although Chassidic, Mrs. Shaffer's broad scope of knowledge enables her to present a Torah perspective on modern life in a uniquely sensitive and sensible fashion. She has traveled extensively in the United States and Canada, as well as to Israel and the former Soviet Union, speaking on varied topics within the umbrella themes of marriage, intimacy, parenting, religious identity, and women’s issues.
Mrs. Shaffer serves as a mentor to people of all backgrounds and offers guidance to women, couples and adolescents. In addition to conducting regular classes, Mrs. Shaffer serves as a facilitator for several women’s self-awareness and support groups and leads workshops on child-rearing and relationships. She is a resident scholar on AskMoses.com and Chabad.org.
Brooke Goldstein
New York, NY
Brooke Goldstein
New York, NY
Brooke Goldstein is a New York City-based human rights attorney, author, and award-winning filmmaker. She serves as director of The Lawfare Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about and facilitating a response to the abuse of Western legal systems and human rights law. Brooke is also the founder and director of the Children’s Rights Institute.
Brooke’s first book, co-authored with Aaron Eitan Meyer and entitled Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech: A First Amendment Guide For Reporting in an Age of Islamist Lawfare, gives practical guidance to journalists who wish to speak truthfully about the national security threats faced by liberal democracies.
Brooke’s award-winning documentary film, The Making of a Martyr, uncovers the illegal, state-sponsored indoctrination and recruitment of Palestinian children for suicide-homicide attacks.
Brooke is a seasoned public speaker and commentator for the media, universities and government.
Burt Siegel
New York, NY
Burt Siegel
New York, NY
Siegel's first Rabbinic position was at Riverdale Temple in New York as the Assistant Rabbi. After just one year he became the Senior Rabbi. He was the youngest Rabbi to ever be the Senior Rabbi of such a major Reform congregation.
After ten years, he decided to become a Community Rabbi without a congregation. He taught many classes in various synagogues. He later decided to found his own congregation, the Shul of New York. From a handful of people, the synagogue grew to over a thousand members.
Unable to find what his soul longed for, he decided to go to India to explore Eastern Religion. Trying hard to comprehend the teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism, he travelled to India thirteen times, but in the end, nothing touched his heart and soul.
In 2013, after a time of great inner turmoil, he began going to Chabad in Manhattan. In Chabad he has found his spiritual home and his religious truth. He now hopes to to share his inspiration with as many people as possible.
Cantor Dovid Caytak
Jerusalem, Israel
Cantor Dovid Caytak
Jerusalem, Israel
Chazanus has always been a special talent that was treasured within the Caytak family. Uncle Pinchas Caytak, who survived the war and lived in Queens, had a hauntingly beautiful voice.
Dovid grew up in Ottawa, Canada,with his eleven brothers and sisters.
Dovid's voice is a powerful lyric tenor. He has studied with various voice teachers, the latest being Richard Barrett; chair of Opera in Brooklyn College. Dovid studied Nusach with world renowned Nusach teacher, Cantor Noach Shall. His sources of inspiration are his late uncle Pinchas, who sang in the great Synagogue of Warsaw and his wife's grandfather, may he live and be well, the famous Chazzan Berel Zaltzman. In addition, Dovid has spent much time listening to, studying and singing the pieces of Cantors Moshe Koussevitzky , Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, and Cantor Noach Shaul. Dovid is now busy performing at various Shabbatons and events throughout North America. For the Yomim Tovim, he has traveled all over the world, even as far as London and Brazil!
Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson
Cary Nelson is Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches courses on Holocaust poetry and other subjects. He is author or editor of 30 books and the author of 300 articles. A former national president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), he has been fighting the campaign to boycott Israel since 2007. Last year he toured Israel giving lectures, radio interviews, and television appearances about BDS.
Chanie Apfelbaum
Brooklyn, NY
Chanie Apfelbaum
Brooklyn, NY
Chanie Apfelbaum is a food blogger, recipe developer and food photographer who blogs about her cooking adventures at www.busyinbrooklyn.com. She combines her love of food, family and tradition to create fun and original dishes that your whole family will enjoy.
Chaya Epstein
Chicago, IL
Chaya Epstein
Chicago, IL
Mrs. Chaya Epstein is the founder and director of "Women to Women", the women's educational division of Chabad-Lubavitch of the state of Illinois. Mrs. Epstein is the Assistant Principal of Lubavitch Girls High School of Chicago where she teaches advanced Bible studies.
Chaya Epstein has served for nearly twenty years with her husband Rabbi Baruch Epstein as a Chabad emissary to Chicago where she is the beloved Rebbetzin of Congregation Bais Menachem Nusach Ari and has complete several lecture tours spanning the U.S.
Chaya Posner
Rancho Mirage, CA
Chaya Posner
Rancho Mirage, CA
Chaya Teldon
Long Island, NY
Chaya Teldon
Long Island, NY
Chaya Teldon is co-director of Chabad of Long Island, NY. Mrs. Teldon is a much sought after speaker, and has lectured throughout the US, as well as in Israel, Australia, Canada, England, Argentina and South Africa. The New York Times called her the “Erma Bombeck” of Jewish Speakers. Her humor and warmth, mixed with the Jewish wisdom of the ages, has captured the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide.
Dan Arbell
Washington, D.C.
Dan Arbell
Washington, D.C.
Dan Arbell is a strategic and political consultant, frequently interviewed in the American and international media. A 26 year veteran of the Israeli Foreign Service he is currently a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C, and a scholar-in-residence at the Department of History and the School of International Service (SIS) at American University in Washington DC.
Daniel Schlessinger
Chicago, IL
Daniel Schlessinger
Chicago, IL
Daniel Schlessinger is a partner in the international law firm, Locke Lord, LLP. He is also Co-Vice Chair, the Chairman of the Lateral Hiring Committee and a member of the Executive Committee of the firm. He served as the firm’s Managing Partner and Chairman from 2001 through 2004.
Mr. Schlessinger has over 30 years of experience in business litigation and has handled a wide variety of lawsuits and arbitrations involving many types of business and insurance disputes. He has tried more than 30 cases to verdict or judicial ruling and has obtained summary relief in hundreds of others.
Mr. Schlessinger represents pro bono clients through the National Immigrant Justice Center and Chicago Volunteer Legal Service, which twice has given him its Volunteer of the Year Award. In his tenure as Chairman of Locke Lord, he helped elevate the firm's commitment to diversity and pro bono service.
Mr. Schlessinger is President of the American Friends of Hebrew University and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of Hebrew University. He is the recipient of the American Friends of the Hebrew University Torch of Learning Award. Mr. Schlessinger is Chairman of the International Conference of Jewish Lawyers at the National Jewish Retreat.
David A. Hyman
Chicago, IL
David A. Hyman
Chicago, IL
David A. Hyman, M.D., J.D., is the H. Ross and Helen Workman Chair in Law and Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois, where he directs the Epstein Program in Health Law and Policy. He focuses his research and writing on the regulation and financing of health care. He teaches or has taught health care regulation, civil procedure, insurance, medical malpractice, law & economics, professional responsibility, and tax policy.
