Past Conversations

The great–grandnephew of the founder of the Ideal Toy Corporation, Michael Kimmel is a SUNY distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and gender studies and founder of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University.

Adam Louis-Klein is a writer, anthropologist, and musician, currently completing a PhD in Anthropology at McGill University. His work explores Jewish peoplehood, Zionism, and contemporary forms of anti-Jewish hate, drawing connections between civilizational identity, recursive ethnography, and the politics of indigeneity.

He is a regular contributor to The Times of Israel, where he writes on Jewish continuity, media distortions of Zionism, and the symbolic structure of anti-Jewish hate. He has also written for The Free Press and Tablet. His essays seek to clarify, defend, and rearticulate Jewish identity in a time of rising hostility, offering rigorous critiques of the conceptual frameworks that underlie contemporary antizionist discourse.

His doctoral research is based on fieldwork in the Vaupés region of the Amazon with the Desana people, where he studies cosmology, translation, and ethnoreligious identity. He draws comparative insights between Desana and Jewish forms of peoplehood, engaging deeply with questions of sovereignty, sacred geography, and analogic thought.

Adam also holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale, an M.A. in Philosophy from the New School, and an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. He is co-director of Oscillations: Non-Standard Experiments in Anthropology, the Social Sciences, and Cosmology, a platform for plural and civilizational modes of thought. He is a Postgraduate Fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

Professor Gil Troy, a leading American presidential historian and a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the JPPI – the global think tank of the Jewish people — is the author of “The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath: Facts, Figures, History” as well as “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream” and The Zionist ideas. His latest book -The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred was just released.

“With these timely, must-read, letters to his students – and to us all – Gil Troy confirms his stature as a revered teacher, a leading public intellectual, and one of today’s influential Zionist thinkers,” President Isaac Herzog has written, while Noa Tishby, formerly Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Anti-Semitism wrote: If you want to know Why Israel, Why Zionism, Why Liberalism, Why Americanism, Why stand up for yourselves – and how to fight the Jihadists and what he accurately calls The Academic Intifada – read this book… now.” Ambassador Michael Oren, a Columbia alum writes: I cannot think of a timelier and more essential book for pro-Israel students—and their parents—confronting virulent antisemitism, anti-Americanism, and anti-liberalism on their campuses. Gil Troy’s work belongs in the core curriculum of all those willing to stand up and defend the State of Israel.”

Troy, a Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University living in Jerusalem, is an award-winning American presidential historian and a leading Zionist thinker. The author of eight books on the American presidency, including “The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s” and “Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s,” as well as five books on Zionism, his latest projects include the best-selling, instant classic “The Zionist Ideas”; the “masterful” three volume set of Theodor Herzl’s “Zionist Writings,” launching The Library of the Jewish People; and “Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People,” co-authored with Natan Sharansky. “Never Alone” was just released in Hebrew and an updated paperback edition.

A popular teacher and speaker, and a regular columnist for the Jerusalem Post, Troy is widely published as a presidential historian and a Zionist activist, with recent articles in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Hill, the Jewish Journal, Commentary, and the Jewish Week. Troy has also been a commentator on various television documentaries, including CNN’s popular “decades” series on the Eighties, the Nineties, the 2000s, and, just last summer, the 2010s.

Elisa Spungen Bildner and Robert Bildner are lifelong food advocates, former food entrepreneurs, and longtime residents of the Berkshires. Elisa is a professionally trained chef and former journalist and Rob took the gorgeous scenery photos of the farms in the book. Together, they bring decades of experience in the food world to this heartfelt celebration of their home region.

Rabbi Elan Babchuck serves as the Executive Vice President at Clal, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, and the Founding Director of Glean Network. He was ordained and earned his MBA in 2012, and is on track to complete a PhD in late 2026.

A sought-after thought leader, he is the co-author of Picking Up the Pieces: Leadership After Empire (2024, Fortress Press), and Meaning Making – 8 Values That Drive America’s Newest Generations (2020, St. Mary’s Press). He has delivered keynotes at stages ranging from the Pentagon to TEDx, he has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Boston
Globe, Washington Post, Psychology Today, and Religion News Service, and he has a column for The Wisdom Daily.

He is a Faith & Media Initiative Fellow, a Founding Partner of Starts With Us, a movement to counteract toxic polarization in America, and a founding Board Member of Springtide Research Institute, which focuses on spirituality, mental health and Gen Z. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island with his wife and their three children, and in his spare time he enjoys rock climbing and gardening.

Dr. Tal Becker is a Vice President at the Shalom Hartman Institute, where he leads educational initiatives on Israel and the Jewish world.

In this capacity, he is a leading member of the Institute’s iEngage research seminar which produces the premier educational program on Israel engagement in North America, working to strengthen and re-imagine the relationship between Israel and World Jewry.

He served, until recently, as the Legal Adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has been a senior member of the Israeli peace negotiation team in successive rounds of peace negotiations. Tal has represented Israel before the International Court of Justice, and played an instrumental role in negotiating and drafting the recent peace and normalization agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco (the “Abraham Accords”). With over two decades of experience on the front lines of many of Israel’s most pressing diplomatic, legal, and policy challenges, Tal has been a leading negotiator and behind-the-scenes representative for Israel in a wide variety of contexts.

He earned his doctorate from Columbia University and, among numerous scholarly awards, is the winner of the Rabin Peace Prize and the 2007 Guggenheim Prize for best international law book for his book Terrorism and the State.

Neshama Carlebach is an award-winning singer, songwriter and educator who has performed and taught in cities around the world. A winner and four-time nominee in the Independent Music Awards for her most current release, Believe, and winner of the Global Music Awards Silver Award for Outstanding Performance by a female vocalist for the album, Neshama has sold over one million records, making her one of today’s best-selling Jewish artists in the world.

Rabbi Menachem Creditor served as the spiritual leader of Congregation Netivot Shalom. Named by Newsweek as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in America, he is a published author, musician, teacher and activist who has spent time working locally, in Ghana, and in the White House to amplify the prophetic Jewish voice in the world.

