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This 'author' profile is used for pages and posts that represent the site, not any particular author or viewpoint.

Charles Lenchner

Charles Lenchner is Editor-in-chief of RepairLabs. Born in America, raised in Israel, he has used his organizing, writing and digital talents for Jewish, Israeli and social justice nonprofits for twenty-five years.

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Perry Teicher

erry Teicher is interested in the intersection of service and social enterprise within a Jewish and broader context. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, he served as the first Repair the World Fellow (2010-2011) based in Washington, D.C. In this role, he developed new initiatives in volunteerism and service in the North American Jewish community. Prior to this, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan (2007-2009), working primarily with an organization focused on creating an environment where people with disabilities can lead independent lives. Perry helped the organization succeed in reaching its goal to build the first wheelchair factory in Central Asia and to develop a volunteer club in a society without a strong foundation of volunteerism. Since returning to the USA, Perry founded TheGivingApp, a company that creates mobile applications for nonprofits. A 2007 graduate from the University of Michigan, Perry will return to U of Michigan in the Fall of 2011 to start a JD/MBA program with a focus on social enterprise and international public interest law. However, Judaism will continue to be a core part of his future activism.

Beth Steinhorn

Beth is a Senior Strategist with JFFixler Group, with 25 years’ experience in nonprofit organizations. With JFFixler Group, Beth consults on volunteer engagement, lectures, and trains, is the firm’s lead blogger, and authors volunteer engagement guidebooks and articles. As a trained anthropologist, she began her career in museums, and has also worked with the Colorado Agency for Jewish Education and Limmud Colorado. 

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Brent Spodek

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Jill Jacobs

Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the Executive Director of Rabbis for HumanRights-North America and the author of Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community (Jewish Lights, 2011) and There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition (2009).

Ben Falik

Ben Repair the World's Manager of Detroit Service Initiatives. He is also the co-founder of Summer in the City, a Detroit nonprofit that mobilized over 100,000 hours of service in Detroit since 2002. Ben graduated with a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a Masters of Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. In 2004, Ben graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Urban Studies. He is an adjunct faculty member at Wayne State (Service Learning: Living Detroit) and the University of Michigan (Topics in Public Policy: Volunteerism). Ben is a columnist for Red Thread Magazine and community correspondent for Street Beat on the CW50.

Sherzodbek Sharipov

Daniel Sieradski

Daniel Sieradski is a new media activist and cause marketing specialist with a decade's experience serving the Jewish communal nonprofit sector. He is also Repair the World's former Director of Digital Strategy.

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RepairLabs

This 'author' is used for pages and posts without a personal viewpoint.

Meredith

Rabbi Will Berkovitz

Will Berkovitz, Vice President of Partnerships & Rabbi in Residence is developing innovative partnership initiatives with organizations across the United States. Endeavoring to cultivate dedication to service through a Jewish lens, he works with and teaches at a variety of educational institutions from universities to synagogues as well as student organizations and experiential programs.

Debbie Appel

Debbie Appel is the Service Learning Manager of Leadership and Training at PJA & JFSJ. She oversees the service learning program leaders and partner staff’s work on curriculum development, leadership development, and group management issues. Before joining PJA & JFSJ staff full time, Debbie had worked in the Jewish service learning field in a variety of capacities including serving as an AVODAH corps member, working as the social action coordinator for Drisha’s high school summer learning program, and working as a program leader for PJA & JFSJ. Debbie holds a Masters in Social Work from Hunter College School of Social Work with a concentration in community organizing.

Audrey Bloomberg

Audrey Bloomberg is the Director of Jewish Student Life at Michigan State University Hillel. Originally from the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, Audrey graduated from Michigan State University in 2006 and began working for Hillel immediately, first at Eastern Michigan. Audrey loves staffing Alternative Break and Taglit-Birthright Israel trips, and credits these immersive experiences as to why she loves her job! Besides her professional role at Hillel, Audrey is in the process of completing a Masters of Public Administration, Administration of Non-Profit Agencies from the University of Michigan-Flint.

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Jon Rosenberg

Jon has a 20-year background in public education reform, civil rights, criminal justice, and related fields. He was the founding Executive Director of Roads to Success, a college and career readiness program for low-income youth. He has held senior positions at Edison Schools, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and The Children’s Aid Society. Jon has served as an adjunct faculty member at Teachers College and Columbia Law School, where he taught Children and the Law and Education Law. He is the former Chair of the NYC Bar Association’s Education Law Committee. Jon graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received his J.D. from Columbia School of Law. His recent volunteer activities include co‐chairing the Montclair, New Jersey School Integration Task Force, serving as an I-Mentor, serving as a college application advisor in the REACH:Stretch program, developing a curriculum framework for the Montclair Jewish Workshop, and serving on the boards of Roads to Success and the Brooklyn Ascend Charter School.