While serving as special counsel to the Federal Trade Commission, Professor Hyman was principal author and project leader for the first joint report ever issued by the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, “Improving Health Care: A Dose of Competition” (2004). He is also the author of “Medicare Meets Mephistopheles,” which was selected by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce/National Chamber Foundation as one of the top ten books of 2007. He has published widely in student edited law reviews and peer reviewed medical, health policy, and law journals.
David Nessenoff
Setauket, NY
David Nessenoff
Setauket, NY
David Nessenoff is an independet filmaker, singer/songwriter of contemperary Jewish music, and blogger. David gained national attention in June 2010 when he posted a video he had made of opinion columnist Helen Thomas making controversial statements about Israel to his website. Over the next several days, the video went viral. When Thomas resigned from her job, Nessenoff recieved over 25,000 pieces of hate mail, including several death threats.
He maintains a website, RabbiLive.com, which features short video clips and articles about Israel, and interviews with well-known rabbis.
David Perelman
David Perelman
David Perelman is the energetic CEO of The JCommerce Group, parent company of KosherWine.com and it’s sister companies. His passion for wine, ecommerce and customer experience is driving double digit year-on-year growth and fueling the companies line of exclusive imports and private labels.
David Suissa
Los Angeles, CA
David Suissa
Los Angeles, CA
David Suissa is a branding and advertising consultant, as well as a popular columnist and eloquent Israel advocate. He is the founder of OLAM magazine and founder and CEO of Suissa Miller Advertising, USA Today’s Agency of the Year. Suissa’s writings on advertising have been published in several publications, including The Los Angeles Times and Advertising Age. He is also president of TRIBE Media Corp/The Jewish Journal and writes frequently on Israel and American Jewish affairs.
David T. Brown
Chicago, IL
David T. Brown
Chicago, IL
David T. Brown is the Chairman of the Board of the Chicago based business law firm, Much Shelist, PC and is actively involved in strategic planning and leadership development for the firm.
Mr. Brown is a legal and business counselor, assisting his clients with their legal and business issues as well as their strategic and human talent development. He also represents institutional lenders and commercial real estate firms in virtually all aspects of commercial real estate and corporate loan and workout transactions. David is a regular speaker and writer on a broad range of topics, including business planning and succession, and the business aspects of the legal profession.
Mr. Brown is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF). He has held several leadership positions with the JUF including Chair of the Government Affairs Committee, where he presented the JUF’s position on important policy issues to government officials in Washington D.C. and President of the Young Leadership Division. David was a recipient of the JUF's Young Leadership Award.
He was recently named a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and chairs JFNA's Human Services and Public Policy Council where he works closely with professional leadership in JFNA's Washington, D.C. office and lay leadership throughout the United States on health and long-term care issues, care of the aged, disability and tax policies. David is active in AIPAC and is a regular visitor to Israel.
Mr. Brown is Chairman of the International Conference of Jewish Lawyers at the National Jewish Retreat
David Weiss
Los Angeles, CA
David Weiss
Los Angeles, CA
Emmy Award nominee, David N. Weiss, has written for some of Hollywood’s most endearing family films, from Academy Award nominated features, “Shrek 2” & “Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius” to the Rugrats Movies, The Smurfs (with a record-breaking 7 weeks at #1, world-wide) and Smurfs 2. David’s combined box office revenues now exceeds $2.3 billion worldwide -- if only he got a percentage, his parents might forgive him for not being a doctor. Mr. Weiss served as a head writer on the “Rugrats” TV Series and penned the acclaimed perennial “Rugrats Chanukah. Weiss's hilarious and inspiring tale centers on his wacky journey from secular Jew to dynamic Christian youth leader to Modern Orthodox/blockbusting screenwriter. Says Weiss, "When you find yourself under a Chupah in a Presbyterian Church being married by a Jews for Jesus Rabbi, you know something has to give."
Dena Levin
Palo Alto, CA
Dena Levin
Palo Alto, CA
Dena Levin grew up in Crown Heights Brooklyn. In 1980 she and her husband Yosef moved to Palo Alto CA. to open a Chabad outreach center. Their organization now includes five Chabad Houses, a Shul, Mikvah, preschool, Camp Gan Israel, two Hebrew Schools, Friendship Circle and many ongoing programs and services. Dena and Yosef have 13 children and several grandchildren.
Devorie Kreiman
Los Angeles, CA
Devorie Kreiman
Los Angeles, CA
Devorie Kreiman, MA Ed, served as principal of Bais Rebbe Junior High School in Los Angeles for 12 years. She is an educational consultant and leader of teacher training workshops in Los Angeles and New York and the author of The Bas Mitzva Notebook. Her personal journey through challenge and loss has led her to develop a “user friendly” understanding of the Torah approach to human resilience and growth. She is an inspirational lecturer on the power of faith, humor and joy.
Dovid Efune
New York, NY
Dovid Efune
New York, NY
Dovid Efune is the editor-in-chief of The Algemeiner newspaper and the director of its parent non-profit; the Gershon Jacobson Foundation.
He is widely credited with transforming The Algemeiner from a Yiddish language print publication into a major international online destination for Jewish, Israel and Middle East related news. During Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's October, 2014 visit to the United States, Efune was the only newspaper journalist to interview the PM.
Under his leadership, The Algemeiner has achieved #1 ranking on the Technorati 'World Authority' index and was referred to as "the fastest growing Jewish newspaper in America" by CNBC. The publication has been described as the "Jewish Huffington Post" and hosts over 850 bloggers.
Efune has two rabbinic degrees and a Masters in Hebrew Letters. He is regularly interviewed on major TV channels including CBS, CNBC, Fox News, CNN, i24 News, Real News TV, The Blaze, NY1 and Huffington Post Live. He is a popular public speaker, writes a widely read weekly column and also featured on Sky TV's Jews on Bikes show.
Dr. Alan Kadish
New York, NY
Dr. Alan Kadish
New York, NY
Alan H. Kadish, MD is president of the New York- based Touro College System which includes New York Medical College and Touro Law School. Established with the focus of providing higher education to the Jewish community, Touro has grown to serve a widely diverse population of over 19,000 students in thirty two schools in five countries.
Dr. Kadish is board certified in cardiology and internal medicine and was formerly the Associate Chief of Cardiology at the Feinberg School of Medicine for Northwestern University in Chicago. Though Dr. Kadish left Chicago at the time of his appointment at Touro in 2009, he retains an affiliation with the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and continues on the Feinberg faculty as an Adjunct Professor in Medicine – Cardiology. A dedicated clinical researcher and prolific writer, Dr. Kadish is the author or co-author of more than 150 peer-reviewed articles in his field.
Dr. Alexander Poltorak
Suffern, NY
Dr. Alexander Poltorak
Suffern, NY
Dr. Alexander Poltorak, a Russian-born theoretical physicist, has held a number of academic positions at US institutions, including Columbia University, Touro College, and Cornell University Medical College.
Dr. Poltorak is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of General Patent Corporation (GPC), an intellectual property (IP) management boutique and was named by IAM magazine among Word’s leading IP strategists to founding GPC, Dr. Poltorak served as the President and CEO of Rapitech Systems, Inc., a publicly-traded computer technology company.