Rabbi Dr. Danny Schiff is the H. Arnold and Adrien B. Gefsky Community Scholar. He is a noted teacher and researcher in Jewish ethics.

Born in Sydney, Australia, Rabbi Dr. Schiff grew up in Melbourne. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Melbourne. Rabbi Dr. Schiff received ordination, as well as his Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters degree, from the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (H.U.C. – J.I.R.). He also received his Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree, as well as an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from H.U.C. – J.I.R.. Additionally, Dr. Schiff earned an M.A. in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Rabbi Schiff previously served as the Community Scholar for the Agency for Jewish Learning in Pittsburgh, as rabbi of B’nai Israel in White Oak, Pennsylvania, and as rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Melbourne.

He is the author of Abortion in Judaism, published by Cambridge University Press and Judaism in a Digital Age published by Palgrave Macmillan. He is a former President of the Museum of Jewish Ideas, and board member of the City of Pittsburgh Ethics Board and the Society of Jewish Ethics.

A passionate advocate of the free expression of ideas and a supporter of Israel’s quest for peace and security, David Bernstein is the founder of the North American Values Institute (NAVI), formerly Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV), which opposes radical ideology in K-12 education. He is author of Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews. He is past President and CEO of Jewish Council for Public Affairs and former executive director of the David Project. He spent 13 years at the American Jewish Committee in senior roles. David is a Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) and a Strategic Advisor for the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM). He is a prolific speaker, podcaster and writer, having written hundreds of opinion pieces in the Jewish and general press.

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is one of American Judaism’s most prolific and most-quoted rabbis — described as “courageous,” “always relevant,” and “one of American Judaism’s true public intellectuals.”

His column, “Martini Judaism: for those who want to be shaken and stirred,” published by the Religion News Service, has won several Wilbur awards for best religion column of the year. “Martini Judaism” also appears as a podcast. He delivered the keynote on spirituality at the Chautauqua Institution, and has participated in interreligious dialogue with Christian and Muslim religious leaders.

He is the author of eleven books, which have inspired vigorous national conversations on such subjects as American Jewish identity, Israel, gender, and Jewish culture, and he has written three Torah commentaries.. His essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Commentary, the Wall Street Journal, Tablet, Forward, and JTA, as well as articles in scholarly journals and encyclopedias. He has discussed the American political scene on CNN and the BBC.

His latest book is Tikkun Ha’Am: Repairing Our People – Israel and the Crisis of Liberal Judaism. Rabbi David Wolpe of Los Angeles has said: “This book shows why Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is among the wisest observers of our society and our souls — a Rabbi who writes with humor, depth and clarity.”

Rabbi Salkin currently lives in Montclair, New Jersey, and devotes his time to writing, biking, his friends and family, and consuming vast quantities of coffee.

Rabbi Menachem Creditor serves as Scholar-in-Residence at UJA-Federation New York and is the founder of Rabbis Against Gun Violence. Rabbi Creditor has authored and edited over thirty books, including A Rabbi’s Heart, and After October 7: Essays. With millions of views of his daily Torah videos and essays, his leadership has helped shape national conversations on gun violence prevention, LGBTQ inclusion, Zionism, Interfaith organizing, and Jewish diversity. Rabbi Creditor’s music, including the well-known song Olam Chesed Yibaneh, is sung in communities around the world. He is a Senior Lecturer at the Academy for Jewish Religion and speaks widely about the role of faith in building a more compassionate world. He and his wife, Neshama Carlebach, live in New York, where they are raising their five children.

Alfred Uhry, a playwright, lyricist, and screenwriter, is best known for his play Driving Miss Daisy, which premiered in New York in 1987 and was later adapted into a film. Uhry has received a Pulitzer Prize, an Academy Award, and several Tony Awards for his work—the only playwright to win all three awards.

The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997) and Parade (1998) also draw on Uhry’s heritage as a southern Jew, and they mesh aspects of both cultures (southern and Jewish) and their literary traditions. The Last Night of Ballyhoo was commissioned for the Olympic Arts Festival in 1996 and debuted at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

Uhry’s lesser-known theatrical works include contributions to Swing (1980), Little Johnny Jones (1982), and America’s Sweetheart (1985). He also wrote the screenplays for several films, including Mystic Pizza (1988), which featured Julia Roberts in her first major role, and Rich in Love (1993). Uhry is married to Joanna Kellogg. They have four daughters and live in New York.

VANESSA HIDARY Internationally acclaimed Spoken Word Artist/Solo Performer/Author/ Actress/Writer/Director, grew up on Manhattan’s culturally diverse Upper West Side. Her experiences as a Sephardic Jew with close friends from different ethnic and religious backgrounds inspired her to write “Culture Bandit” the nationally toured solo show that chronicles Vanessa’s coming of age during the golden age of Hip-Hop.

She has aired three times on “Russell Simmons Presents ‘Def Poetry Jam’ on HBO, and is featured in the award winning film “The Tribe” which was selected for the Sundance Film Festival, The Tribeca Film Festival, and The Jewish Motifs International Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland. Vanessa was chosen as one of 50 speakers to appear at the “2010 IdeaCity – Canada’s Premiere Meeting of the Minds”. She has appeared at numerous LIMMUD conferences including South Africa and the UK, and has been a featured speaker at the Lion Of Judah conference at the Jewish Federation’s General Assembly convention in New Orleans, and at Tribefest in Las Vegas.

Her popular poem, “The Hebrew Mamita,”went viral garnering over half a million YouTube hits, igniting widespread discussion among Jews and non Jews alike regarding the subject of identity. She has conducted poetry and racism workshops with youth groups such as BBYO, The Yeshiva of Flatbush High school, Congregation B’nai Tikvah Of New Jersey, Harlem School Of The Arts, among others.

Dr. Ruth Calderon is a former research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and one of Israel’s leading figures spearheading efforts to revive Hebrew Culture and a pluralistic Israeli-Jewish identity.

