Eric Gartman
Rockville, MD
Virtual / In-person

Return to Zion: The History of Modern Israel (2015)

PRESENTATION TOPICS:
– Origins of Zionism
– Birth of the Arab refugee crisis
– Is Israel a colonial/imperial state?
– Israel and Gaza
– Arab-Israeli Wars

Eric Gartman is an intelligence analyst for the United States Department of Defense who has lived and studied in Israel and traveled extensively throughout the Middle East.

Rabbi Niles Goldstein
Napa, CA
Virtual / In-person

Eight Questions of Faith: Biblical Challenges that Guide and Ground Our Lives (2015)

PRESENTATION TOPICS:
– God at the Edge: Searching for the Divine in Uncomfortable and Unexpected Places
– Fake Jewish News: Myths and Lies about One of the World’s Oldest Religions
– Gonzo Judaism: A Bold Path for Renewing an Ancient Faith
– Spiritual Writers and Spiritual Writing: An Interfaith Journey through Words
– The Challenge of the Soul: An Interdisciplinary Path for the Spiritual Warrior
– Eight Questions of Faith: Biblical Challenges that Guide and Ground Our Lives

Rabbi Niles Goldstein is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Shalom of Napa Valley. An experienced and dynamic Reform rabbi and educator, Rabbi Goldstein is also the award-winning author or editor of ten books. He was the founding rabbi of The New Shul, an innovative and independent synagogue in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, which he served for over a decade. He is also a founder of the Napa Center for Thought & Culture.

Jeffrey Gorsky
Arlington, VA
Virtual / In-person

Exiles in Sepharad: The Jewish Millenium in Spain (2015)

PRESENTATION TOPICS:
– History of the Jews in Spain
– The Spanish anti-Jewish riots of 1391
– The Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion decree of 1491
– The first Jewish immigration to the New World in the 1600s
– Spanish antisemitism in the early modern period and the birth of modern racism

Jeffrey Gorsky is a retired lawyer and diplomat who worked at the U.S. Department of State and as an immigration attorney. He is a nationally recognized expert in immigration law, a former U.S. vice-consul in Bilbao, Spain, and a former Iberian intelligence analyst.

Judy Klitsner
Jerusalem, Israel
In U.S. twice a year to give talks
Prefers in person

Judy Klitsner is a senior lecturer at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, where she holds the Rabbi Joshua S. Bakst Chair in Tanakh. A disciple of the great Torah teacher Nechama Leibowitz, Judy’s teaching style is lively, accessible, interactive and text-based, and she is particularly fond of uncovering the “vibrant conversation” that takes place between the Bible’s parallel stories. She lectures throughout the world at synagogues, campuses and adult education programs that span the denominational spectrum, and she has taught Bible to Christian and Muslim audiences. Judy is the author of Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other, published by JPS, which received a National Jewish Book Award. She is the founding board chair of Sacred Spaces, an organization that works to systemically address abuse in Jewish institutions. Judy recently launched a Pardes-Sefaria pilot for an original commentary to Chumash.

Rabbi Jodi Kornfeld
Deerfield, IL
Virtual / In-person

Jodi Kornfeld is rabbi of Beth Chaverim Humanistic Jewish Community in suburban Chicago and current president of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis. She holds a Masters in Jewish Studies from Spertus College and a Doctor of Science in Jewish Studies from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago. She was ordained by the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism in 2009. She authored “Visual Arts and Jewish Historiography” in The Routledge Companion to Jewish History and Historiography, ed. Dean Bell, published in 2018.

Professor Alan Levenson
Norman, OK
Virtual / In-person

Alan Levenson holds the Schusterman/Josey Chair of Jewish History at the University of Oklahoma, where he was named Regents’ Professor in 2024. He  has published The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011); The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, General Editor (2012); Joseph: Portraits Through the Ages (JPS /University of Nebraska (2016); Maurice Samuel: Life and Letters of a Secular Jewish Contrarian (Alabama University Press, 2022) and Jews and Judaism. Facts and Fictions (Bloomsbury / ABC-CLIO, 2025). He writes for a variety of academic and popular audiences and also teaches at AJR-New York.

Nancy Kalikow Maxwell
Kansas City, MO
Virtual / In-person

Nancy Kalikow Maxwell is a librarian, an award-winning writer, and a frequent contributor to Jewish media. She is the author of six books and has created funny cards for Hallmark’s Tree of Life Jewish card line. Her regular column “Joys and Oys” appears in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle.

Rabbi Ariel Mayse
Berkeley, CA
Virtual

Ariel Evan Mayse is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies. He 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 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020; Hebrew translation, 2022); Laws of the Spirit: Ritual, Mysticism, and the Commandments in Early Hasidism (Stanford University Press, 2024); 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).