Dr. Poltorak has co-authored two books, Essentials of Licensing Intellectual Property (John Wiley & Sons Publishers, Inc., 2004) and Essentials of Intellectual Property (John Wiley & Sons Publishers, Inc., 2002), and contributed a chapter to Making Innovation Pay - Turning IP into Shareholder Value (John Wiley & Sons Publishers, Inc., 2006). He has also published a number of scholarly articles on physics, brain research and numerous articles on patent law, licensing and economics. His book Light onto my Path – the Mezuzah Anthology is published as an eBook on Chabad.org. His articles on Torah and science have appeared in B’Ohr HaTorah.
Dr. Casey Skvorc
Dr. Casey Skvorc
Dr. Casey Skvorc is a psychologist who is on the front lines of U.S.’s defense against biological warfare as the Behavioral Health Screening Authority for the Biosurety and Select Agent Programs for the National Institutes of Health, and as a consultant with the NIH’s Division of Occupational Health and Safety in the fields of law and occupational health psychology, personnel reliability for high security positions, and toxicology.
Dr. Skvorc, who is also a lawyer, previously worked at the Department of Justice, where he held several positions including Assistant Regional Counsel and Director of its National Legal Training Center.
Dr. Chana Silberstein
Ithaca, New York
Dr. Chana Silberstein
Ithaca, New York
Chana Silberstein is a developmental psychologist and educational consultant. She has written articles for Wellsprings Magazine and Lubavitch.com, and currently serves as director of curriculum and development [YW4] for the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute.
Dr. David Luchins
New York, NY
Dr. David Luchins
New York, NY
Dr. David Luchins has been Chair of the Political Science Department at Touro College since 1978. He is a graduate of Yeshiva College, and earned his doctorate from the CUNY Graduate center. Dr. Luchins teaches courses in American Politics and International Relations, and serves as Founding Dean of Touro’s Lander College for Women. Dr. Luchins served on the staff of United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan for twenty years as special assistant, senior assistant, and ultimately, as senior advisor to the Senator. He is active in Jewish Communal life, having served as vice-president of the Orthodox Union since 1976, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (since 1984), and the National Commissions of the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Fund for Justice. David Luchins spends his summers as a guest professor at the Aish HaTorah College of Judaic Studies in Jerusalem, and is a frequent speaker at high schools, college campuses, synagogues, and communal groups throughout North America, lecturing on a broad range of political and social issues.
Dr. Diane Medved, Ph.D.
Seattle, WA
Dr. Diane Medved, Ph.D.
Seattle, WA
Diane Medved is a clinical psychologist, Internet talk show host, and author of four books, including the bestselling The American Family with former vice president Dan Quayle.
Dr. Erica Brown
Silver Spring, MD
Dr. Erica Brown
Silver Spring, MD
Dr. Erica Brown is the Director for Adult Education at The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning, a faculty member of the Wexner Foundation, and a consultant for The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Dr. Brown is the author of Inspired Jewish Leadership, a National Jewish Book Award finalist, and Spiritual Boredom, and she is co-author of The Case for Jewish Peoplehood. She has served as an adjunct professor at American University and George Washington University and lectures widely on subjects of Jewish interest and leadership, in addition to extensive writing in journals of education and Jewish studies. She writes a weekly internet essay, Weekly Jewish Wisdom (www.pjll.org), which also appears on the Newsweek/Washington Post’s On Faith website. Dr. Brown is the recipient of the 2009 Covenant Award for her work in education, and is the winner of the Ted Farber Professional Excellence Award.
Dr. Gill Heart
Atlanta, GA
Dr. Gill Heart
Atlanta, GA
Dr. Gill Heart was born and raised in Israel where he served as an officer in an elite, Special Forces unit in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) training and commanding soldiers in his unit.
After receiving his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College, London University, he moved to the United States and became an entrepreneur. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Heart has successfully founded and led venture-backed, medical device startups. During this time, Dr. Heart followed a serious course of study of Torah and Jewish mysticism.
Dr. Heart leads seminars and workshops where he implements Kabbalistic knowledge of how to control one’s responses to triggers, e.g. stress, by utilizing Special Forces methods and training techniques. The sessions are designed to help participants improve their personal and corporate performance.
Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger
Washington, D.C.
Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger
Washington, D.C.
Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger is a virologist and Chief of the Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH. With Ann Reid, he was the first to sequence the genome of the influenza virus which caused the 1918 pandemic of Spanish flu. His current research aims to inform public health strategies in respect to seasonal flu, swine flu and pandemic flu among other strains.
Dr. Joel Roffman
Plano, TX
Dr. Joel Roffman
Plano, TX
Dr. Joel Roffman is a cardiologist practicing in Plano, Texas. He graduated from Boston University School of Medicine and after completing his post-graduate studies in Hartford, Connecticut, moved to Dallas, Texas, where he and his wife raised their family, and where he continues to maintain a busy cardiology practice at the Baylor Plano Heart Hospital.
Dr. Roffman has served as chairperson of the charitable foundation for his cardiology group of 70 physicians. Having recently authored, "Making Every Day Count: A Jewish Doctor Confronts his Illness," Dr. Roffman has also written a book with Rabbi Gordon Fuller, "Coping with Adversity: Judaism's response to Illness and Other Life Struggles."
Dr. Jon Greenberg
Paramus, NJ
Dr. Jon Greenberg
Paramus, NJ
Dr. Jon Greenberg received his bachelor’s degree with honors in biology from Brown University, and his master’s and Ph.D. in agronomy from Cornell University. He studied with Rabbi Chaim Brovender at Israel’s Yeshivat Hamivtar, and has conducted research for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cornell University, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Cancer Research. Dr. Greenberg was Senior Editor of science textbooks at Prentice Hall Publishing Co., and served on the faculty of Yeshivas Ohr Yosef and the School of Education at Indiana University. Currently, Dr. Greenberg teaches at the Heschel School and the University of Phoenix, and is the webmaster of Torah Flora, an ethnobotany website dedicated to the study and preservation of Biblical plants. The study and practice of Biblical ethnobotany includes identifying plants and other natural phenomena mentioned in the Tanach (Jewish Bible), using information about these plants and phenomena to shed light on their use in prophetic metaphor, and studying the plants involved in performing various mitzvot in order to bring deeper meaning to the performance of those mitzvot.
Dr. Judea Pearl
Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Judea Pearl
Los Angeles, CA
Born in Israel, Dr. Pearl is an award-winning scientist with a Ph.D. in Physics from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Pearl is a professor of computer science and Director of the Cognitive Systems Laboratory at UCLA. He is known internationally for his contributions to artificial intelligence, human reasoning, and philosophy of science, and has authored of over three hundreds scientific papers and three fundamental books in his fields of interest. Dr. Judea Pearl is the father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl [YW2] and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which he cofounded in April 2002 "to continue Daniel's life-work of dialogue and understanding and to address the root causes of his tragedy." He, and his wife Ruth, have coedited the book, I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl.
Dr. Matthew Levitt
Washington, D.C.