She co-established ELUL, the first beit midrash in which secular and religious women and men studied and taught together. In 1996 in Tel Aviv, she founded in ALMA, a Jewish liberal arts program for advanced learning and is the author of A Bride for One Night (2001), a personal homiletic reading of Talmudic legends, and Talmudic Alpha Beta (2014).

From 2013-2015, she was a Knesset Member from the Yesh Atid Party, where she was Deputy Speaker, member of the education and state control committees, and Chairperson of the Lobby for Jewish Renewal.

She holds a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Talmud from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ibrahim Anli is a civic entrepreneur with a career record that bridges nonprofit and academic experience. He was a visiting researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem following his studies. Ibrahim joined the Journalists and Writers Foundation’s (JWF) Ankara office as its diplomacy coordinator. He later served as the secretary general of Abant Platform, JWF’s Istanbul based forum of intellectuals. Ibrahim taught International Relations and Diplomacy at Tishk International University in Erbil, Kurdistan before joining Rumi Forum and has been serving as its Executive Director since 2019.

Ibrahim Anli has published a number of peer reviewed book chapters and articles. He holds a BA in Economics from Istanbul University, an MA in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Sabanci University, and a certificate in Strategic Management for Leaders of NGOs from Harvard University. He is a member of Braver Angels Scholars Council and also serves on the board of Religion Communicators Council.

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is one of American Judaism’s most prolific and most-quoted rabbis — described as “courageous,” “always relevant,” and “one of American Judaism’s true public intellectuals.”

His column, “Martini Judaism: for those who want to be shaken and stirred,” published by the Religion News Service, has won several Wilbur awards for best religion column of the year. “Martini Judaism” also appears as a podcast. He delivered the keynote on spirituality at the Chautauqua Institution, and has participated in interreligious dialogue with Christian and Muslim religious leaders.

He is the author of eleven books, which have inspired vigorous national conversations on such subjects as American Jewish identity, Israel, gender, and Jewish culture, and he has written three Torah commentaries.. His essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Commentary, the Wall Street Journal, Tablet, Forward, and JTA, as well as articles in scholarly journals and encyclopedias. He has discussed the American political scene on CNN and the BBC.

His latest book is Tikkun Ha’Am: Repairing Our People – Israel and the Crisis of Liberal Judaism. Rabbi David Wolpe of Los Angeles has said: “This book shows why Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is among the wisest observers of our society and our souls — a Rabbi who writes with humor, depth and clarity.”

Rabbi Salkin currently lives in Montclair, New Jersey, and devotes his time to writing, biking, his friends and family, and consuming vast quantities of coffee.

Rabba Yaffa Epstein is the Senior Scholar and Educator in Residence at the Jewish Education Project. Formerly, she served as the Director of the Wexner Heritage Program at the Wexner Foundation. Epstein has also served as the Director of Education, North America for the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and was a member of the faculty. She has served on the faculties of Yeshivat Maharat and the Drisha Institute. Epstein has served as an Educator and Scholar in Residence for the Dorot Fellowship, Moishe House, Jewish Federation of North America, the Covenant Foundation, the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship, Repair the World, and JPro. She has lectured at numerous Limmud events around the globe, has written curriculum for the Global Day of Jewish Learning and has created innovative educational programming for Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. She received Orthodox Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshivat Maharat, earned an additional private Orthodox Ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes, holds a Law Degree from Bar-Ilan University, and studied at the Talmud Department at Hebrew University. She is a member of the Inaugural Cohort of the Sefaria Word-by-Word Writing Circle, and she has been published in the SAPIR Journal, the Jerusalem Post, and numerous Jewish compilations. In 2024, Epstein received the prestigious Covenant Award, recognizing her outstanding contributions to the field of Jewish education. Rabba Epstein has taught educators, rabbis and lay leaders from across the spectrum of Jewish denomination, and she is passionate about making Torah study exciting, relevant, and accessible to all those who wish to learn.

Arno Michaelis is a Peer Exit Specialist at Parents for Peace, a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting families affected by radicalization and extremism. P4P treats radicalization as a public health issue, providing resources to prevent extremist hate, violence, and antisemitism in our homes and communities. Arno leverages his lived experience as a former Neo-Nazi to reach those making the same mistakes, and lend insight to their families.

Elie Wiesel wrote that “God created humanity, because God loves stories.” Rabbi Ed Feinstein loves stories too, and has spent his adult life sharing the stories of the Jewish people. Teacher, lecturer, storyteller, Rabbi Feinstein is rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California and Lecturer at the Ziegler Rabbinical School of the American Jewish University. He has served on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Program, Milken Community High School, the Chautauqua Institution, and the Shalom Hartman Institute. Raised in the back of his parents’ bakery on the wild frontiers of the West San Fernando Valley, Ed graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Columbia University Teachers College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained a rabbi and earned his doctorate in education. He was the founding head of the Solomon Schechter Academy of Dallas, Associate Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, and Executive Director of Camp Ramah in California. He came to Valley Beth Shalom in 1993.

Rabbi Feinstein is the author of five books, including Tough Questions Jews Ask, which is taught in schools and synagogues across North America. The Chutzpah Imperative traces the history of theological humanism in Jewish sacred literature. Capturing the Moon retells the greatest Jewish stories. His latest book, In Pursuit of Godliness and a Living Judaism, is an intellectual biography of his mentor, Rabbi Harold Schulweis.

Ed shares life with Rabbi Nina Bieber Feinstein, their three children and spouses, and two beautiful new grandchildren. Every Friday afternoon, he bakes brownies from a recipe revealed to his ancestors at Mount Sinai.

