Arielle Angel grew up in Miami and lives in Brooklyn. She is the editor of Jewish Currents. She has been awarded artist residencies at multiple arts centers in South Carolina, New York, Nebraska, and Wyoming, and her work has appeared in Guernica, Off Assignment, Protocols, and Poor Claudia. Arielle received her MFA in fiction from Columbia University and also holds a degree in studio art and creative writing from NYU.
Rabbanit Adena Berkowitz, Ph.D., is scholar in residence at Kol HaNeshamah. With a background in law, Jewish studies, and psychotherapy, she is the author of the bestselling The Jewish Journey Haggadah. A practicing therapist, she lives in New York with her husband, Rabbi Zev Brenner, and children.
The Bible Players are the premier educational, Jewish comedy troupe. They use improv and humor to teach mitzvot and build community.
Pamela Brenner is a Yiddish scholar, translator, and lifelong Torah learner. She graduated from Barnard College and earned a master's degree in YIddish studies from the University of Oxford This September, Pamela will begin doctoral studies at Harvard University and will join Ohr Torah Stone's International Halakha Scholars Program. She is an alumna of Migdal Oz and Drisha and has completed Yiddish fellowships at the Yiddish Book Center and YIVO.
Rabbi Zev Brenner hosts the nation's leading Jewish talk show, Talkline with Zev Brenner. It airs on WOR 710 AM, WSNR 620 AM, and WVIP 93.5 FM HD2, as well as on YouTube and major podcast platforms.
City Council Member Gale A. Brewer represents the 6th Council District, encompassing most of the Upper West Side up to 108th Street west of Broadway, a part of Clinton (to West 54th St) and all of Central Park. She serves on the Council's committees on Consumer and Worker Protection; Finance; Governmental Operations; Higher Education; and Rules, Privileges, and Elections. She served as Manhattan Borough President from 2014 to 2021 where she requested the introduction of legislation, later passed by the City Council, to reform the deed restriction process, add "caregivers" to the City's anti-discrimination law, and remove criminal history questions from initial employment applications (the "Fair Chance Act"). She also spearheaded community pre-planning working groups in the South Street Seaport, East Midtown, the Garment Center, Inwood, NoHo/SoHo, and East Harlem neighborhoods.
Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and the author of the New York Times-bestselling novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble (2019, Random House). She is also the creator of the FX limited series of the same name, as well as its executive producer and writer. Prior to joining The New York Times, she was a writer for GQ, ESPN the Magazine and many other publications. Her second novel, Long Island Compromise, will be published by Random House next year.
Rabbi Daniel M. Bronstein teaches in the departments of Jewish Studies and Sociology at Hunter College, and teaches the JCC's Basics of Judaism course. He was ordained at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion and earned a Ph.D. in Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America with his dissertation, Torah in the Trenches: The Rabbi Chaplains of World War II, 1940–1946. Rabbi Bronstein is a contributor to a variety of publications, including Jews and American Popular Culture and Jewish Theology in Our Time.
Amy Carrigan is a multidisciplinary collaborative artist: singer, theater performer, director photographer, puppeteer, and educator. She has performed in seven countries and in New York venues from Rockwood Music Hall to Carnegie Hall and works in various performative worlds. She is core member of Drama of Works (puppetry), has been in numerous bands, directed a music video for mewithoutYou and worked with artists as varied as Mark Guiliana and Joan LaBarbara. She is currently a member of the bands Ducarriganigan (with Aaron Dugan), FADA, and Balk, and is a frequent collaborator with singer songwriter Ali Dineen.
Annabel Cohen is pursuing a Ph.D. in modern Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, focusing on the interwar Jewish anti-fascist left. She earned a master's degree with distinction in history from the University of London. Alongside her doctoral studies, Annabel researches and translates materials relating to Jewish women's religiosity in Eastern Europe, publishing her work on the blog Pulling at Threads. Her essay on feldmesterins— cemetery measuring women—was published in the anthology Strange Fire: Jewish Voices from the Pandemic (Ben Yehuda Press, 2021).
Mari Cohen is a reporter and editor at Jewish Currents, covering American Jewish institutional politics. She has previous experience covering criminal justice, local government, transit, and more, as well as managing a journalism workshop series. She received a B.A. in history and English from the University of Chicago.
Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses was the first woman from the Syrian Jewish community to be ordained. She graduated in 1995 from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was awarded several fellowships and a prize for academic excellence. She currently serves as a rabbi at Romemu, a synagogue on the Upper West Side.
Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove, Ph.D., is the rabbi at the world-famous Park Avenue Synagogue, and one of the leading figures in the Conservative Movement.
Shayna De Lowe is the senior cantor of Congregation Rodeph Sholom.
Ali Dineen is a songwriter, visual artist, and teacher who was born and raised in Queens. Ali has performed at the Museum of Art and Design, the Caramoor American Roots Music Festival, American Folk Art Museum, and Brooklyn Folk Festival, among other venues, and was awarded the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency in 2020. Ali is also the music director for local puppet troupe The Boxcutter Collective, arranges music, sings with Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir, and is part of a duet with Feral Foster. Ali released a third album, Hold On, in 2020, and is currently working on a new piece about Joan of Arc.
Abby Eisenberg is a community Jewish educator and lifecycle officiant based in NYC. She is the founder and lead educator of Judaics Tutoring NYC, through which she and her team work with curious learners of all ages and stages around the globe. Abby holds a BA in history, an MA in Judaic studies and rabbinic ordination. When she is not learning and teaching, you can find her hiking in the Catskills.
Tali Farhadian Weinstein, a former federal and state prosecutor, has spent nearly two decades working across a range of American legal institutions. Tali and her family came to America on Christmas Eve 1979 as refugees fleeing the violence and antisemitism of revolutionary Iran, and she in turn has dedicated her career to fighting for safety, fairness, and justice. After earning degrees from Yale College, Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School, Tali was a law clerk for Judge Merrick B. Garland at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, Tali worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, first as Counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder, and then as a federal prosecutor. Tali is currently Of Counsel at Kaplan Hecker & Fink, where she litigates public interest cases, and a Legal Analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
Jeff Feig's passion for Jewish learning is evident from his participation on the boards of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, the Shefa School, 70 Faces Media, and the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is an investor living in Manhattan. He is actively involved in the Tikkun, which is named in memory of his brother Paul. He is eagerly awaiting the day when his boys, Zachary, Benjamin, and Jacob, will be teaching a Tikkun class.
Tovah Feldshuh is a six-time Emmy and Tony nominee and has been awarded three honorary doctorates of humane letters. She has won four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, three Drama-Logues, an Obie and Theatre World Award, and the Helen Hayes and Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Actress. She has been twice nominated as Best Actress in Los Angeles for her work in Jonathan Shapiro's Sisters-in-Law, originating the role of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She is currently starring on Broadway in Funny Girl.
Rabbi Diana Fersko is the author of the forthcoming book We Need to Talk About Antisemitism. She is the senior rabbi of The Village Temple in downtown Manhattan. She is the former national vice president of the Women's Rabbinic Network and a fellow at the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations. Her first job out of college was at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and she is thrilled to be back. Rabbidianafersko.com
Stephanie Garry is executive vice president of communal partnerships at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel. She is host of the newly launched podcast Exit Strategy and has been published regularly in eJewish Philanthropy and The Times of Israel.
Abbi Gezunt has been a native New Yorker for six years now (so she thinks she's better than you), and has been trying to get her makeup skills to match her Yeshivish background (Maale Gilboa, Mechon Hadar). Between the foundations of the Torah and her L'Oréal foundation, Abbi is focused on building bridges between old traditions and her new nose.
Ruth Goodman is director of the Israeli Dance Institute, the annual Israel Folk Dance Festival, and is on the faculty of 92NY, where she specializes in Israeli folk dance. She is the founder and director of the Parparim Ensemble of Israeli Dance and Song and is an editor of Rokdim-Nirkoda magazine.
Tammy Gottlieb, a lifelong member and leader of the Masorti Movement in Israel, serves on WZO's executive board. A talented organizer and inspired Shlichat Tzibur, she has also been part of Women of the Wall for over 15 years, and currently serves as the organization's vice chairwoman.
Adam Graubart is a third-year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Region. He graduated. from George Washington University with a degree in human services and social justice, with minors in Judaic studies and Hebrew. As a Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern, he aims to bolster Congregation Beit Simchat Torah as a place of insight, a rejuvenating sanctuary, and an incubator for transformational change. In his free time, Adam enjoys cooking, running, reading, attending theater, and exploring new museums and restaurants.
Erik Gross is a program manager at the Aspen Institute's Citizenship and American Identity Program, a policy program of the Aspen Institute that focuses on the challenge of creating a strong culture of democracy in the United States. In this role, he focuses heavily on the Better Arguments Project, a national civic initiative that helps people bridge divides by engaging in more constructive arguments with those with whom they disagree.