Dr. Matthew Levitt
Washington, D.C.
Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. From 2005 to early 2007, he served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he served both as a senior official within the department's terrorism and financial intelligence branch and as deputy chief of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, one of sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies coordinated under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. During his tenure at Treasury, Dr. Levitt played a central role in efforts to protect the U.S. financial system from abuse and to deny terrorists, weapons proliferators, and other rogue actors the ability to finance threats to U.S. national security. In 2008-2009, he served as a State Department counterterrorism advisor to the special envoy for Middle East regional security (SEMERS), General James L. Jones.
From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Levitt served the Institute as founding director of its Terrorism Research Program (now renamed as above), which was established in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Previously, he served as a counterterrorism intelligence analyst at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), where he provided tactical and strategic analytical support for counterterrorism operations, focusing on fundraising and logistical support networks for Middle Eastern terrorist groups. During his FBI service, Dr. Levitt participated as a team member in a number of crisis situations, including the terrorist threat surrounding the turn of the millennium and the September 11 attacks. He has earned numerous awards and commendations for his government service at both the FBI and the Treasury Department.
Dr. Levitt holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Yeshiva University, as well as a master's degree in law and diplomacy and a doctorate from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He was a graduate research fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation and has taught at both Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Levitt has served as an expert witness in several criminal and civil cases, lectured on international terrorism on behalf of the Departments of State, Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security, consulted for various U.S. government agencies and private industry, and testified before the Senate and House on matters relating to international terrorism. He has held fellowships with the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security (CCHS) at the George Washington University, is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves as a member of the international advisory board for both the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel and the International Centre for Political Violence & Terrorism Research in Singapore. He serves on the advisory board of Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF) and the academic advisory board for the Emirati Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR).
Dr. Levitt has written extensively on terrorism, countering violent extremism, illicit finance and sanctions, the Middle East, and Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, with articles appearing in peer-reviewed journals, policy magazines, and the press, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and numerous other publications. He is also a frequent guest on the national and international media, and the author of several books and monographs, including Hamas: Politics, Charity and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad (Yale University Press, 2006), Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), and Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God (Georgetown University Press, 2013).
Dr. Mindy Greenstein
New York, NY
Dr. Mindy Greenstein
New York, NY
Mindy Greenstein, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and cancer psychologist, as well as a writer, mother, and fellow cancer patient. Greenstein is a consultant to the geriatric group in the Department of Psychiatry at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where she has also served as chief clinical fellow and co-developer of Meaning-Centered Group Psychotherapy with William Breitbart, M.D.
In addition to writing professional papers, Greenstein has written essays for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other publications. Her new book, LIGHTER AS WE GO: Virtues, Character Strengths, and Aging (Oxford University Press, coauthored by Jimmie Holland, M.D.), explores the ways we learn to "travel light" over the years.
Dr. Miriam Grossman
New York, NY
Dr. Miriam Grossman
New York, NY
Miriam Grossman, M.D., is a board certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist. She writes and speaks to parents, students, educators, and health professionals internationally on the dangers of political correctness in her profession. She is the author of You're Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child and Unprotected: Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student.
Dr. Richard Herman
Champaign, IL
Dr. Richard Herman
Champaign, IL
Dr. Shmuel Klatzkin
Dayton, OH
Dr. Shmuel Klatzkin
Dayton, OH
Dr. Shmuel Klatzkin is the Associate Rabbi of Chabad of Greater Dayton, Ohio, an adjunct Professor at Antioch University and Senior Editor of Curriculum at JLI.
Dr. Klatzkin pursued a doctorate in medieval Jewish philosophy from Brandeis University. While still a student, he began teaching Judaic studies in Jewish day schools, which he continued to do for almost twenty years.
Dr. Klatzkin was one of the initial developers of JLI’s first courses and collaborated on the establishment of the style and pattern of JLI courses that is followed until today. Over the years, he was both author and editor of many JLI courses, most recently, he guided the development of JLI’s winter course, Money Matters.
Dr. Klatzkin has translated and edited DVDs of talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe for Jewish Educational Media, and was a contributing editor to Wellsprings, a journal of Chassidic thought.
He has been a featured speaker from coast to coast in the US and Canada and in the UK and Ireland and is also a Visiting Rabbi for OK Kosher Certification.
Dr. Stephen Serbin
Columbia, SC
Dr. Stephen Serbin
Columbia, SC
Dr. Stephen Serbin is managing partner and medical director of five family medicine practices in Columbia, South Carolina, and has been extremely active in the local Jewish community. Among the many local board positions he has held, Dr. Serbin has served on the board of the Columbia Jewish Federation for the past 24 years. He was appointed to the UJC International Board of Directors in 2001, and served as the first UJC Small Cities Chairman. Dr. Serbin was a widely traveled speaker for the UJA and CJF on the subjects of Israel Missions, Leadership Development, and Jewish Identity. Dr. Serbin has also been a member of the initial steering committee for the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, and served as the first lay chairman.
Dr. Yaakov Brawer
Dr. Yaakov Brawer
Dr. Brawer received his PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard University in 1975, following an NHI postdoctoral fellowship, he joined the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Anatomy & Cell Biology, in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, where he established and directed a research laboratory in Reproductive Neuroendocrinology.
He has been a Medical Research Council of Canada Scholar, Director of the Division of Research in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of the McGill Centre for the Study of Reproduction.
Dr. Brawer has taught Reproductive Endocrinology, Neuroendocrinology, and Functional Neuroanatomy to medical students and undergraduates in addition to supervising graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He has also been a Director of Basis of Medicine.
Eleven years ago, Dr. Brawer became a core member of the McGill Centre for Medical Education in which his research focused on philosophical issues in Medical Education.
Dr. Brawer retired from McGill last year and is currently a Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Medicine.
Dudu Fisher
Tel Aviv, Israel
Dudu Fisher
Tel Aviv, Israel
Elaine Hamilton
Elaine Hamilton
Elaine has a professional career as Executive Vice President and Officer of numerous high tech and bio tech companies in the Silicon Valley including Geron, NetApp, and Marvell Semiconductor. She currently sits on the Advisory Board of Directors of Patient Key and Medpedia. She is Vice President and COO of Hamilton Financial and the businesses owns with her husband, Michael. Her community service includes includes the Board of the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, NOVA Workforce Investment Board (Chairman) and Silicon Valley Starting Arts. She also is on the Board of Directors for the Jewish Community Center of Silicon Valley, a Federation Lion of Judah, and a Friend of the Rabin Center in Israel.
Elaine has a Bachelors Degree in Education and Psychology from University of Iowa and Masters Degree in Organization Development from University of San Francisco. On a personal level, she and her husband raised three sons , two of which are married with two grandchildren (so far).
Estelle Glaser Laughlin
Chicago, IL
Estelle Glaser Laughlin
Chicago, IL
Estelle Glaser Laughlin, a child survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Uprising, and concentration camps, immigrated to America at eighteen. With only three years of public school education, she earned a master's degree in education. After retirement from a long career in teaching in Maryland, she has continued to write and lecture widely about her experience and survival. She is the author of Transcending Darkness: A Girl's Journey Out of the Holocaust.