Leah Koenig

Leah Koenig is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Saveur, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Hadassah Magazine, Lilith, Edible Brooklyn and Beliefnet. She contributes a monthly column on food to The Forward and a bi-weekly column to Saveur.com. She is also the former editor of Hazon's award-winning blog, The Jew & The Carrot. Leah joined Repair the World as a contributing editor in late 2009.

Anya Manning

Prior to beginning work as the Jewish Service-Learning Manager in November 2009, Anya was an Insight Fellow, through which she also worked at Dor Chadash and The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). At JDC Anya developed multimedia curriculum and staffed a short-term service trip to Kharkov, Ukraine. Prior to the Insight Fellowship, Anya worked as a Resident Advisor and educator for Kivunim, a one-year pre-college program in Israel for Jews from around the world. In 2010, Anya was named a Nahum Goldmann Fellow and traveled to Croatia to meet with the other fellows from around the world. In 2007, Anya earned a B.A. in Environmental Science from Barnard College and a B.A. In Midrash from The Jewish Theological Seminary. For fun Anya loves to run, bike, travel (the city and the world) and picnic in Central Park. Anya lives in Manhattan with her husband. Anya currently serves on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Bronfman Youth Fellowship in Israel and is a member of the Alumni Venture Fund. For the past eight years Anya has been a monthly overnight volunteer at a local men’s homeless shelter. Additionally, Anya is a Team for Kids marathon mentor and a mentor with iMentor.

Rabbi David Jaffe

Rabbi David Jaffe is the spiritual advisor at Gann Academy in Waltham, MA and the founder and dean of the Kirva Institute. He is a faculty member of the JOIN for Justice organizing fellowship and a board member of the Mussar Institute. David was a founding board member of Avodah:The Jewish Service Corps and served as the director of social justice programs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. David teaches nationally about ethics, spirituality and social justice. He is working on a book about the inner life and social change. He lives in Sharon, MA with his wife and two children.

Lawrence Neil Bailis and Susan Shevitz

Lawrence Neil Bailis is an Assistant Professor at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Susan Shevitz, Ed.D., taught in and directed Brandeis University's Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership for over twenty-five years. While she recently became professor emerita, Susan is currently working with local, regional and national agencies on planning and evaluating innovative approaches in Jewish education, synagogue life and leadership programming in light of the changing nature of individual and group Jewish identity and development. Susan also co-chairs the Publications Committee of the Jewish Communal Service Association.

Aaron Dorfman

Aaron Dorfman is the Vice President for Programs at American Jewish World Service (AJWS), a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that marginalized people in the developing world realize their human rights. Aaron lives in Brooklyn with his partner Talia Milgrom-Elcott and their daughters Oren and Sela.

Mordecai Walfish

Director of Special Projects of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU Wagner. He holds an MPA in Nonprofit Management from NYU Wagner as a Wexner Graduate Fellow and a BA in Contemporary Studies from the University of King's College. He has served as the Director of Holocaust Education at the Atlantic Jewish Council and as a columnist for the Canadian Jewish News. Visit the BJPA blog at http://bjpa.org/blog/.

David Elcott Ph.D

David Elcott is the Taub Professor of Public Service and Leadership at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service and co-founder of B3/The Jewish Boomer Platform, a new initiative to (re)engage Boomers and foster cross-generational collaboration.

DianeTobin

Diane Kaufmann Tobin is the president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research (IJCR), an independent think tank providing original research and innovative initiatives. Founded by the late Dr. Gary A. Tobin, IJCR has strategic initiatives in three pivotal areas of Jewish life: religious prejudice, philanthropy, and demography. Ms Tobin is also the founder of Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue), a community-building initiative of the Institute that seeks to grow and strengthen the Jewish community through a global understanding of the Jewish people. With representatives and partners across the United States, as well as in Latin America, Europe, and Africa, Be'chol Lashon advocates for pluralistic inclusive expressions of Judaism that are relevant to young people and others. Diane Tobin is the author of In Every Tongue: The Racial & Ethnic Diversity of the Jewish People, which was a 2006 Independent Publisher Book Award finalist, and co-author of Jewish Family Foundations..

Nati Passow

Nati is a writer, carpenter and educator living in Philadelphia. From 2005 to 2007 Nati ran an award-winning garden construction program for the Urban Nutrition Initiative at University City High School. Over the last several years Nati has led service–learning trips in the developing world for American Jewish World Service, and in the US for Jewish Funds for Justice. He enjoyed two fall seasons at the Teva Learning Center and has continued to work for Teva as a curriculum writer. Nati has studied sustainable building design and natural building and is a certified Permaculture designer. Nati holds a B.A. in Religion and Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a recipient of the Joshua Venture Group Fellowship for Jewish social entrepreneurs.

Ruth Messinger

Ruth Messinger is president of American Jewish World Service. For eight years, she has been named by The Forward as one of the “50 Most Influential Jews.” Fiercely committed to human rights advocacy and global justice, she has served on the Obama administration’s Task Force on Global Poverty and Development.