Dr. Rafael Medoff
Philadelphia / South Jersey area
Virtual / In-person

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, based in Washington, D.C., and author of more than 20 books about the Holocaust, Zionism, and American Jewish history. He has taught Jewish history at Ohio State University, Yeshiva University, and elsewhere. His book America and the Holocaust: A Documentary History was named a 2023 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Dr. Medoff is also a leader in the field of using comic books, cartoons, and animation in Holocaust education. Dr. Medoff was co-creator, with Neal Adams, of the Disney Educational Productions animation project “They Spoke Out: American Voices Against the Holocaust,” and he has authored Holocaust-related comic strips for Marvel Comics, the Washington Post (with Art Spiegelman), the Los Angeles Times, and The New Republic.

Dr. Vanessa Ochs
Rhode Island
Virtual / In-person

Rabbi Vanessa Ochs, Ph.D is professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of Virginia and a founder of the Jewish studies program there. She is the author of Inventing Jewish Ritual, Sarah Laughed, and most recently, The Passover Haggadah: A Biography. She lives in Rhode Island.

Rabbi Dan Ornstein
Albany, NY
Virtual / In-person

Rabbi Dan Ornstein leads Congregation Ohav Shalom in Albany, New York. He contributes essays at WAMC Northeast Public Radio and several other sites. Explore his writings at www.danornstein.com.

Dr. Elliott Rabin
Bronx, NY
Virtual / In-person

Elliott Rabin is the Director of Thought Leadership at Prizmah, where he edits HaYidion, the leading publication for Jewish day schools, and records podcasts. Previously, he served as Director of Education for the 92nd Street Y’s Makor/Steinhardt Center. He has taught classes in Jewish Studies, Hebrew Language and Literature, and World Literature in settings ranging from JCCs to the University of Louisville, Baruch College and New York University. Earlier, he was an assistant editor at Harper’s Magazine. His book Understanding the Hebrew Bible: A Reader’s Guide was published by Ktav in 2006. Elliott has a PhD in comparative literature with a specialty in Hebrew literature from Indiana University.

Professor Gary Rendsburg
New Brunswick, NJ
Virtual / In-person

Gary A. Rendsburg is Distinguished Professor and Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History at Rutgers University. He is the author of How the Bible Is Written and the coauthor of The Bible and the Ancient Near East, as well as the author, coauthor, or editor of numerous other volumes. He also served as an associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics.

Rabbi Marc Rosenstein
Shorashim, Israel
Travels to U.S. each year
Virtual / In-person

Marc J. Rosenstein is the former director of both the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion’s Israel Rabbinical Program and the Galilee Foundation for Value Education. He is the author of Galilee Diary and Turning Points in Jewish History (JPS, 2018). Ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, he holds a PhD in modern Jewish history from the Hebrew University. He grew up in the Chicago area and held positions as a Jewish educator in Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia, before making aliyah with his family in 1990. Since then, he has lived in Moshav Shorashim, in the Galilee.

Rabbi Neal Scheindlin
Los Angeles, CA
Virtual / In-person

Rabbi Neal Scheindlin is a visiting lecturer in rabbinics and biblical commentaries at Hebrew Union College-Los Angeles and the Ziegler School at American Jewish University. A native of Philadelphia, Rabbi Scheindlin graduated summa cum laude from La Salle University in that city. He received an M.A. and ordination as a Rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. After working in several synagogues, Rabbi Scheindlin joined the faculty of a pluralistic Jewish high school in Los Angeles, where he taught and developed curriculum in Jewish law and ethics.

Ellen Scolnic
Philadelphia, PA
Virtual / In-person

Ellen Scolnic has been an award-winning writer for more than 25 years. Her features and personal essays appear in Parents Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Science Monitor, The Jerusalem Post, The Independent, The Forward and more. Ellen and her writing partner, Joyce Eisenberg, write, speak and blog together as The Word Mavens. They dispense their opinion on everything from dealing with new technology to sneaking out of a party early. Together, they are the authors of the best-selling Dictionary of Jewish Words, a user-friendly guide to all things Jewish and The Whole Spiel: Funny essays about digital nudniks, seder selfies and chicken soup memories, a collection of some of their favorite essays. Their third book, Stuff Every Grandmother Should Know is part of a popular series of gift books from Quirk/Random House Books. Connect with them at TheWordMavens.com. Appears together with co-author Joyce Eisenberg.

Professor Kenneth Seeskin
Chicago, IL
Virtual / In-person

BA: Northwestern, 1968. PhD: Yale, 1972. Faculty Member: Northwestern, 1972 – 2020. Numerous books and scholarly articles on Maimonides. Koret Jewish Book Award. National Jewish Book Award. Philip M. and Ethel Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization. McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence.