Rabbi Igael "Iggy" Gurin-Malous is a Talmud teacher, spiritual counselor, artist, and educator. Through practical spirituality and his unique approach, he offers modes of personal growth and healing that look at an individual's actions, beliefs, and values. He has devoted his life to helping people whom others have neglected, offering guidance and any resources that could help them and their loved ones. Previously, he was the CEO and founder of T'Shuvah Center and the director of spiritual counseling at Beit T'Shuva.
Hanan Harchol is the creator, writer, and animator of Jewish Food For Thought, a free online animated series for adults and teens that teaches Jewish ethics through thought-provoking conversations between Harchol and his Israeli parents. His work has been broadcast nationwide, including on Jewish Life Television, Shalom Television, and seen at the New York and San Francisco Jewish Film Festivals, and at the Hebrew Union College Museum. Hanan's work is generously funded by The Covenant Foundation with fiscal sponsorship by FJC. For more on his work, visit JewishFoodForThought.com.
Joseph Harrington is a dancer/actor/singer originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. Joseph made his Broadway debut at age eight, and has since continued to perform on Broadway, in NYC, and around the country. With a degree in Dance (jazz pedagogy concentration) from Pace University, Joseph is passionate about teaching dance to all levels. His goal is to provide a safe, positive experience that is equal parts challenging and joyful!
Yizhar Hess, Ph.D., is vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, founded by Herzl in 1897. Previously, as CEO of the Masorti Movement in Israel, Dr. Hess represented Conservative/Masorti Judaism in negotiations with the Israeli government regarding egalitarian prayer at the Kotel. One of the leading voices in Israel promoting pluralism, he writes regularly in the Israeli press on matters of religion and state.
Rabbi David Hoffman is the president of the Honey Foundation for Israel, which invests in religiously diverse spiritual leaders who are building passionate and inspiring Jewish communities.
Moshe Horn is a former Manhattan district attorney. He is now a professor at Cardozo Law School and a criminal defense lawyer specializing in Title 9 work, among other areas. Moshe is a frequent lecturer to high school and college students and parents on critical issues facing today's students. He has been on the Tikkun planning committee, as well as its chief cookie baker, with Jeff Feig for 20 years, and is incredibly proud of the Tikkun that the JCC has built, considering it a highlight of the year.
State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, represents New York's 47th State Senate District on Manhattan’s West Side, running five miles from Christopher Street to West 103rd Street. Brad has successfully championed progressive reforms on a wide range of issues, including housing, transportation, public education, LGBTQ rights, the environment, and seniors. He has passed over 200 bills in the Senate, including legislation to ban ghost guns, prohibit ICE in courtrooms, and allow survivors to file claims against their abusers. Brad has also championed LGBTQ human rights laws such as the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and a ban on so-called “conversion therapy,” as well as initiatives to improve traffic safety in New York City. Brad is a longtime grassroots activist, serving previously as a Democratic District Leader and three-term chair of Manhattan Community Board 2.
The Israeli PlayGo Ensemble's "Playback Theatre" combines our life stories with the art of improvisation. In Playback Theatre, we share personal stories and are given a chance to see them relived on stage. Talented actors deliver a theatrical spectacle that reflects our story back to us. The "Playgo Theater" Ensemble from Israel – Rachel Slater, Nir Bikels, and Savitri Salant - are professional actors and experts in the Playback Theatre method and the art of improvisation
Rabbi Rick Jacobs leads the Reform Movement in North America as president of the Union of Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish movement in North America.
Rabbi Becky Jaye serves as the program manager for Emor: The Institute for Bold Jewish Thought, a project of T'ruah. As the day-to-day leader of its programs, Becky works to accomplish Emor's mission of bringing together diverse voices to have courageous conversations about today's most important moral and political issues. She is very proudly a Brooklyn native and proud to be returning to NYC to serve the communities that fostered her evolution into a rabbi and concerned citizen.
The Jewish Food Society is a nonprofit organization that works to preserve, celebrate, and revitalize Jewish culinary heritage from around the world. Through community events and a vibrant digital recipe archive, it aims to provide a deeper connection to Jewish life.
Rona Kaye has taught line dance in Manhattan, throughout the USA, and abroad since 1993. It is her passion to introduce this international dance sport to all who express an interest. She started out as a student and immediately progressed to instructor, choreographer, and dance coordinator at the NYC country western nightclub Denim & Diamonds. For more information, visit ronakaye.com.