ABIGAIL POGREBIN is the co-author of the 2025 Independent Press Award winner It Takes Two To Torah: An Orthodox Rabbi and A Reform Journalist Discuss and Debate Their Way through the Five Books of Moses with Rabbi Dov Linzer. She is also the author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays; One Wondering Jew – a finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Awards and still included in synagogue community reads 8 years after publication. Her first book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk about Being Jewish, for which she interviewed 60 major public figures — from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Steven Spielberg – went into eight hardcover printings and was later adapted for the Off-Broadway stage. Abby was an Emmy-nominated broadcast producer for CBS News’ 60 Minutes, and before that at PBS for Fred W. Friendly, Charlie Rose and Bill Moyers. She has written for the New York Times, Atlantic Magazine, Newsweek, Tablet, the Forward, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar. She has moderated public conversations with Hillary Clinton, Lynne Cheney, Madeleine Albright, Bret Stephens, Tom Friedman, Julianna Margulies, Dan Senor, Mayim Bialik, Yossi Klein Halevi, and scores of others at The Streicker Center, the JCC in Manhattan and for JBS Television. Abby is a past president of Central Synagogue in Manhattan and a board member of The Shalom Hartman Institute. Abby received The Impact Award from The Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan in June 2019, was honored by The Jewish Week in 2017 for contributions to Jewish communal life, and was asked to deliver the plenary address at Hillel International Conference in 2014.

Ariel Evan Mayse is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, and he is also the senior scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Jewish Spirituality and Society and the rabbi-in-residence of Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute. Mayse holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in Israel. Mayse’s research and teaching interests include: Hasidism, Kabbalah, and Jewish mysticism; comparative religious ethics and theology; ecology and the environmental humanities; medieval Jewish thought; and the philosophy of Jewish law. He is the author of Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020; Hebrew translation, 2022); Laws of the Spirit: Ritual, Mysticism, and the Commandments in Early Hasidism (Stanford University Press, 2024; Hebrew translation, forthcoming with Magnes Press); and Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community, and LIfe in the Modern World, with Sam Berrin Shonkoff (Brandeis University Press, 2020). His next project, As a Deep River Rises: Judaism, Ecology and Environmental Ethics, is under contract with Brandeis University Press, and he is currently working on a biography of the Baal Shem Tov for the Jewish Lives Series (Yale University Press).

Considered among the leading voices in Jewish ethics and spirituality, Rabbi Pamela Barmash integrates deep knowledge of the textual sources of Jewish wisdom with profound sensitivity to the joys and travails of the human condition. She is the Chair of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative/Masorti Movement and Professor of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew at Washington University in St. Louis, where she served as director of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies there. Before that, she was the rabbi at Temple Shaare Tefilah, Norwood, Massachusetts.

She is also a dayyan (a religious court judge) on the (International) Joint Beit Din of the Conservative/Masorti Movement and was the 17th woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi. She earned a B.A. from Yale University, rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
She has published six books and over fifty articles, essays, and reviews in scholarly journals, encyclopedias, and popular media and more than twenty official responsa and letters of guidance for the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. She is currently working on two books, one on Jerusalem in the religious imagination of the Bible and a commentary on the book of Exodus.

Her latest book, Modern Responsa: An Anthology of Jewish Ethical and Ritual Decisions, presents contemporary responsa (Jewish ethical and
ritual decision-making) by rabbinic authorities, men and women, across movements (Conservative, Orthodox, Reform), geographic locales, and ethnicities (Ashkenazic, Sefardic, Mizraḥi), to show how rabbis expert in Jewish law apply principles, precedents, and rules from
Judaism’s legal tradition to real-life issues. She illuminates the dynamic nature of Jewish law, the
creativity of Jewish legal writings, and the multidimensionality of the Jewish experience in
modernity.

Donniel Hartman is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, where he holds the Kaufman Family Chair in Jewish Philosophy. He is the author of Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself and The Boundaries of Judaism, among other books; the founder of religious education, training, and enrichment programs in Israel and North America; and host of the popular Jewish podcast For Heaven’s Sake.

His latest book, Who Are the Jews and Who Can They Become, addresses contemporary challenges, including Diaspora Jewry’s eroding relationship with Israel, the “othering” of Israeli Palestinians, interfaith marriage, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and more.

Nancy Berg teaches college courses in Israeli society, Middle Eastern literatures, and Jewish culture. While much of her scholarship focuses on the literature of Iraqi Jews, she has also researched Israeli women’s writing, memory writing, and food.

Her first book, Exile from Exile, explores the writings of Israeli Jews from Iraq, heirs to the longest continuous Jewish community: Babylonian Jewry. In More and More Equal, her next book, she analyzes the literary career of Israeli writer Sami Michael. What We Talk About When We Talk About Hebrew (And What It Means to Americans), coedited with Naomi B. Sokoloff, won the 2019 National Jewish Book Award for Anthologies and Collections. Since 1948: Israeli Literature in the Making was published in 2020; Exile and the Jews with Marc Saperstein in 2024;Longing and Belonging: Jews in the Modern Islamic World (edited with Dina Danon) was just published last month.

Prof. Berg has been a fellow at CASA (Center for Arabic Study Abroad), the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Herbert Katz Center for Advanced Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She previously served as president of the NAPH (National Association of Professors of Hebrew).

Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff is rector and Sol and Anne Dorff Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at American Jewish University. His many books on Jewish ethics and law include Modern Conservative Judaism (JPS, 2018), For the Love of God and People (JPS, 2007), Love Your Neighbor and Yourself(JPS, 2003), Matters of Life and Death (JPS, 1998), and the National
Jewish Book Award–winner To Do the Right and the Good (JPS, 2002).

Yiscah is a thought leader and spiritual activist who addresses the spiritual practice of encountering the Divine spark within and beyond. She encourages, empowers and ennobles others to remain faithful to their individual spiritual paths.

Yiscah teaches Jewish spiritual texts at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, Applied Jewish Spirituality (AJS) and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS). She founded Conscious Community Nachlaot, an organization in Jerusalem that hosts Shabbat spiritual gatherings. Her forthcoming book Planting Seeds of the Divine: Torah Commentaries to Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice, published by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), will be released in 2025.

Rabbi Marc Katz is the Rabbi at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, NJ and has served there since 2018. Originally from Barrington RI, Rabbi Katz received a B.A. from Tufts University in 2006. At Tufts, he studied Comparative Religion while serving as the captain of his college swim team. Before entering rabbinical school, Rabbi Katz worked as a Legislative Assistant for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism lobbying for environmental protection and health care reform on behalf of the Reform movement. Rabbi Katz graduated from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 2012 and began work as assistant rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope. Rabbi Katz served a total of ten years at CBE, eventually attaining the title of Associate Rabbi.

