Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski serves as the Executive Director of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning. Raised in Argentina, earned his law degree at the University of Buenos Aires Law School (1986) and was ordained as a rabbi at the Seminario Rabinico Lantinoamericano (1991). He received an MA in rabbinic literature and a doctorate in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1997). Rabbi Borodowski also studied at the Hebrew University Institute for Advanced Studies and is a graduate of Senior Educators program at the Melton Center for Education in the Diaspora – Hebrew University (1989-1990). In 1989 he was invited to spend a semester at the Hebrew Union College-Cincinnati as the first Conservative rabbinical student from the Seminario Rabbinical School. He is a graduate of the Metivta Institute for Contemplative Judaism (2000-2001) and is certified as an administrator and interpreter of the Myers Briggs personality type instrument specializing in organizational leadership and spirituality. He is a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management for Jewish Leaders (2009).
Rabbi Yael Shmilovitz has been the Program Director of The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning since the Summer of 2008, after being ordained from HUC-JIR where she also received a Masters of Religious Education. A native Israeli, Yael is co-author of Resilience of the Soul: Developing Emotional and Spiritual Resilience in Adolescents and Their Families, published by URJ Press. She brings to Skirball a variety of teaching, writing and research experience for private, educational and academic institutions.
Michele Davison has been serving as Skirball’s registrar and office manager since the summer of 2008. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she graduated from Medgar Evers College with a degree in Biology. Upon graduation, Michele spent four years as the registrar of Medgar Evers College. She has extensive background in business and finance and has worked for, among others, Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank and First Fidelity Bank before coming to work at the Skirball Center. Michele is also the proud mother of two sons – Douglas and Devon. Michele can be reached at 212.507.9580 or by email.
Elisa Schindler Frankel joined The Skirball Center as Director of Development and Communications in 2013. Elisa comes to us after 7-1/2 years with Jewish National Fund, where she most recently served as National Director of the Women's Campaign and Special Campaigns. Prior to joining JNF, Elisa spent 25 years in the corporate world, specializing in brand development and marketing. A graduate of Brandeis University, Elisa brings to us a vast experience in Jewish community service and leadership. She is a member of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in NYC and Congregation Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont, NY. Elisa has a great passion for sustaining and enriching the values and ideals of Klal Israel, Judaism, and Tikkun Olam - as well as stimulating the American Jewish Community to be an effective voice for Jews around the world. Elisa can be reached at 212.507.9583 or by email.
RABBI ALFREDO BORODOWSKI is the Executive Director of The Skirball Center For Adult Jewish Learning. Previously, Rabbi Borodowski served as Executive Director of The Hartman Institute - North America. Alfredo was ordained as a rabbi by the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano and received an MA in Rabbinic Literature and a Doctorate in Jewish Philosophy from JTS. He also holds a law degree from the University of Buenos Aires. He published Isaac Abravanel on Miracles, Creation, Prophecy, and Evil in 2003 (Peter Lang Press).
Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses RABBI DIANNE COHLER-ESSES is the first woman from the Syrian Jewish community to be ordained. Ordained by JTS, she has been an educator and administrator for multiple pluralist institutions including CLAL, the Bronfman Youth Fellowship, The Curriculum Initiative, and UJA Federation. In 2007 she was named one of the fifty top rabbis by the Washington Post online. Currently she teaches, consults, and lectures widely as well as writing regularly on Jewish values and family life, Jewish ethnicity, and Judaism and disabilities. Click here to see the courses that Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses is teaching this semester.
Diane Cole DIANE COLE is the author of After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges (a New York Times Notable Book), and a former contributing editor for U.S. News and World Report. She writes about books, Jewish culture and psychology for such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Jewish Week, and The Psychotherapy Networker, where she is a contributing editor.
Click here to see the courses that Diane Cole is teaching this semester.
Cantor Lori Corrsin CANTOR LORI A. CORRSIN has been cantor and music director of Temple Emanu-El since 2004. Born in Detroit, Cantor Corrsin received a bachelor’s in music from the University of Michigan and a master’s in sacred music from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion. She was invested as a cantor in 1992. A soprano, Cantor Corrsin has sung throughout North America, Europe and Israel. She is a published composer and recording artist with Transcontinental Music Press. Click here to see the courses that Cantor Lori Corrsin is teaching this semester.
Dr. Marc Michael Epstein DR. MARC MICHAEL EPSTEIN is Professor of Religion at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he has taught since 1992. During the ’80s, Epstein was Director of the Hebrew Books and Manuscripts division of Sotheby’s Judaica department, and continues to serve as consultant to various libraries, auction houses, museums, and private collectors throughout the world. His most recent book, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination (Yale University Press, 2011), was selected by the London Times Literary Supplement as one of the best books of 2011.