Shaul Kelner teaches sociology and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University, and is past chair of the Jewish Studies department. His research on the movement to free Soviet Jews has appeared in the journals American Jewish History and Jewish Social Studies, and in edited volumes in the U.S., U.K., and France. An Upper West Sider from 1996 to 2005, he was the very first swimmer in the JCC pool on the building's opening day.
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum serves as senior rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City. She was installed as CBST's first rabbi in 1992, arriving at the height of the AIDS crisis. She guided the congregation through a period of loss and change, while addressing social issues of the day and building a strong and deeply spiritual community.
Alex Lederman is the policy and communications associate at Israel Policy Forum (IPF). He is the host of Israel Policy Pause, the Forum's midweek video news update, and is a regular contributor to Israel Policy Exchange. He previously served as the IPF Atid National Organizing Fellow. He graduated from Yale University with a degree in Near Eastern languages and civilizations, with a concentration in contemporary Israel.
Rabbi Melanie Levav is the executive director of Shomer Collective. The mission of Shomer Collective is to improve end-of-life experiences for individuals and their families—inspired by Jewish wisdom, values, and practices—by curating content and resources and building a diverse network of organizational partners. Shomer Collective envisions a world where end-of-life matters are spoken about openly and frequently, creating opportunities to engage with Jewish wisdom and practice. Melanie was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary, is a board certified chaplain, and a licensed social worker.
Sheldon Lewis and Sheila Lewis are longtime meditation teachers who lead weekly meditations at the JCC's Makom. Sheila also leads Meditate Write Now classes and is a children's writer and book club facilitator. Sheldon is a mind-body health practitioner who leads meditation groups through healthcare practices. Together they offer the JCC's Meditative Walks in Art + Nature.
Yochai Maital is a veteran podcaster, avid audiophile, and a co-founder of Israel Story, the most popular Jewish podcast in the world. His work has been featured on Radiolab, 99% Invisible, NPR's Rough Translation, and more.
Joshua Malina co-starred on NBC's The West Wing and ABC's Sports Night. He also appeared in Aaron Sorkin's The American President, Malice, and the Broadway production of A Few Good Men. He portrayed David Rosen in Scandal, and President Sieberton on The Big Bang Theory. Other television credits include Inventing Anna, American Horror Story, American Auto, Shameless, and The Larry Sanders Show. Joshua's film appearances include Bulworth, In The Line of Fire, and A Few Good Men.
Josh Mann is the founder and chief macher of Jews and Booze (jewsandbooze.com), a private online group of Jewish premium spirits enthusiasts that has grown into a worldwide brand and community. J&B does exclusive barrel picks, private label bottling, and one-of-a-kind parties and events. He is also the co-founder and COO of First Cut Barrel Co. (firstcutbarrelco.com), a distillery in Stamford, CT specializing in custom, single barrels of rare and exclusive whiskey.
Rabbi Roly Matalon is the senior rabbi of B'nai Jeshurun. He was born in Buenos Aires, and was educated there as well as in Montreal, Jerusalem, and New York City. He was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1986.
Ari L. Monts is a writer, ritualist, zine maker, and educator. Their work engages in rigorous play, centering pleasure, participation, and accessibility. Using influences from their Black, trans, dyke, and Jewish spiritual ancestors, from performance and gender theory, and in deep collaboration with those around them, their work is part of a larger web of world building projects. Ari was a 2021 ALEPH Kesher Fellow and is currently part of the SVARA Teaching Kollel.
MusicTalks presents informal and engaging concert programs featuring top Israeli musicians performing classical music, Jazz, klezmer, and Israeli songs. MusicTalks tours across the U.S. and offers concert-talks, lectures and family programs. With engaging and interactive conversation, the listener is given an experience that truly makes Music Talk.
Michal Nachmany is a self-taught mixed-media and collage artist who has exhibited in solo shows in the U.S., Taiwan, and Poland. She is also an educator who teaches modern and liturgical Hebrew in rabbinical schools, synagogues, and elsewhere. Michal grew up in Jerusalem, where the mixture of cultures, people, architecture, objects, colors, sounds, and smells from the streets and the markets shaped her awareness of the past as a foundation of the present.
Nir Namir is the art sales director of HaMiffal Art Platform and an independent curator. She acts as social media director for various art institutes in Israel and as a promoter of various annual benefit art sales in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Aaron Neil has appeared in the West End productions of Leopoldstadt and Guantanamo in London; with the National Theatre, Great Britain in Fifty Years on Stage, England People Very Nice, and Playing with Fire; and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Cymbeline and As You Like It. His television credits include Landscapers (HBO), Tracey Ullman's Show, Peaky Blinders, and Doctor Who. He has also appeared in the films Paddington 2, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Bike Thief, and Black Hawk Down.