Rabbi Katz is the author of two books, The Heart of Loneliness: How Jewish Wisdom Can Help You Cope and Find Comfort (Jewish lights), which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and his newest work Yochanan’s Gamble: Judaism’s Pragmatic Approach to Life (JPS).

Rabbi Katz and his wife Ayelet live in Montclair. He can often be found running or on a bike and is always excited to talk about what you are reading.

Geoffrey Claussen is the Lori and Eric Sklut Professor in Jewish Studies, Professor of Religious Studies, and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Elon University. His scholarship focuses on Jewish ethics and theology, and he has particular interests in questions of love and justice, war and violence, animal ethics, virtue and character, the Musar movement, and the diversity of modern Jewish ethics. He received his Ph.D. and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and he is a past president of the Society of Jewish Ethics.

His books include Sharing the Burden: Rabbi Simhah Zissel Ziv and the Path of Musar (2015),
Modern Musar: Contested Virtues in Jewish Thought (2022), Jewish Virtue Ethics (2023), and
Jewish Ethics: The Basics (2024).

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in Washington, D.C., and the author of more than 20 books about the Holocaust, Zionism, and American Jewish history. Dr. Medoff has taught Jewish history at Ohio State University, Purchase College of the State University of New York, Yeshiva University and elsewhere, and he is a Fellow of the Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research at Bar-Ilan University. He is former associate editor of the scholarly journal American Jewish History, and has contributed to the Encyclopedia Judaica, Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia and other leading reference volumes.

His forthcoming book’s title is The Road to October 7th: Hamas, the Holocaust, and the Eternal War Against the Jews.

Rabbi Dr. Marc Gellman, PhD is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, New York and was the interim rabbi for the Aspen Jewish Congregation in Aspen, Colorado.

Rabbi Gellman served as president of The New York Board of Rabbis during the attacks of 9/11.

Rabbi Gellman holds an earned doctorate in Philosophy from Northwestern University. He is the CEO and founder of The Marc Gellman Institute, Inc. a 501c3 charitable institution that produces a weekly podcast, The God Squad: a podcast you can believe in. He wrote a column for Newsweek.com entitled The Spiritual State.

In 1987, with his friend Monsignor Thomas Hartman, Rabbi Gellman formed the media team called, The God Squad. They reported religious news for ABC’s Good Morning America and were regulars on the Imus in the Morning program. They also hosted their own syndicated cable program, The God Squad. They coauthored a syndicated weekly religious advice column for Tribune Media Content, The God Squad, which Rabbi Gellman continues to write following Father Hartman’s death in 2016. The readers of Newsday voted Rabbi Gellman and Father Hartman the most important leaders and activists of the last century on Long Island. Rabbi Gellman was also chosen as one of the fifty best rabbis in America by Newsweek.

Their HBO special, How Do You Spell God? received the George Foster Peabody Award in 1996.

As a contributing editor of Moment Magazine Rabbi Gellman was a pioneer in opening the new field of modern midrash for children and for adults. He has written ten books for children and adults including, “Does God Have a Big Toe?: Stories about stories in the Bible” which was selected by the New York Times as one of the ten best illustrated children’s books of the year. Professor Isa Aron called it, “The greatest Jewish children’s book ever written.”

Peter Himmelman is a Grammy and Emmy nominated singer-songwriter, visual artist, best-selling author, film composer, entrepreneur, and rock and roll performer.

Time Magazine wrote: “Peter Himmelman writes songs with the same urgency that compelled the Lost Generation to write novels.”

Peter founded Big Muse in 2011 to help organizations leverage the power of their employee’s innate creativity. Clients include Boeing, 3M, McDonald’s, Adobe, and Gap Inc.

Peter’s award-winning first book, Let Me Out (Unlock your creative mind and bring your ideas to life) was published by Penguin in October 2016 and has received wide praise from thought leaders such as Arianna Huffington and Adam Grant.

His most recent book, Suspended By No String: A Songwriter’s Reflections On Faith, Aliveness, and Wonder —published by Regalo Press/distributed by Simon & Schuster in August 2024 has been garnering praise from thought leaders and NYT best-selling authors.

Peter also holds an Advanced Management Certificate from The Kellogg School of Business, at Northwestern and a Certificate of Leadership Development from the United States Army War College.

Social activist and storyteller, writer and community leader, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him) is the Co-Founding Spiritual Leader of the Lab/Shul community in NYC and the creator of the ritual theater company Storahtelling, Inc.

Israeli born, he’s been living in New York since 1998. He received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2016, the 39th generation of rabbis in his family — the first one to be openly queer.

Rabbi Amichai is the subject of Sabbath Queen, Sandi DuBowski’s documentary film, 21 years in the making, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024.

Rabbi Amichai serves on the Executive Board of Rabbis for Human Rights, is a co-founding member of the Jewish Emergent Network, a founding faculty member of the Reboot Network, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Sulha Peace Project for Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers, the Leadership Council of the New York Jewish Agenda, the Advisory Council for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and as an advisor to Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance.

He’s been named “an iconoclastic mystic” by Time Out New York, “a calm voice for peace’ by NPR, a “rock star” by the New York Times, a “Judaic Pied Piper” by the Denver Westword, a “maverick spiritual leader” by The Times of Israel and “one of the most interesting thinkers in the Jewish world” by the Jewish Week. In 2017 he was named one of America’s Top 50 rabbis by The Forward.

Isaac Saul is a politics reporter and the founder of Tangle, an independent, nonpartisan news outlet that covers the big issues of the day by highlighting different perspectives across the political spectrum. Isaac grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — one of the most politically divided counties in America — where he was exposed to a huge range of political opinions and values. As a young journalist, Isaac learned the media ecosystem was broken when he found that he wasn’t being judged based on his writing, but where it was being published. Recognizing the need for open-minded political discourse based on the merit of ideas rather than left/right leanings, he bootstrapped Tangle in 2019. Since then, Tangle’s work has been cited by The New York Times, Forbes, The Hustle, 1440, Substack, and others as one of the most successful politics newsletters on the internet, as well as one of the most reliable sources of news.