Gabriel Wilensky
San Diego, CA
Gabriel Wilensky
San Diego, CA
Gabriel Wilensky is an American author, software developer and entrepreneur. He was born in Uruguay, where his eastern-European grandparents emigrated before the Second World War. He is the author of the highly acclaimed book Six Million Crucifixions, which traces the history of anti-Semitism in Christianity and the role it played in the Holocaust.
Herschel Lazaroff
Monsey, NY
Herschel Lazaroff
Monsey, NY
Herschel Lazaroff is the director of the Center for the Advancement of Creativity and Human Potential. Over the past 23 years, Herschel has helped facilitate life changing transformation for hundreds of clients around the globe. With joy and humor, keen intuition, and energy healing expertise, Herschel is able to zero in on what needs to be shifted in an individual to allow greater insight, creativity, prosperity and harmony to flow. Based on the Torah and Kabbalah, Herschel's unique system enables his clients to remove emotional and spiritual blocks and experience a greater sense of well-being, and the freedom to pursue their goals and actualize their potential.
Jeff Morgan
Berkeley, CA
Jessica Fechtor
San Francisco, CA
Jessica Fechtor
San Francisco, CA
Jessica Fechtor is the author of Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals that Brought Me Home, which chronicles her recovery from a ruptured brain aneurysm at 28, and how she reclaimed her life through food and cooking. A New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2015 Living Now Book Award, Stir has been praised by Oprah.com as "a page-turning pleasure," and by The Wall Street Journal as "a recipe for living a life of meaning." Fechtor is an alumna of the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel, the Dorot Fellowship in Israel, and the Wexner Graduate Fellowship. She is a PhD candidate at Harvard University, where she is writing a dissertation on representations of food in modern Jewish literature. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Tablet, and The Forward. Fechtor lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughters.
Karen Levitt
Vancouver, BC
Karen Levitt
Vancouver, BC
Karen Levitt is the Director, Business Planning and Project Support at the City of Vancouver. She has held various positions at the City over the past twenty-six years, including Director of Olympic Games Strategic Planning, Deputy City Treasurer and Manager of Financial Planning. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel, and previously served on the Boards of the 2010 Winter Games Operating Trust, King David High School and Jewish Family Service Agency in Vancouver.
Ms. Levitt has an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Over the past ten years she has taught a number of popular courses at the Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel in Vancouver, including the Jewish Calendar: Finding Yourself in Time, Exploring Morality: The Ten Commandments, and Overcoming Folly: The Jewish Take on Leading a Spiritual Life.
Laurie Lans
Fort Benning, GA
Laurie Lans
Fort Benning, GA
As a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Reserve, Mrs. Laurie Lans served on active duty in the Middle East supporting Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom from January 2003 to August 2003. She was activated once again to full time service and joined the ground forces in Iraq from September 2005 to September 2006, and most recently served in Afghanistan June 2010 to June 2011.
While stationed in war zones, Laurie upheld her duties not only militarily but also as a Jew despite the obstacles she faced. She tells stirring stories of events such as a giant menorah lighting ceremony in none other than Saddam Hussein's Palace and how she and her husband were the only Rabbi and wife to be sent to Afghanistan. She’ll all speak about the steps she took to honor the Sabbath and keep kosher. She describes amazing people she met along the way in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Jews from around the world who were just as surprised to see Laurie as she was to meet them, including one who eventually become her husband!
In a recent interview LCDR Lans stated, “I’m grateful to G‑d for giving me the opportunity to serve my country; I’m so humbled to wear the uniform. Joining the military was one of the best decisions of my life. I’m also so proud to know I’ve been able to serve, even during war, never having to compromise my Judaism or devotion to the Jewish people.”
Martin Pritikin
Los Angeles, CA
Martin Pritikin
Los Angeles, CA
Martin Pritikin is the newly appointed Dean of Concord Law School at Kaplan University, the nation’s first fully online law school. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review. He then spent several years at the litigation firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP in Los Angeles, before entering academia full time at Whittier Law School in Orange County, California, where he taught course including Evidence, Advanced Litigation, and Criminal Law, and twice won the Teacher of the Year award. Pritikin’s scholarship has addressed both substantive legal issues and the need for reform in legal education, as well as comparisons between American and Jewish law. His articles have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law and Policy Review, the Cardozo Law Journal, and the Journal of Legal Education, among others. As an administrator, Pritikin founded and directed Whittier’s Institute for Trial and Appellate Practice, and served as their Associate Dean for Experiential Learning, Associate Dean of the Law School, and Acting Dean. He spearheaded their adoption of their “Experience the Law” curriculum, which was named 6th Most Innovative in the nation by National Jurist, and launched their incubator program, which provides recent graduates with the infrastructure and legal and business training to launch their own law practices.
Matty Bryski
Conejo Valley, CA
Matty Bryski
Conejo Valley, CA
Mrs. Matty Bryski has been an educator for nearly three decades. Thousands of Day School & Hebrew School students have enjoyed her enthusiastic approach to Judaic teaching over the years. She also leads a series of weekly study groups and courses for adults at the Conejo Jewish Academy and has worked with her husband in building a vibrant and thriving Jewish Community in Agoura Hills, California since 1986.
Menucha Schochet
Los Angeles, CA
Menucha Schochet
Los Angeles, CA
Michael A. Helfand
Michael A. Helfand
Professor Michael (Avi) Helfand is an expert on religious law and religious liberty. A frequent author and lecturer, his work considers how U.S. law treats religious law, custom and practice, focusing on the intersection of private law and religion in contexts such as religious arbitration, religious contracts and religious torts. His academic articles have appeared in numerous law journals, including the Yale Law Journal, New York University Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Minnesota Law Review, Boston University Law Review, and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law. In addition, Professor Helfand often provides commentary on clashes between law and religion, writing for various public audience publications, including the Los Angeles Times,USA Today, the National Law Journal and the Forward.
Professor Helfand also serves as the associate director of the Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies at Pepperdine University as well a member of the faculty of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. In addition, he serves as both an arbitrator and consultant for the Beth Din of America.
Michael Medved
Seattle, WA
Michael Medved
Seattle, WA
Michael Medved is a nationally-syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author, and veteran film critic. His daily three-hour program, emphasizing the intersection of politics and pop culture, reaches more than 2 million listeners in over 180 markets, coast to coast. Mr. Medved is the author of ten non-fiction books, including the national bestseller What Really Happened to the Class of '65, the basis for a popular TV series on NBC.
Mrs. Keren Blum
New York, NY
Mrs. Keren Blum
New York, NY
Rebbetzin Keren Blum has been on shlichus with her family at Columbia University in the City of New York since 1997. She received a BA in Nutrition and Poverty from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and a Masters in Clinical Psychology with a focus on Sexuality and Relationships Education from Teachers College Columbia University. Keren has been teaching the principles of Jewish Marriage for eighteen years and attending at mikveh for fifteen years. She has participated in Jewish Marriage/Mikvah training programs through Young Israel, Yeshiva University, and Chabad Lubavitch. Her candid, progressive approach to teaching is refreshing and broadly appealing.