Alana Newhouse is the editor-in-chief of Tablet, which she founded in 2009.
Sheryl Parker is the Director of the Joseph Stern Center for Social Responsibility at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan where her work is focused on mobilizing the resources of Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and our community to address local needs. She has dedicated her career to helping New Yorkers give back to their communities, previously serving as the Director of Strategic Volunteer Engagement at UJA Federation of New York and the Senior Director of Programs at New York Cares.
Aston Phillips is a painter originally from Sydney, Australia and now based in New York City. His paintings have been exhibited at many notable museums and galleries, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace, Galerie pompom, Campbelltown Arts Centre, and Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. Aston is skilled in traditional painting techniques and also fascinated by developing his own innovative methods.
Justice Ayala Procaccia is a retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice. A leader, whose groundbreaking and thorough rulings consistently challenged the infringement of human rights by the government including breach of legal balance between freedom of religion and freedom from religion. During her years on the bench as a judge and a Supreme Court Justice, Ayala Procaccia shaped Israeli law to support equality for all, regardless of gender or religious practice. Guided by the law, the principle of equality, and constitutional rights, Justice Procaccia never hesitated to pronounce groundbreaking rulings on controversial issues such as Shabbat observance, women’s military service, and freedom of speech. Justice Procaccia is also the President of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.
John Podhoretz is the editor of Commentary.
Project Zug (powered by Hadar) empowers Jews to take ownership over their learning through one-on-one chevrutah, the traditional mode of Jewish study with a partner. Through reading and discussing texts together, asking questions and listening closely, partners can discover new meanings and build deeper relationships with the text and with each other.
Gali Rabin is the Upper West Side shlicha (Israel emissary) and part of the New York delegation to UJA Federation of New York-The Jewish Agency for Israel.
Nessa Rapoport is an award-winning author of multiple novels. A poet, writer, editor, and research scholar at NYU, her essays have appeared in The New York Times and elsewhere.
Rabbi Yael Rapport is the director of The Gottesman Center for Jewish Living and The Selma and Lawrence Ruben Center for 20s + 30s at the JCC. Ordained by the Reform Movement's Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in 2015, she served as the associate rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the LGBTQ synagogue of NYC, from 2016 to 2022. Prior to her work at CBST, she was a chaplain resident in the Mount Sinai Health System at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, focusing on inpatient and outpatient oncology and the Gender Affirmation Surgical Unit.
Rabbi Mira Rivera is the first Filipina-American rabbi to be ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). She is rabbi-in-residence at JCC Harlem and The LUNAR Collective. In 2022 she was awarded the Rabbinical Excellence Award by Harlem District 9 Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan, and the Rabbinic Hero Award from T'ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights recognized her efforts to raise the voice of Jews of Color everywhere.
Cantor Sam Rosen was ordained by Hebrew Union College in May 2022 and has served as cantor at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah since August 2022.
Joyce Rosenzweig has served as music director of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah since 1994 and is professor of practice at Hebrew Union College and adjunct professor Jewish Theological Seminary.
Rabbi Deborah Sacks Mintz serves the Hadar Institute as director of tefillah and music. An educator, practitioner, and facilitator of Jewish communal prayer, Deborah supports those who seek to deepen, sharpen, and unlock their practice of empowered song and tefila. An artist and composer, she has collaborated on over two dozen albums of new Jewish music with treasured colleagues, including two albums of her own original music: The Narrow and the Expanse (2020) and Yetzira (June 2023).
Rabbi Joanna Samuels is the Chief Executive Officer of the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. Prior to joining the MMJCCM, she was the founding executive director of Educational Alliance's Manny Cantor Center, where she redefined the Jewish Community Center and the Settlement House for a new era. Following rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2002, Joanna served as Rabbi of Congregation Habonim in New York City, and as an advocate, strategist, and mentor for women's advancement and gender equity in the Jewish community at Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community. She currently serves on the advisory board of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger and Plaza Jewish Community Chapel and lives on the Upper West Side with her husband and two children, alumni of the Saul and Carole Zabar Nursery School.
