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Our Presenters
Meet Our Talents
Our Lecturers
Abby Chava Stein
(Week 2: Gender Identity)
Abby Chava Stein is an American transgender author, activist, blogger, model, speaker, and rabbi. She is the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community, and is a direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism's founder, the Baal Shem Tov. (she/her)
Ariella Barker
(Week 5: Disability and feminism)
Ariella Barker, Senior Counsel at New York City Law Department, is an attorney, policy advisor, and communications specialist, a Harvard Kennedy School alumnus and John F. Kennedy Fellow, and a fierce advocate for issues of employment discrimination, antisemitism and disability rights. (She/her)
Asher Lovy
(Week 7: Gender-based violence and sexual abuse)
Asher Lovy is an abuse survivor and director of ZA'AKAH, which raises awareness about child sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community. He advocates for legislative reforms, and operates a Shabbat and Yom Tov mental health peer-support hotline. (He/him)
Aviva Braun (Week 6: Body and Beauty)
Aviva Braun, L.C.S.W. is a psychotherapist, public speaker, and writer practicing in both Manhattan and Riverdale, Bronx. Aviva is a relational therapist working with women who suffer from depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, mothers who struggle with self-care, and women at midlife. She is also the creator of the The emBODYment of Jewish femininity,a photography exhibit that explores the connection of 15 different women to their bodies. (She/her)
Dr. Amy Milligan
(Week 6: Body)
Dr. Amy Milligan is a folklorist and ethnographer who is particularly interested in the manifestations of identity on the body and uses these questions of bodylore to explore lived experiences of gender, sexuality, and Jewishness.
(she/her/hers)
(she/her/hers)
Dr. Keren McGinity
(Week 7: Gender-based violence and sexual abuse)
Dr. Keren McGinity is a gender historian, author, and interfaith advocate, a Research Associate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and the Interfaith Specialist at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and a Forward 50 honoree for calling for a Jewish response to the #MeToo movement. (She/her)
https://loveandtradition.org/metoo/
https://loveandtradition.org/metoo/
Dr. Sara Shapiro-Plevan
(Week 10: Gender and Money)
Dr. Sara Shapiro-Plevan, EdD, is the CEO of the Gender Equity in Hiring Project (GEiHP), the founder of Rimonim Consulting, and a founder and facilitator of JEDLAB. As a lifelong facilitator, educator and network weaver, she works across the Jewish community to dismantle hierarchies and build sustainable networks, communities and workplaces that tap into the best of our human potential. (She/her)
Dr. Tarece Johnson
(Week 4: Intersectionality, diversity and race)
Dr. Tarece Johnson is a diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice professional as well as a multicultural education leader, author, artist, advocate, entrepreneur, and activist. She is the creator of the Global Purpose Academy, an international nonprofit preschool and afterschool program, and the co-founder of Multicultural Jewish Alliance. (she/her).
Esther Fuerster-Ashkenazi (Week 4: Race, diversity, and intersectionality)
Esther Fuerster-Ashkenazi was born and raised in Poland. She then moved to continue her further education in the UK where she graduated with a BA in International Relations and Law, a MA in International Security Studies and a Diploma in Public Service Interpreting. Soon after she came to Israel and made Aliyah. For many years she worked at the Israeli Ministry of Justice as a researcher and in 2020 she opened her own practice in forensic genealogy and probate. This gave her space to devote her time the US-based organisation Second Nurture as a Director of Development and Communications and she is a co-founder of Neuro-Audit; an Israeli revolutionary device for treating Alzheimer's. She is a Zionist and often features on Polish national news where she discusses issues related to Polish-Israeli relations. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and two cats. (She/her)
Heather Stone
(Week 4: Disability and feminism)
Heather Stone is the Deputy International Counsel (Global) of Democrats Abroad and Vice Chair of Democrats Abroad Israel and is the Chair of the DA Medicare Portability Task Force. Visually impaired since 2017, Heather has learned to navigate the world differently. (she/her)
Jamie Allen Black
(Week 10: Gender and money)
Jamie Allen Black is the CEO of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York, and co-founder with Naomi Eisenberger of Ta’amod: Stand Up! – the Jewish communal action to create safe respectful workplaces that are ethical and compassionate. (She/her)
Jericho Z Vincent
(Week 12: Looking forward)
Jericho Vincent, an author and lecturer, holds a master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University and is currently a Wexner Fellow and a rabbinical candidate. (they/them)
Judith Stern Peck
(Week 10: Gender and money)
Judith Stern Peck is the Director of the Money and Family Life Project at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, the author of Money and Meaning: New Ways to Have Conversations About Money with Your Clients, and a consultant on gender and money. (She/her)
Leah Lax
(Week 1: Gender Identity)
Leah Lax is the author of Uncovered, the only gay memoir to come out of the Orthodox world.