Mrs. Sara Esther Crispe
Danby, VT
Mrs. Sara Esther Crispe
Danby, VT
Sara Esther Crispe is the Co-Director of Interinclusion.org, a multi-layered educational non-profit celebrating the convergence between contemporary arts and sciences and timeless Jewish wisdom. She has traveled the world as a sought out motivational speaker and educator, presenting on interpersonal relationships and the Kabbalistic approach to self-development. Sara Esther was also the creator and editor for ten years of TheJewishWoman.org—a section of Chabad.org—the largest website on Judaism. She has also worked as a local producer for shows relating to Judaism on the Oprah Winfrey Network, HARPO Productions, Refinery 29 and CNN. A segment that she helped produce for Oprah’s BELIEF series was presented at the UN. A prolific writer, her pieces can be found on numerous online sites including The Huffington Post, GrokNation, Times of Israel, and Chabad.org. She is currently working on a book about the power of the Jewish woman as well as a book on parenting titled, I Used to be the Perfect Mother, Then I Had Kids. She lives with her husband, Rabbi Asher Crispe, and their four children in Danby, Vermont where they run Jewish educational retreats and programming.
Myron Sugerman
Maplewood, NJ
Myron Sugerman
Maplewood, NJ
As an adult, Sugerman followed his father into the world of illegal gambling and wound up serving 19 months at the Federal Correctional Complex in Allenwood, Pa., after being convicted on gambling charges. His story is about the mob’s impact on the American Nazi Party in the 1930’s, disrupting their attempts to rally anti-sematic support here in the United States and the Mob’s role in supplying money and weapons to the underground armies during Israel’s fight for independence.
Noah Lederman
Noah Lederman
Noah Lederman is the author of the forthcoming memoir, A World Erased: A Grandson’s Search for His Family’s Holocaust Secrets.
He has written for The Economist, The Boston Globe, Miami Herald, The Washington Post, Slate, The New Republic, Chicago Sun-Times, BBC Travel, Salon, The Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Tablet Magazine, The Jerusalem Post Magazine, Tikkun, Long Island Pulse, and Writer’s Digest. His work has been featured in dozens of other publications, including the top beer, adventure sports, and in-flight magazines. He contributes often to a number of travel publications, including Islands Magazine and Roads and Kingdoms.
Peter Himmelman
S. Monica, CA
Peter Himmelman
S. Monica, CA
By all accounts Peter Himmelman has had an unusual career. He’s a Grammy and Emmy nominated singer-songwriter, visual artist, author, film composer, entrepreneur, and rock and roll musician.
Time Magazine has said of him: “Himmelman writes songs with thesame urgency that compelled the Lost Generation to write novels."
In yet another twist, Peter is also one of the few rock stars to have ever earned an advanced management certificate at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Within the last few years, the Shabbat Observant, Himmelman has taken his special skills at unlocking innate creativity, to academic institutions such as The Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania, The UCLA School of Medicine, to corporate behemoths like McDonald’s and Gap Inc.
His book, Let Me Out (Unlock your creative mind and bring your ideas to life) is due out October 2016 on Penguin/Perigee
Prof. Jonathan Sarna
Newton, MA
Prof. Jonathan Sarna
Newton, MA
Dr. Jonathan Sarna is the professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and Director of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. Dubbed by the Forward newspaper as one of America's fifty most influential American Jews, he is the chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish history, religion and life. Dr. Sarna is a prolific author, including the award-winning seminal work, American Judaism: A History.
Professor Jeffrey Woolf
Efrat, Israel
Professor Jeffrey Woolf
Efrat, Israel
Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey R. Woolf is an internationally known scholar, lecturer and public figure. He serves as an Associate Professor in the Talmud Department at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he specializes in Medieval and Renaissance Jewish History, the History of Halakha and Rabbinic Literature, Religion and Anthropology and the inter-action between Judaism, Islam and Christianity. He is the director of Bar Ilan’s Institute for the Study of Post-Talmudic Halakhah.
He received his PhD (1991) in Medieval Jewish History and Literature at Harvard University, under the guidance of the late Professor Isadore Twersky. While at Harvard, he spent a year at the Hebrew University as a Lady Davis Graduate Fellow (1983-1984). Prior to his Aliyah, he spent two years at Yale University, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Religion. Woolf has served as a visiting professor at Yale University, Yeshiva University, and New York University. He has delivered guest lectures at Harvard University, Boston University, Yeshiva University, Drew University, Washington University, University of Leiden (NL), Potsdam University (Berlin), University of Bologna, University of Ferrara, and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO; Paris). He was recently a Tikvah Foundation Senior Fellow.
Rabbi Dr. Woolf studied for nine and a half years under Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and received semikhah from him in 1982. While at Yeshiva University, he learned for four years in the Kollel, of R. Hershel Schachter. In addition, Rabbi Woolf received semikhah from Rabbi Gedaliah Felder, the late Av Bet Din of Toronto. From 2001-2003, he began studies toward Dayyanut at Kollel Eretz Hemdah in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Dr. Woolf is well known in the public arena. He has been a leading advocate and spokesman for the development of Modern Orthodoxy, in both the United States and Israel. In Israel, he has served as the Chairman of YU’s Orthodox Forum in Israel, and has served as a member of the Executive Committee of Beit Hillel: For Responsive Religious Leadership. He was the founder of the Orthodox Roundtable, the first modern Orthodox Halakhic Think tank which set the agenda for every major issue addressed by the Orthodox, and broader Jewish, community in the past two decades. He was the founding Executive Chairman of YU’s Orthodox Caucus, and a moving force behind the RCA Pre-Nuptial Agreement to resolve the plight of women who are unable to obtain a religious divorce. His blog, My Obiter Dicta, is a well known forum for the discussion of religious and political issues facing Judaism and the Jewish People, in Israel and abroad. More recently, he has blogged at The Times of Israel.
Prof. Woolf is a much sought after lecturer, addressing a broad swath of issues and topics, of both historical and contemporary interest. Proficient in five languages (English, Hebrew, French, Italian, German, alongside Latin and Aramaic), he has lectured throughout Israel, the United States, Canada, and Europe. He is frequently interviewed in the electronic and print media, both in Israel and abroad: Time Magazine, France Soir (Paris), ADR-TV (Germany), the Jewish Chronicle (London), Zukunft (Germany), Der Spiegel (Germany), the Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem Post (French Edition), the Forward, the New York Jewish Week, Yedi’ot Aharonot, The Israel Times, Times of Israel, Yisrael ha-Yom, Ha-Modi'a, Ma'ariv, Maqor Rishon, Religion Times). In addition, he has appeared on BBC-World, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, WABC-TV (New York), Al Jazeera-USA, Israel Radio (Reshet Bet, Radio Moreshet, Israel National Network News, Radio Kol Hai, Radio Yerushalayim, TLV1, Galei Yisrael, Radio le-lo Hafsaqah, Radio 99, Galei Tzahal) and Israel television (Channels 1, 2, 10 and 20).