Before Tangle, Isaac helped build A Plus, a solutions journalism media outlet, alongside actor and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher. In 2016, Yahoo News named him one of the 16 people whose writing shaped the 2016 election, and in 2020, Forbes Magazine called him one of the 1,000 “upstart entrepreneurs redefining the American dream.”

Isaac started Tangle in 2019 as an independent, ad-free, non-partisan politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from the left and right on the news of the day, as well as his own distinctive take on the issue. Tangle now has over 225,000 readers and 100,000 followers across its social platforms, podcast, and YouTube channel.

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is one of American Judaism’s most prolific and most-quoted rabbis — described as “courageous,” “always relevant,” and “one of American Judaism’s true public intellectuals.”

His column, “Martini Judaism: for those who want to be shaken and stirred,” published by the Religion News Service, has won several Wilbur awards for best religion column of the year. “Martini Judaism” also appears as a podcast. He delivered the keynote on spirituality at the Chautauqua Institution, and has participated in interreligious dialogue with Christian and Muslim religious leaders.

He is the author of eleven books, which have inspired vigorous national conversations on such subjects as American Jewish identity, Israel, gender, and Jewish culture, and he has written three Torah commentaries.. His essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Commentary, the Wall Street Journal, Tablet, Forward, and JTA, as well as articles in scholarly journals and encyclopedias. He has discussed the American political scene on CNN and the BBC.

His latest book is Tikkun Ha’Am: Repairing Our People – Israel and the Crisis of Liberal Judaism. Rabbi David Wolpe of Los Angeles has said: “This book shows why Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin is among the wisest observers of our society and our souls — a Rabbi who writes with humor, depth and clarity.”

Rabbi Salkin currently lives in Montclair, New Jersey, and devotes his time to writing, biking, his friends and family, and consuming vast quantities of coffee.

Named The Most Influential Rabbi in America by Newsweek and one of the 50 Most Influential Jews in the World  by The Jerusalem Post, and twice named one of the 500 Most Influential People in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal, David Wolpe is the Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple. He serves as the ADL’s inaugural rabbinic fellow and a scholar in residence at the Maimonides Fund.

Rabbi Wolpe has taught at Harvard, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the American Jewish University, Hunter College, and UCLA. Rabbi Wolpe has published widely, including in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek and The Atlantic. He has been featured on The Today Show, Face the Nation, ABC This Morning, and CBS This Morning as well as series on PBS, A&E, History Channel, and Discovery Channel, and has engaged in widely watched public debates with Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and many others about religion and its place in the world.

Rabbi Wolpe is the author of eight books, including the national bestseller Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times (Riverhead). His latest is titled David, the Divided Heart (Yale U Press). It was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards, and has been optioned for a movie by Warner Bros.

MARK OPPENHEIMER has been covering American religion for 25 years. He holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale, and has taught at Stanford, Wesleyan, Wellesley, NYU, Boston College, and Yale, where he was the founding director of the Yale Journalism Initiative.

From 2010 to 2016, he wrote the “Beliefs” column, about religion, for The New York Times, and he has also written for publications including The New Yorker, The Nation, GQ, Slate, and many more. He created Unorthodox, the world’s most popular podcast about Jewish life and culture, with over 7 million downloads to date.

More recently, he hosted an eight-part podcast called Gatecrashers, about the history of Jews and antisemitism at Ivy League schools. He is the author of five books, including The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia and, most recently, Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood. He is currently the editor of ARC Magazine.

Mark lives in Connecticut with his wife, four daughters, one son, and two dogs.

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch is the senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City. With a fiery voice, a listening heart and a brilliant mind, Rabbi Hirsch articulates a clear vision for the survival and success of American Judaism while tending compassionately to the needs of his growing congregation.

Internationally recognized for his leadership in Jewish affairs, Rabbi Hirsch is frequently cited in the media. In 2018, The Jerusalem Post named him among “The 50 Most Influential Jews of the Year.” City & State praised him as “the borough’s most influential voice” for Manhattan’s more than 300,000 Jews and The New York Observer named him among “New York’s Most Influential Religious Leaders.” His sermons are regularly broadcast on JBS-TV and he is the host of the bi-weekly podcast “In These Times with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch.”

The son of Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch z’’l and Bella Hirsch z’’l, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch grew up in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area before moving to Israel for his high school years. From 1977 to 1980, he served as a tank commander in the Israel Defense Forces.

Rabbi Hirsch earned his LL.B Honors law degree from the London School of Economics and is a member of the New York State Bar. He received his ordination at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, where he was granted numerous awards for academic excellence.

Prior to his arrival at Stephen Wise, he served for 12 years as executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), the Israel arm of the North American Reform movement.

An accomplished teacher and public speaker, Rabbi Hirsch is also the author of “The Lilac Tree” and the co-author of the acclaimed “One People Two Worlds: A Reform Rabbi and an Orthodox Rabbi Explore the Issues that Divide Them.”

Rabbi Schwartz is director and editor-in-chief emeritus of The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), the preeminent publisher of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh) and Jewish classics since 1888.

Rabbi Schwartz received his BA, magna cum laude, from Duke University, and his MA and rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College. He previously served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ.

He began his career as the rabbi of the Leo Baeck Center in Haifa, where he also served in the Israeli army.

Rabbi Schwartz is a prolific writer- the author of books for adults, teens and children, a prize-winning short story, a play, a prayer book, and scholarly articles that have appeared in the Journal of Reform Judaism, American Jewish History, and the Hebrew Union College Annual.

His several textbooks have been used in over 300 religious schools nationwide for the past 20 years.
His children’s works include Adams’ Animals (2017), a selection of the PJ Library, The New Queen of Sheba (2020) and Jonah’s Tale of a Whale (2021).