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
(Week 1: Jewish Feminist Retrospective)
Letty Cottin Pogrebin is an Emmy-award-winning Jewish feminist trailblazer, author, journalist, and social activist, as well as a founding editor of Ms. magazine, editorial consultant for the TV special Free to Be, and author of the iconic book, Deborah, Golda, and Me. (she/her)
Loolwa Khazzoom
(Week11: Media, politics, and activism)
A Jewish Multicultural pioneer, Loolwa Khazzoom (KHAZZOOM.com) is a multimedia artist and educator who offers programs combining music, poetry, book readings, and facilitated discussions. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC News, Rolling Stone, and other top media worldwide. Her band, Iraqis in Pajamas, fuses Iraqi Jewish prayers with original alternative and punk rock, and her musical duo, Shaddai Chants, is a New Age take on sacred Iraqi Jewish chants.
Miriam Isserow
(Week 7: Gender-based violence and sexual abuse)
Miriam Isserow is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Psychological Foundation, longtime feminist activist, and the moderator/administrator of the #GamAni Facebook group addressing sexual abuse in the Jewish community. (She/her)
Nahani Rous
(Week 11: Media, Politics, and Activism)
Nahanni Rous is the host and senior producer of JWA's podcast Can We Talk? Nahanni is also senior producer of Making Gay History, and co-producer of Those Who Were There, Voices from the Holocaust. (she/her)
Paula Mills
(Week 3: Sexuality)
Paula Mills is a radical Feminist Activist, a Sex Educator and Hotline Counselor with Open Door (Israel's Planned Parenthood) and a Somatic Sex Educator. Devoted to inspiring women to attain deeper levels of pleasure in their daily lives, and addressing the Pleasure disparity in sex between women and men. (she/her)
Peta Jones Pellach (Week 1)
Peta Pellach, a fifth generation Australian, is a leading Orthodox feminist, a Torah and Jewish History teacher, and one of the original members of the Sydney Women's Tefilah Group. She is a Senior Fellow of the Kiverstein Institute, co-founder of Praying Together in Jerusalem, Director of Educational Activities for the Elijah Interfaith Institute and secretary of the Jerusalem Rainbow Group for Jewish-Christian Encounter and Dialogue. Now living in Israel, she broadcasts weekly on SBS radio (Australia) with the latest news from Israel. (She/her)
Prof. Susannah Heschel
(Week 12: Looking forward)
Prof. Susannah Heschel is the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and author of many books and articles, including the pioneering anthology, On Being a Jewish Feminist. (She/her)
Rabba Dr. Melanie Landau
(Week 7: Gender-based violence and sexual abuse)
Rabba Dr Melanie Landau has 20 years of experience in guiding individuals and groups in transformative processes and cultivating the sacred. She specializes in deep listening, conflict transformation, embodied awareness and thriving with complex trauma. (She/her)
Rabbi Chasya Uriel Steinbauer
(Week 8: Clergy and Leadership)
Rabbi Chasya Uriel Steinbauer is the Founder & Director of The Institute for Holiness: Kehilat Mussar (www.kehilatmussar.com). She is the first out lesbian graduate of Drisha Institute's Scholar Circle; Founder & Teacher of the first egaliatarian Mussar Va'ad in Israel at the Conservative Yeshiva; and creator of the OU's First Advanced Kashrut Seminar for Women as part of Yeshivat Hadar's Fellowship, where she served as the first lesbian faculty. She is an observant Jew & Dharma practitioner, Mindfulness Meditation teacher, and deeply committed to the wisdom and path of Mussar Mindfulness. (She/her)
Rabbi Chava Evans
(Week 9: Spirituality, ritual, and lifecycle)
Rabba Chava Evans, a member of the first cohort of Maharat graduates, is an Orthodox Jewish Hospice and Hospital Chaplain, Mom, Reader, Artist, and Adventurer. (She/her)
Rabbi Dr. Minna Bromberg
(Week 6: Body)
Rabbi Dr. Minna Bromberg is a singer, teacher, writer, and the founder of Fat Torah: A community of Abundance. (She/her)
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