Rabbi Woolf is the author of forty scholarly monographs. He has edited three books, among them the most recent translation of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s, Kol Dodi Dofeq. His latest book is The Fabric of Religious Life in Medieval Ashkenaz (1000-1300): Creating a Sacred Community (E. J. Brill 2015). He is presently working on a book (in Hebrew) of essays on Modern Orthodox Thought and a study of the Renaissance Italian Halakhist, Rabbi Joseph Colon. In addition, he is the author of dozens of articles that have appeared in popular publications.
Rabbi Aaron Rakefet-Rothkoff
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Aaron Rakefet-Rothkoff
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff of Yeshiva University’s Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, is a noted scholar, author and teacher. Born in New York City in 1937, Rabbi Rakeffet moved with his family to Israel in 1969, following seven years as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Ephraim and Maplewood Jewish Center in New Jersey. Rabbi Rakeffet has written many entries for Encyclopedia Judaica, including the one on the Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. His two-volume The Rav: The World of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was published in 1999 by KTAV Publishing House. Most recently, Rabbi Rakeffet’s scholarly memoir, "From Washington Avenue to Washington Street", was published in 2011 by the OU Press in conjunction with Gefen Publishing House. Rabbi Rakeffet is also the author of Bernard Revel: Builder of American Jewish Orthodoxy, a biography of Yeshiva’s first president published by the Jewish Publication Society; and The Silver Era: Rabbi Eliezer Silver and His Generation, about the life and times of Rabbi Eliezer Silver (1881-1968) and published by Feldheim. Both these works have gone through three editions. In 1997, he published two volumes of Rakafot Aharon, a collection of published scholarship in the fields of halakhah and Jewish history. The Yeshiva College Alumni Association awarded its annual Bernard Revel Memorial Award in Religion and Religious Education to Rabbi Rakeffet in 1975, the first time the award ceremony took place in Israel. He has taught at Jerusalem’s Torah College for Men, Machon Gold, Michlalah (The Jerusalem College for Women) and Midreshet Moriah, an advanced Torah study program for women.
Rabbi Baruch Epstein
Chicago, IL
Rabbi Baruch Epstein
Chicago, IL
Rabbi Epstein is Director of Community Development of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois and the Rav of Bais Menachem- Nusach Ari. He and his wife, Chaya balance their many community responsibilities while enjoying their three daughters and one son-in-law. Rabbi Epstein spends his day orchestrating the morning davening at Bais Menachem, teaching three days a week at Lubavitch Girls High School, conducting study sessions both privately as well as in class settings for adults and teens with Jews and some non-Jews as well. Rabbi Epstein is often sought out for marital advice – dealing with teen age children and congregational issues.
Rabbi David Aaron
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi David Aaron
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi David Aaron is a spiritual visionary and master educator who has invested over 3 decades delving into life’s BIGGEST question marks and sharing Torah’s transformational wisdom to adults and young adults. He has emerged as the ‘God expert’ simply because he has dared to ask and answer the most difficult questions that he/ALL people have and struggle with about God’s existence and their own.
Rabbi David Aaron gently urges us to take a look at the self-defeating and silly notions we carry about ourselves and God. His wit lets our inner child listen while our critical mind begins to perceive a profound new world.
Disarmed by Rabbi Aaron’s exhilarating undeniable clarity, we dare to look at our deepest assumptions, doubts, and fears and challenge our paradigms of belief. Amazingly, we discover that our changing view of God and ourselves gives us access to reserves of personal power we never experienced before, and new doorways open in our loving relationships.
Rabbi DovBer Pinson
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi DovBer Pinson
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi DovBer Pinson, the "Rashi of contemporary culture," is a world-renowned scholar, author, thinker, and beloved spiritual teacher. At a young age he was already considered one of the world's leading scholars of Kabbalah and Jewish philosophy, featured on the cover of the book, 3-Minute Discourses on Kabbalah by Leading Jewish Scholars. Through his books, lectures, and consul he has touched and inspired the lives of thousands.
Amongst his published works are: Reincarnation & Judaism: The Journey of the Soul. Inner Rhythms: The Kabbalah of Music Meditation & Judaism: Exploring the Jewish Meditative Paths. Toward the Infinite: The Way of Kabbalistic Meditation. Jewish Wisdom of the Afterlife :The Myths, Mysteries & Meanings. Thirty-Two Gates of Wisdom: Awakening through Kabbalah. Upsherin: A spiritual guide. 8 Lights: Eight Meditations for Chanukah.
Rabbi Pinson is an internationally acclaimed speaker and has lectured in both scholarly and lay settings throughout the globe. He currently serves as the Rosh Yeshiva of the IYYUN Yeshiva and heads the IYYUN Center in Brownstone Brooklyn.
Rabbi Efraim Piekarsky
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Efraim Piekarsky
Brooklyn, NY
Dean of the Talmudic Seminary Oholei Torah from 1979 to 2005, Rabbi Efraim Piekarsky has helped develop the Talmud-study skills of tens of thousands of students during their formative years. In the 1970’s Rabbi Piekarsky helped build the vibrant Jewish community of Long Beach, CA with the founding of the Hebrew Academy Jewish day school and Congregation Lubavitch. He currently serves on the Rabbinic court of Vaad Rabbonei Lubavitch and publishes English translations of the primary Talmudic commentary, Tosfos on tosfosinenglish.com.
Rabbi Jason Weiner
Los Angeles, CA
Rabbi Jason Weiner
Los Angeles, CA
Rabbi Jason Weiner, BCC, serves as the senior rabbi and manager of the Spiritual Care Department of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he is responsible for the chaplaincy team and all aspects of spiritual care at the hospital. He also serves on Cedars-Sinai’s End of Life Committee, Organ Donor Council and as an Internal Advisory Board Member of its Bioethics Committee.
Rabbi Weiner has earned two rabbinic ordinations, as well as a master's degree in bioethics and health policy from Loyola University and another master's degree in Jewish history from Yeshiva University.
Rabbi Weiner is Vice President of the Southern California Board of Rabbis and a Board Member of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains. He is the author of Guide to Observance of Jewish Law in a Hospital (Kodesh Press.) and frequently serves as a scholar-in-residence at conferences and synagogues throughout the nation on topics related to Jewish medical ethics, pastoral care, health and wellness.
Rabbi Mendel Blau
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Mendel Blau
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Mendel Blau is a veteran teacher of Talmudic law and ethics. He currently serves as the Principal of Yeshivat Chovevi Torah. Central Chabad Yeshiva, and is a skilled life coach and mentor for students of all ages from high school, college and beyond.
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan
Toronto, ON
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan
Toronto, ON
Rabbi Mendel Kaplan is the founder and spiritual leader of Chabad @ Flamingo. Born in Norfolk Virginia, he was raised in various cities along the Atlantic Seaboard and spent his formative years immersed in Judaic studies at religious academies in close proximity to the internationally revered Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory. After graduating in 1990, he assumed a rabbinic internship in Los Angeles and subsequently held educational postings in Buenos Aires, Petersburg (Russia), Milwaukee, Detroit and Jerusalem.