Rabbi Charles Savenor is executive director of Civic Spirit, which provides training in civic education to day schools. He also serves as the co-executive producer of We Are Here, a concert featuring music written during the Holocaust that recently sold out Carnegie Hall. He blogs for The Times of Israel on parenting, leadership, and Judaism in the 21st century and is working on the book What My Father Couldn't Tell Me. Raised in Boston, he lives in New York and will always root for the Red Sox.
Aliza Schwartz is a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and one of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah's Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Interns. Before CBST, Aliza served in hospital chaplaincy and as a rabbinic intern at Lions Gate, a retirement community in New Jersey. Aliza was in leadership for many years at Kavod, a justice-focused Jewish community in Boston, and she worked for 3.5 years at the New Israel Fund as Assistant Director for the New England Region. Aliza spent the past year in Israel/Palestine, studying and doing solidarity work, especially with Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
Michele Shulman is the senior New York community manager at Moishe House, where she employs a relational engagement approach to support Moishe House residents in the Greater New York City region. Michele grew up in California and graduated from Sonoma State University with a degree in communication and media studies. She was director of Jewish student life at the University of Connecticut Hillel before moving to New York City, where she worked at the 14th Street Y before joining the Moishe House team.
Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor at large of The New York Jewish Week and managing editor for ideas at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He once came in third at a "Funniest Jew in New York"stand-up comedy contest, but really feels he should have come in second.
Rabbi Felicia Sol has served as a rabbi at B'nai Jeshurun since 2001, becoming the first woman to serve as a rabbi to the community in the congregation's almost 200-year history. In 2021, she was appointed as a senior rabbi of the congregation, also a first in the congregation's history. She was ordained at Hebrew Union College.
Rabbi Ben Spratt is the senior rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom. He co-authored Awakenings: American Jewish Transformations in Identity, Leadership, and Belonging with Rabbi Josh Stanton.
Rabbi Josh Stanton is the rabbi of East End Temple. He co-authored Awakenings: American Jewish Transformations in Identity, Leadership, and Belonging with Rabbi Ben Spratt.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, named by Talk magazine as one of the 50 best speakers in the United States, is the author of Jewish Literacy, the most widely selling book on Judaism of the past three decades. His book, Rebbe, a biography of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was a New York Times bestseller. and hailed by The Wall Street Journal as "mesmerizing." His book Words That Hurt, Words That Heal became the motivating force behind establishment of a National Speak No Evil Day in the United States.
Udi Urman is director of The Lambert Center for Arts + Ideas and The David H. Sonabend Center for Israel at the JCC.
Rebbitzen Sara Shulevitz Vorhand, Esq., is a criminal defense attorney and rebbetzin of Congregation Heichal Moshe, known as the Rabbi Vorhand Shul. Sara is a former prosecutor and is licensed in New York, Florida and Michigan, The United States Supreme Court, and various federal jurisdictions, where she has handled many high profile cases. She has been rated as a top criminal attorney and also starred in the cable tv show The Legal Fashionista. She grew up on the Upper West Side and attended Bais Yackov and Fordham Law School.
Eléonore Weill was raised in a musical family in southern France, spending her youth surrounded by both classical and traditional music. She holds diplomas in recorder, piano, music theory and chamber music from the Regional Conservatory of Toulouse and the National Conservatory of Paris, and also learned from the "Street Music School," playing Mediterranean traditional music (mostly Occitane, Romanian, and Jewish) on wooden flutes, hurdy gurdy, and accordion. Eléonore now resides in Brooklyn, where she performs and teaches music.
Rabbi Josh Weinberg serves as vice president of the URJ for Israel and Reform Zionism and is the executive director of ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America. He was ordained from the HUC-JIR Israeli Rabbinic Program in Jerusalem, and currently lives in New York. Josh previously served as director of the Israel program for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and as a faculty member of NFTY-EIE High School in Israel, teaching Jewish history.
Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub is the assistant rabbi of B'nai Jeshurun.She was ordained at the Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Boston in 2020.
Elisha Wiesel is a recovering Wall Street executive. After retiring from a 25-year financial markets career with Goldman Sachs at the end of 2019, he served as a lead technologist in Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign. In his most recent board position at Good Shepherd Services, Elisha raised millions of dollars for New York's neediest by convening Midnight Madness, at which hundreds of finance professionals stayed up all night solving elaborate puzzles on the city streets. He is the only child of Holocaust survivor, author, professor, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel.
Rabbi Yael Werber is the assistant rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat. Since ordination, she has fallen even more deeply in love with Torah. She also loves a good adventure and spent last summer living in an off-grid cabin.
Meytal Yosef is an Israeli singer and educator. She works at the WZO and interns at the Knesset.