His latest book is a comprehensive survey of the full spectrum of modern Jewish thought today, entitled Open Judaism: A Guide for Believers, Atheists and Agnostics (2023)

Michael Berenbaum is the Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust and a Professor of Jewish Studies at the American Jewish University. The author and editor of 20 books, he was also the Executive Editor of the Second Edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica. He was Project Director overseeing the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the first Director of its Research Institute and later served as President and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which took the testimony of 52,000 Holocaust survivors in 32 languages and 57 countries. His work in film has won Emmy Awards and Academy Awards.

Dr. Berenbaum is the author and editor of eighteen books, scores of scholarly articles and hundreds of journalistic pieces. He won the Simon Rockower Memorial Award of the American Jewish Press Association three times in three different categories during a two-year period.

He is also the Executive Editor of the New Encyclopaedia Judaica. The 22 volume, sixteen million word second edition transformed and improved the now classic 1972 work. The EJ was awarded the Dartmouth Medal by the American Library Association for the outstanding reference work of 2006.

Alden Solovy is a modern day paytan, a traveling poet/preacher/teacher who uses Torah and verse to
engage and inspire. Alden embodies the intersection of scholarship and heart. His writings resonate with
soul and his presence is sought after in Jewish spiritual spaces around the world. Alden’s work
challenges the boundaries between poetry, song, meditation, personal growth, storytelling, and prayer.
His teaching spans from Jerusalem to Vancouver, including HUC-JIR, the Conservative Yeshiva, Leo Baeck
College, and synagogues throughout North America. His fifth volume from CCAR Press – Enter These
Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe – is forthcoming in 2024. His other CCAR Press books are: These
Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah (2023), This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a
New Day (2017), This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings (2019), and This Precious Life:
Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer (2021). These Words won a Silver Medal from the
Independent Book Publishers. His work appears in more than 25 collections, including CCAR Press books:
Mishkan Ga’avah: Where Pride Dwells (2020); The Year of Mourning: A Jewish Journey (2023); and
Prophetic Voices: Renewing and Reimagining Haftarah (2023). Alden made Aliyah to Jerusalem in 2012,
where he is Liturgist in Residence at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. Find his latest works at
www.tobendlight.com.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He is co-host, together with Donniel Hartman, of the Hartman Institute’s podcast, “For Heaven’s Sake” – the number one Jewish podcast in the English-speaking world.

Halevi’s 2013 book, “Like Dreamers,” won the Jewish Book Council’s Everett Book of the Year Award. His latest book, “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor,” is a New York Times bestseller and has appeared in a dozen languages.

He has written for leading op-ed pages in North America and is a former contributing editor to the New Republic. He is frequently quoted on Israeli, Middle Eastern and Jewish affairs in leading media around the world and is one of the best-known lecturers on Israeli issues in the North American Jewish community and on North American campuses.

He co-directs the Hartman Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI), which teaches emerging young Muslim leaders in North America about Judaism, Jewish identity and Israel. Over 150 Muslim leaders have participated in the unique program.

Born in Brooklyn, he received his BA in Jewish studies from Brooklyn College, and his MS in journalism from Northwestern University.

He moved to Israel in 1982 and lives in Jerusalem with wife, Sarah, who helps direct a center for Jewish meditation. They have three children.

Mandee Heller Adler is a renowned college counseling expert, a Certified Educational Planner, and the founder of International College Counselors. She is
known through her work with high school students and her fast-selling books: From Public School to the Ivy League: How to get into a top school without
top dollar resources, International Admissions: How to get accepted to U.S. Colleges, and To University and Beyond: Launch your career in high gear. She is regularly featured in US News and World Report and has also been featured in dozens of other newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo!Parenting, Money, NBC News, and FOX
Business News.

Since high school, Mandee has shown a true commitment to education. Attending the University of Pennsylvania, she was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and graduated with honors and two degrees — one from the Wharton School and one from the College of Arts and Sciences. She also earned her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was selected as a Class Day Speaker. Additionally, she studied at ICADE, a premier business school located in Madrid, Spain after receiving a fellowship from Rotary International.

Prior to starting International College Counselors, Mandee worked as an investment banker for Goldman, Sachs & Co in New York. She later co-founded
HerDollar, Inc, which she sold to Siebert Financial Corp (NASDAQ: SIEB) in October of 2000, and served as EVP and COO of Women’s Financial Network at Siebert, a
fully operational national discount brokerage focused on women.

Liel Leibovitz is editor at large for Tablet Magazine and the co-host of its popular podcast, Unorthodox. He’s also a columnist for First Things and a frequent contributor to other publications, including The New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. He’s the author or co-author of several books, including, most recently, How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advice from a Very Old Book. He holds a Ph.D. in communications from Columbia University, and has taught at Barnard and New York University before fleeing academia. A native of Israel and a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, he lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.

Rabbi Yanklowitz has twice been named one of America’s Top Rabbis by Newsweek and has been named by The Forward as one of the 50 most influential Jews and one of The Most Inspiring Rabbis in America. Rabbi Yanklowitz is the author of 23 books on Jewish ethics and his writings have appeared in outlets as diverse as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the Atlantic among many other secular and religious publications. He has served as speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and a Rothschild Fellow in Cambridge, UK. Rav Shmuly received a Masters from Harvard University, a Masters from Yeshiva University, and his Doctorate from Columbia University. He was ordained as a rabbi by Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, along with 2 private ordinations in Israel. He serves as the President & Dean of Valley Beit Midrash (a global Jewish learning and action center). His wife Shoshana, and their four children live in Scottsdale, Arizona. They have also served as foster parents.

Isaiah Joseph Rothstein serves as Rabbinic Scholar and Public Affairs Advisor at Jewish Federations of North America, and is a founder of Jewish Federations’ JEDI Initiative for Jewish Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, the Jewish Youth Climate Movement, and Kamochah, a community for Black Orthodox Jews.

Prior to JFNA, Isaiah was rabbi-in-residence at Adamah, Isabella Freedman, and Be’chol Lashon, and served as rabbi for youth at Carmel Academy, Young Israel of Stamford, NCSY, and Camp Yavneh. Isaiah studied at Kushner Yeshiva High School, Lev HaTorah, Machon Lev, and Binghamton University, and received rabbinic ordination and a masters of social work from Yeshiva University.