Rabbi Kaplan serves as a Chaplain of the York Regional Police with the added distinction of being one of only two rabbis in the country to do so. The Rabbi is also an active member of Toronto’s Vaad HaRabbanim, York Region’s Advisory Committee of Community Links, and on The Police-Community Liaison Committee. He is a popular public speaker, featured regularly on many local television and radio shows, including a daily address on Toronto’s multi-cultural Radio CHIN FM.
Rabbi Mordechai Dinerman
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Mordechai Dinerman
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbi Mordechai Dinerman serves as co-director of curriculum development for the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute.
Rabbi Moshe Krasnanski
Montreal, QC
Rabbi Moshe Krasnanski
Montreal, QC
Rabbi Moshe New
Montreal, QC
Rabbi Moshe New
Montreal, QC
Rabbi Moshe New Founded the Montreal Torah Centre in 1991. One of Montreal’s crown jewels, MTC continues to attract growing numbers of Jews of all ages and backgrounds. Rabbi New is a frequent lecturer to audiences both local and abroad. Most recently, he gave the keynote address for the grand banquet at the International Conference of Chabad Shluchim.
Rabbi Moshe Weiss
Sherman Oaks, CA
Rabbi Moshe Weiss
Sherman Oaks, CA
Spiritual Leader – Chabad of Sherman Oaks
Rabbi Reuven Goldstein
Cupertino, CA
Rabbi Reuven Goldstein
Cupertino, CA
Rabbi Reuven Goldstein specializes in cultivating rare and historic Jewish prints, maps and documents. His curated collection, Witness to History is a first of its kind traveling museum, exhibiting unique and treasured relics of Judaica. Rabbi Goldstein resides in Cupertino, California with his wife and children, where he is the director of Chabad of Cupertino.
Rabbi Reuven Wolf
Los Angeles, CA
Rabbi Reuven Wolf
Los Angeles, CA
Rabbi Reuven Wolf is a world renowned educator and lecturer who has devoted his life to reaching out and rekindling the spirit of Judaism in his fellow Jews. Recognized as an inspiring and thought provoking lecturer, he has cultivated a unique talent to communicate deep and complex mystical ideas in a manner that is both compelling and applicable to the greater public, and his lessons are charged with an enthusiasm and vigor that impacts listeners both intellectually and emotionally. Rabbi Wolf was raised in the Ropshetz Chassidic dynasty, educated in the Belz and Bluzhev Yeshivos, and later, in the famous Lithuanian schools of Slabodka and Mir. He is profoundly influenced by Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah, and particularly Chabad Chassidic philosophy.
Since 1995, Rabbi Wolf has been teaching students of all ages, from elementary school children to adults, and has lectured across North America. Maayon Yisroel was founded in 2006 by Rabbi Wolf and Haki Abhesera, as a center to fulfill the vision of spreading the profound mystical teachings of Chassidic Judaism.
Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe
Newton, MA
Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe
Newton, MA
Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe is Dean of the Institute of American and Talmudic Law in New York, NY, iatlaw.org, director of the Institute for Judaic Knowledge and a member of the editorial staff at chabad.org. Rabbi Yaffe has lectured, led seminars and visiting scholar programs throughout North America, as well as in Mexico, Europe, and Africa.
He has authored several turnkey educational programs, including serving as lead author for the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute's "Living with Integrity" course. In his capacity as Dean of the Institute, he has sat on panels with distinguished members of the bar, including Justice Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Rabbi Yisrael Rice
San Rafael, CA
Rabbi Yisrael Rice
San Rafael, CA
Rabbi Yisrael Rice is the Executive Director of Chabad of Marin, San Rafael, California, where he has been a community leader and educator for the past 29 years. Rabbi Rice is Chairman of the Editorial Board for the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and a member of its Executive Committee. He is popular teacher of Judaism known for his erudition, profundity and sense of humor. He is author of the courses SoulQuest: life, afterlife and beyond and The Kabbalah of Now. He has lectured around the US with his seminar “The Four Keys of Kabbalah,” which illuminates a profound path of being for everyday life. Rabbi Rice lives in the picturesque hills of Northern California with his wife Guila and several unnamed ducks.
Samuel J Levine
New York, NY
Samuel J Levine
New York, NY
Professor Samuel J. Levine joined the Touro Law Center faculty in 2010 as Professor of Law and Director of the Jewish Law Institute. He previously served as Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, and he has served as the Beznos Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University College of Law. He has published more than fifty law review articles and book chapters, and he has lectured throughout the United States on the subjects of legal ethics, Jewish law, criminal law, law and religion, and constitutional law.
Professor Levine has been described in the pages of the Notre Dame Law Review as “one of the leading legal-ethics and professional-responsibility scholars of his generation,” and in 2016, he received the Sanford D. Levy Award from the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Professional Ethics, in recognition of his contributions to the field of legal ethics. He has also been described by Detroit Legal News Publishing as “one of the world’s foremost experts on the interplay of Jewish and American law.”
Sara Mintz
Shaina Weingarten
Flint, MI
Shaina Weingarten
Flint, MI
Sorele Brownstein
Davis, CA
Sorele Brownstein
Davis, CA
Sorele Brownstein was born and raised in Milan, Italy. Since 2003, she has been running Chabad of Davis, CA, together with her husband, servicing the community as well as the students and faculty at the University of California at Davis. Sorele has a passion for sharing the Jewish heritage, gourmet cooking, and raising her seven sons.
Steven Drizin
Chicago, IL
Steven Drizin
Chicago, IL
Steven Drizin is a Clinical Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law where he has been on the faculty since 1991. He is also the Assistant Dean of the Bluhm Legal Clinic. He served as the Legal Director of the Clinic's renowned Center on Wrongful Convictions from March 2005 to September 2013. At the Center, Professor Drizin's research interests involve the study of false confessions and his policy work focuses on supporting efforts around the country to require law enforcement agencies to electronically record custodial interrogations.
Steven Pressman
San Francisco, CA
Steven Pressman
San Francisco, CA
Steven Pressman was born and raised in Los Angeles and received an undergraduate degree in political science at the University of California at Berkeley. He worked for many years as a newspaper and magazine journalist in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
He is the writer, director and producer of 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, a documentary film that premiered on HBO in April 2013 and that has since been shown at film festivals, synagogues, Jewish Community Centers, embassies and other venues throughout the United States and abroad. He is also the author of 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple’s Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany (HarperCollins, 2014).
Yehoshua November
Morristown, NJ
Yehoshua November
Morristown, NJ
Yehoshua November’s debut poetry collection, God’s Optimism, won the 2010 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, was nominated for an LA Times Book Prize, and was named a finalist for the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry and Autumn House Poetry Prize. His work has been anthologized, selected as the winner of the Bernice Slote Award, and read by Garrison Keillor on NPR's The Writer's Almanac. His poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Prairie Schooner, The Sun, Margie, Provincetown Arts, and New Works Review, and featured in countless Jewish publications, such as The Forward, The Jewish Week, Midstream, Zeek, European Judaism, and Kerem. He has been interviewed in literary journals, newspapers, and on radio programs. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, November teaches writing at Rutgers University and Touro College and is interested in the intersection of Torah and the Arts.
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