Michael Shapiro
Toronto, Ontario
Virtual / In-person

Michael Shapiro is the founder and CEO of Ketubah.com, the world’s leading publisher of artistic Jewish wedding contracts, and a worldwide lecturer on historical and contemporary ketubot. For nearly three decades he has helped shape the development of contemporary ketubah art by guiding both influential and emerging contemporary ketubah artists, and by freeing a wider range of artists of the need to master the text themselves. His innovations include archival quality on-demand Ketubah printing and laser cutting and an online tool to submit and verify the Hebrew date, location and names. Most recently, he launched HebrewNamer.com, a free inclusive resource for exploring, selecting and storing Hebrew names “from cradle to grave.”

Eileen Sherman
New York, NY
Virtual / In-person in NYC

Eileen Bluestone Sherman is a playwright, lyricist, young adult novelist, television writer, theater/music producer.  Through the years, Eileen’s work received numerous honors, including the Emmy® Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and The International Reading Association Teachers’ Choice Award. Her first two young adult novels include the award winning titles Monday In Odessa and Independence Avenue. In addition to the  paperback, The Violin Players is also available as an audio book, read by the author.When writing musical theater, she collaborates with her sister Gail C. Bluestone. Their music has graced the stages of both Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and on radio airwaves worldwide.  Her Hanukkah picture book, The Odd Potato, (adapted as a musical-show album in 2005) was recorded by 20 Tony® Award winners and can be heard around the globe every Hanukkah.

Danny Siegel
Maryland (Washington, DC suburbs)
Virtual / In-person

Danny Siegel is a well-known author, lecturer, and poet and has served as the Tzedakah resource person on the United Synagogue Youth Israel Pilgrimage for more than four decades. He is the author of nearly thirty books, including Where Heaven and Earth Touch: An Anthology of Midrash and Halachah.

Yiscah Smith
Jerusalem, Israel
Virtual / In-person

Yiscah Smith is a thought leader and spiritual activist committed to empowering and ennobling others in the spiritual practice of encountering the Divine spark within and beyond. She teaches Jewish contemplative practice and spiritual texts at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and for the online platform Applied Jewish Spirituality. In her private practice, Yiscah provides spiritual mentoring to individuals, both in person and online. Yiscah is also available, both in Israel and abroad, as a scholar in residence, guest lecturer,and workshop facilitator.She is the author of Forty Years in the Wilderness: My Journey to Authentic Living and founder of Conscious Community Nachlaot, an alternative prayer space in Jerusalem. Her Authentic Jewish Living with Yiscah podcast episodes are available on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts. www.yiscahsmith.com.

Rick Sopher
London, UK
Virtual / In-person

Rick Sopher (Christs College Cambridge 1978 to 1981) pursued a career in finance, rising to CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings (1993 to date). Prior to that he became the youngest ever partner at BDO Stoy Hayward, chartered accountants (1981 to 1993). More recently, in 2007, for his work in religious education, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur by French President Jacques Chirac. This sideline has become more central in recent years and he is emerging as a key figure in interfaith scriptural dialogue, forging new ways of understanding the links between the Bible and the Qur’an. In 2023 he led the first interfaith group, which included Jews, to Madinah, Saudi Arabia, where he became the first Jewish person to plant a date tree there for approximately 1,400 years and in March 2025, participated in the Drumlanrig Accords, a historic agreement between UK Imams and Rabbis that was presented to HM The King. Sopher was made an Honorary Fellow of the Woolf Institute, Cambridge in 2024, where he convenes the Qur’an and Bible Reading Group of Professors of Religion worldwide.

Professor Stephen Spector
Long Island, NY
Virtual / In-person

Stephen Spector did his Ph.D. at Yale and taught English at Stony Brook University and Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He was a Visiting Scholar at Hebrew University and a Senior Research Fellow at the National Humanities Center and Wesleyan’s Center for Humanities (twice). He has held numerous fellowships, grants, and prizes. He taught the Bible on the undergraduate and graduate levels for fifty years. His Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews traces the intersection of Jewish faith and law with international politics. He has published articles on the ways biblical prophecy informed evangelical influence on American politics and foreign policy of George W. Bush and the first Trump administration. His Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism was published by Oxford University Press. His article on Isaac and trauma was published by Jewish Bible Quarterly.

Dr. Steve Zeitlin
New York, NY
Virtual / In-person

Steve Zeitlin is the Founding Director of City Lore, New York City’s Center for Urban Folk Culture, a Smithsonian affiliate. He is the author of twelve books on America’s folk culture. In 2016, he published a collection of essays, The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness with Cornell University Press. In 2023, he published JEWels: Teasing Out the Poetry in Jewish Humor and Storytelling (JPS). He is also the author of Because God Loves Stories: An Anthology of Jewish Storytelling (Simon & Schuster).

Rabbi Wendy Zierler
Riverdale, NY
Virtual / In-person

Wendy I. Zierler is Sigmund Falk Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Feminist Studies at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and the coeditor of Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History. She is the author of Movies and Midrash: Popular Film and Jewish Religious Conversation and And Rachel Stole the Idols: The Emergence of Hebrew Women’s Writing and coeditor of These Truths We Hold: Judaism in an Age of Truthiness.