Raised in a multi-racial Chabad family from Monsey, NY, he sees himself as a human bridge, connecting disparate parts of the Jewish community and America. Isaiah is a member of Rabbis Without Borders, and Schusterman Foundations’ ROI + Senior Fellowships, and was listed in Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36.”

When not working to keep the world safe for the Jewish people and democracy, Isaiah is writing a musical about Queen Esther.

Rabbi Sussman, Ph.D., has the distinction of being both a rabbi and a scholar. A specialist in American Jewish History, Sussman is the author of a number of books in his field, including the seminal biography Isaac Leeser and the Making of American Judaism (1995). Along with Jonathan D. Sarna and Paula S. Nadel, he served as an editor of New Essays in American Jewish History (2010). A prolific writer, Sussman has published significant articles on a variety of topics including modern Jewish life and Jewish art. Most recently, he published Portrait of an American Rabbi: In His Own Words (2023), a collection of his sermons and writings from the last twenty-one years. In addition to his pulpit work, Sussman has taught at Princeton University, Binghamton (SUNY) University, and Hunter College, among others, and he has also served as Chair of the Board of Governors of Gratz College. A popular speaker, Sussman has been a scholar-in-residence, given hundreds of community lectures, and participated in the creation of a number of television documentaries. Sussman currently serves as the Memoirs Section Editor of the Southern Jewish Historical Society’s Journal and is working on a book on Jews, law, and the American Revolution.

Rachel is a Jewish education consultant in curriculum development for Israel and Holocaust education. Rachel opens for her audiences a window to Israeli society through literature; through stories, poems and songs of the best of Israel’s writers, she invites listeners to engage with Israel in an innovative way.

Since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic – Rachel created a global community of hundreds of learners who meet to study Israeli poetry online regularly.

Rachel teaches at Israel’s well known learning centers such as Pardes and the Shalom Hartman Institutes as well as numerous world Jewish communities.

In her free time, Rachel enjoys scuba diving in the cenotes of Playa del Carmen in Mexico and the amazing coral sites of the Red Sea.

Rachel is also a very active grandmother of eight grandchildren who all live in Israel.

Dr. Elana Stein Hain is the Rosh Beit Midrash and a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she serves as lead faculty and consults on the content of lay and professional programs.
A widely well-regarded thinker and teacher, Elana is passionate about bringing rabbinic thought into conversation with contemporary life. To this end, she hosts TEXTing a bi-weekly podcast that considers issues relevant to Jewish life through the lens of classical and modern Torah texts; she also teaches Talmud from the Balcony, an occasional learning seminar exposing the big ideas, questions, and issues motivating rabbinic discussions. Elana is the author of Circumventing the Law: Rabbinic Perspectives on Legal Loopholes and Integrity (Penn Press, 2024) which uses loopholes as a lens for understanding rabbinic views on law and ethics.
Elana also contributes to For Heaven’s Sake, a bi-weekly podcast with Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi, exploring contemporary issues related to Israel and the Jewish world.

She earned her doctorate in Religion at Columbia University and is an alumna of the Yeshiva University Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies (GPATS) as well as the Consortium in Jewish Studies and Legal Theory Graduate Fellowship at Cardozo School of Law. She also served for eight years as a clergy member on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at both Lincoln Square Synagogue and the Jewish Center, has taught at the Wagner School at NYU, and sits on the board of Sefaria: A Living Library of Jewish Texts.

Elana lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her family.

Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg serves as the President of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life (JJGI) and as Senior Scholar in Residence at Hadar Institute. He has had a long and notable career in the service of the Jewish people. He served in the rabbinate, notably at the Riverdale Jewish Center in the 1960s. He served as professor and chairman of the Department of Jewish Studies of City College of the City University of New York in the 1970s. Together with Elie Wiesel, he founded CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and served as its president until 1997. From 1997 to 2008, he served as founding president of Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation which created such programs as birthright Israel. When Elie Wiesel served as chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, Rabbi Greenberg served as its (Executive) Director. The Commission recommended and drew the blueprint for the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the National Mall in Washington. He served as the Museum’s chairman from 2000-2002.

Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Brody is the executive director of Ematai and the Jewish Law Live columnist for the Jerusalem Post. He previously served as the founding director of the Tikvah Overseas Student Institute and co-dean of Tikvah Online Academy, a senior instructor at Yeshivat Hakotel, and as a junior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Rabbi Brody’s career has focused on making Jewish texts accessible to broader audiences while applying them to contemporary social and ethical dilemmas. His writings have been cited in Israeli Supreme Court decisions and have appeared in Mosaic, First Things, Tradition, The Federalist, Tablet, Tzohar, The Forward, Hakirah, Jewish Review of Books, and other popular publications. His first book, A Guide to the Complex: Contemporary Halakhic Debates (Maggid), received a National Jewish Book Award. His next book, Judaism Confronts War: Jewish Military Ethics for the 21st Century, is scheduled to be published in both Hebrew and English in early 2024. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, he received rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, an MA in Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University, and his PhD from Bar Ilan University Law School, where he continues to serve as a post-doctoral fellow. Rabbi Brody has been an invited scholar-in-residence at over 40 distinguished congregations and campuses in the United States, Canada, England, and Israel.

Jonathan D. Sarna is University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University. He also chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati, and serves as Chief Historian of The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

Author or editor of more than thirty books on American Jewish history and life, his American Judaism: A History (Yale 2004), recently published in a second edition, won six awards including the 2004 “Everett Jewish Book of the Year Award” from the Jewish Book Council. His most recent books are Coming to Terms with America (JPS, 2021); (with Benjamin Shapell) Lincoln and the Jews: A History (St. Martin’s, 2015), and When General Grant Expelled the Jews (Schocken/Nextbook, 2012). His annotated edition of Cora Wilburn’s previously unknown 1860 novel, Cosella Wayne (University of Alabama Press), has also recently appeared.

Dr. Sarna is married to Professor Ruth Langer and they have two married children and three adorable grandchildren.