DR. DANIEL FAINSTEIN is Dean and professor of Jewish Studies and Education at the Hebraica University in Mexico City. He was educated in Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) where he got his PhD. He served as Dean of the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano M.T.Meyer,was the Executive Director of the Board of Jewish Education of Argentina, and is currently a visiting professor and lecturer in many institutions in Latin America, Europe, the United States, and Israel.
SHELLY R.FREDMAN teaches writing at Barnard College. She received an MFA from Washington University and has taught at the University of Missouri–St. Louis Honors College. Her work has appeared in Best Jewish Writing 2002, First Harvest, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, Lilith, and a number of anthologies and literary magazines.
DR. NEIL GILLMAN is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Philosophy at JTS. A world-renowned thinker and teacher, Neil is the author of several seminal books on Jewish theology, most recently Doing Jewish Theology: God, Torah and Israel in Modern Judaism (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2008).
Rabbi Daniel C. Goldfarb RABBI DANIEL C. GOLDFARB is the Director of the Conservative Yeshiva of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in Jerusalem.He is a native of Boston, and a graduate of Harvard College, Columbia Law School, and JTS.He made aliya in 1976 and worked as an attorney before joining the Yeshiva in July 2000. He has taught at Limmud in England and New York and at synagogues in Israel, Europe, and North America.
TOBI KAHN is an internationally acclaimed painter and sculptor whose work has been shown in over 40 solo exhibitions and over 60 museum and group shows. He is the co-founder of Avoda Arts and has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York since 1985.
Rabbi Ysoscher Katz RABBI YSOSCHER KATZ is the Director of the Beit Midrash Program at Yeshivat Chovevi Torah and the Director of Judaic Studies at the Luria Academy. He received ordination in 1986 from Rabbi Roth, dayan of UTA Satmer. Rabbi
Katz studied at Brisk Yeshiva and at Yeshivat Beis Yosef, Navaradok and is a graduate of the HaSha’ar Program for Jewish Educators. He lectures widely and teaches adult education classes in numerous venues. He was a leading teacher of a daf yomi class in Borough Park for over eight years. Click here to see the courses that Rabbi Ysoscher Katz is teaching this semester.
Martin Kaufman MARTIN KAUFMAN was educated at Yeshiva University and New York University’s Graduate School of Business Administration. He was Chairman and CEO of Philipp Brothers, formerly one of the world’s largest commodity trading companies, and is currently a global consultant to entities in the financial and natural resource sectors all over the world. Mr. Kaufman has lectured extensively in numerous adult education programs in the New York area. Click here to see the courses that Martin Kaufman is teaching this semester.
DR.DAVID KRAEMER is Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at JTS, where he is also Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian, overseeing the greatest collection of Judaica in the Western world. Among his many publications is his recently published Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages.
AMY KRONISH works as a consultant in the field of Jewish and Israeli film and curates film programs. Previously, she directed coexistence programs at the Jerusalem International YMCA and served for 15 years as the Curator of Jewish and Israeli Film at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. She lectures and writes widely on film and is the author of two books on Israeli film: World Cinema: Israel (1996) and Israeli Film – A Reference Guide (2003).
Dr. Ariella Lang DR. ARIELLA LANG has a PhD in Italian Studies from Columbia University. She has taught at both Barnard College and Rutgers University, and her interests include Vatican-Jewish relations, Holocaust studies, and the relationship between religion and national identity. She has published a number of articles in these areas, and her book, Converting a Nation: A Modern Inquisition and the Unification of Italy, was published in 2008. She currently works at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. Click here to see the courses that Dr. Ariella Lang is teaching this semester.
Dr. Anne Lapidus Lerner DR. ANNE LAPIDUS LERNER is an emerita member of the faculty at Jewish Theological Seminary, a Research Associate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, and a frequent scholar-in-residence at synagogues across the country. Her interest in the “afterlife” of sacred texts is at the core of her most recent highly acclaimed book: Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry.Click here to see the courses that Dr. Anne Lapidus Lerner is teaching this semester.
RABBI CAROL LEVITHAN was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1995 with a concentration in Bible and began working at the JCC in Manhattan soon after. She programmed, taught, supervised staff, and counseled for the next 17 years and produced each of the JCC’s fabled Tikkun leyl Shavuot, retiring as Rabbinic Director & Senior Director of Adult Programs in June 2012. She has also taught at various venues, including many Derekh Torah classes.
Dr. Donna Mayerson DR. DONNA MAYERSON, Director of Applied Practice at the VIA Institute, is a licensed psychologist and earned her master’s degree in special education. She was formerly coaching director of Hummingbird Coaching Services, now Humana. She is a certified coach who has used her deep knowledge of the VIA strengths as a framework for individual and organizational change with hundreds of education administrators and teachers, with leaders of youth-serving organizations, in training coaches/practitioners, and with individuals and families.
Dr. Neal H. Mayerson DR. NEAL H. MAYERSON received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Utah. He worked in hospital, community mental health, and private practice settings for 15 years as a psychotherapist. In 1992, Dr. Mayerson was named president of the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, a private family foundation. He is a founder of Hummingbird Coaching Services, a pioneer in the delivery of online coaching services, now Humana.
MICHAL NACHMANY is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Michal has taught liturgical, biblical, and modern Hebrew for more than 20 years at synagogues and other institutions throughout New York City.
DR. DANIEL RYNHOLD serves as Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Philosophy at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Yeshiva University, having previously held a post at King’s College London since 2001. Educated at the universities of Cambridge and London, Daniel was a fixture on the adult education circuit in the United Kingdom, and is the author of Two Models of Jewish Philosophy: Justifying One’s Practices and An Introduction to Medieval Jewish Philosophy (2009).
DR. DIANE M.SHARON is a member of the faculty in Bible at the Academy for Jewish Religion. She has taught at JTS, Fordham University, General Theological Seminary (Episcopal), and other institutions of higher learning.Her area of expertise is the Hebrew Bible in its context in the ancient Near East, comparative religion, and women’s studies.
RABBI YAEL SHMILOVITZ is the Program Director of the Skirball Center. She is a graduate of the University of Haifa and was ordained by HUC-JIR, where she also received a master of arts in Religious Education. A native Israeli, Yael is co-author of Resilience of the Soul: Developing Emotional and Spiritual Resilience in Adolescents and Their Families (URJ Press, 2007).
Dr. Brigitte Sion DR. BRIGITTE SION holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University. She is an expert on memorials, commemorations and transitional justice after the Holocaust and other genocides. Her expertise also includes Sephardic Jewry, modern Antisemitism, and new Jewish rituals. She is the author of six books and numerous articles, and the editor of the forthcoming Death Tourism: Disaster Sites as Recreational Landscape (Seagull Books, 2013). Click here to see the courses that Dr. Brigitte Sion is teaching this semester.
Dr. Regina Stein DR. REGINA STEIN is the Scholar-in-Residence at the Museum at Eldridge St. She has taught for the Wexner Heritage Foundation, CLAL, and the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel, as well as the Academy for Jewish Religion, JTS, Temple University, and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Dr. Stein is formerly the National Director of the Hadassah Leadership Academy.
DR.MARK WEISSTUCH received his doctorate in Theater History from the City University of New York. He has taught courses on the Second Temple, general Jewish history, the history of the Jews in Poland and Eastern Europe, and various subjects related to the Holocaust. Mark is Administrative Vice President of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York.
Dr. Elliot R. Wolfson DR. ELLIOT R. WOLFSON is the Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. He is the author of many publications including Through the Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism; Language, Eros, and Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and the Poetic Imagination; Alef, Mem, Tau: Kabbalistic Musings on Time, Truth, and Death; Venturing Beyond—Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism; and Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of Menahem Mendel Schneerson.
Noam Zion NOAM ZION has been a teacher and research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute since 1978, and has taught at hundreds of synagogues and Jewish communities across North and South America, South Africa and Australia. Among his numerous
publications are Sipurei Reshit, a Hebrew anthology on contemporary readings of Genesis edited with his daughter Tanya, and A Night to Remember: The Haggadah of Contemporary Voices along with his son, Mishael. The first part of his trilogy, Jewish Giving in Comparative Perspectives, has launched in 2012.
DR. AVIVAH GOTTLIEB ZORNBERG is the author of Genesis: The Beginning of Desire, for which she won the National Jewish Book Award, and The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus. She was born in London and grew up in Glasgow, where her father was a rabbi and the head of the rabbinical court. Avivah holds a doctorate in English literature from Cambridge University. After teaching English literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she turned her literary sensibility and skills to teaching Torah. For the past twenty years, she has taught Torah in Jerusalem at Matan, Pardes, and the Jerusalem College for Adults. Avivah also holds a Visiting Lectureship at the London School of Jewish Studies. She travels widely, lecturing in Jewish and academic settings. Her latest book, The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Rabbinic Unconscious, was published in 2011 (Schocken).