Jennifer Mangel

Jennifer Mangel worked as a consultant to the Bureau of Jewish Education’s (BJE) Jewish Service Learning Project (JSLP) from 2009-2011. Mara Kassoff has been the director of the JSLP and the BJE’s work to support Jewish service learning professionals since 2008. Their professional partnership models critical colleagueship and creativity.

Michelle Lackie

Michelle Lackie is finishing her 12th year at Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. Since 2003, Michelle has been the Director of Weinberg Tzedek Hillel, creating Hillel’s response to Hurricane Katrina, co-developing Alternative Break training for Hillel professionals, and working in close partnership with Repair the World and Jewish Alternative Break organizations.

Meir Lakein

Meir Lakein is the Director of Organizing for JOIN for Justice, a new organization launched in partnership with Progressive Jewish Alliance-Jewish Funds for Justice, dedicated to training Jewish organizers to transform the world and the Jewish community through organizing

Chaim Lauer

Consultant, former Jewish Communal Professional working in Federations and Boards of Jewish Education, including head of the BJEs of GreaterWashington, MetroWEest, NJ, New York; a certified Strategic Planner.

Mark S. Young

Mark has worked as a human resources (HR) professional, Jewish programmer and experiential educator for nearly a decade. Prior to JTS, Mark served as asst. dir. of HR for Episcopal Social Services and HR and volunteer programs manager for NYC's 92nd Street Y. Mark also served several years as song leader, Judaic director, and staff-in-training director at the JCC Camp Wise Overnight Camp in Cleveland, Ohio, . Mark has a BSc from McGill U. in Montreal and an MPA in Nonprofit Management and MA in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from NYU.

Shimshon Stuart Siegel

Shimshon is the director of Impact Boston, a residential service learning program for teens. He has been with the Brandeis University Office of High School Programs since 2007. Shimshon studied at HUC and Yeshivat Bat Ayin, and has been working in Jewish education for 14 years.

Miriam Liebman

Miriam Liebman is a community organizer working in faith-based initiatives in Detroit. An alum of AVODAH New Orleans, Miriam feels deeply connected to justice through a Jewish lens.

Lisa Barkan

Lisa Barkan, originally from New Jersey, has been living in Jerusalem since her Aliyah 24 years ago. A serial social entrepreneur since her first trip to Israel in 1983, Lisa has recently founded Jerusalem Challenge, a networking and social action platform for young adults living in Jerusalem. Lisa has over 30 years of experience in high tech and non-profit marketing and project management and product development, best known for her distinctive DigitalShtick.com brand. Lisa is a passionate advocate for Jerusalem as the living and vibrant center for young Jewish adults, as expressed through the efforts of Jerusalem Challenge. She looks to the future of the city with optimism she draws from the many other Jerusalemites who share her appreciation of the rich heritage, diversity and challenges the city presents every day.

Erica Hymen

Erica Hymen is currently studying for her Master's in Education focusing on experiential learning at San Francisco State University, where she also earned a Graduate Certificate in Jewish Service Learning. She very much enjoys keeping in touch with the young people she has mentored.

Talya Greenspoon

Talya develops and leads JDC overseas service experiences for college students and has been a proud JDC'er for four and half years. In her time with JDC’s Next Generation and Service Initiatives, Talya has staffed 10 overseas service trips to communities in Estonia, Ethiopia, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. Talya attended New York University where she received her degree from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study in Cultural Studies with a focus on Cultural Narratives and has called NYC (and now Brooklyn) home ever since.

Beth Cooper Benjamin

Beth Cooper Benjamin, Ed.D., is Director of Research at Ma'yan, a Program of the JCC in Manhattan. She received her Ed.D. in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on intersections of gender and privilege in the lives of adolescent girls. Find out more through www.mayan.org/blog.

Jamie Beran

Jamie Beran is the Senior Director of Programs at [tbd], which works nationally and regionally to promote economic opportunity and secure basic rights. At [tbd], Jamie coordinates seven national programs. During her tenure at [tbd], Jamie has trained hundreds of service learning trip leaders and designed curricula. Previously, Jamie was the Director of Leadership Development for Habonim Dror.

Dr. Dan Butin

Dan W. Butin is an associate professor and founding dean of the school of education at Merrimack College. He is the author of, most recently, Service-Learning in Theory and Practice: The Future of Community Engagement in Higher Education, and co-editor of the forthcoming book The Engaged Campus.

Fern Chertok

Fern is an Associate Research Scientist. She received an M.A. in Clinical/Community Psychology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Fern has conducted numerous research projects on Jewish service learning and was the lead researcher on the Volunteering + Values study of the volunteer habits and attitudes of Jewish young adults.

Beth Cousens

Sarah Eisenman

Sarah Eisenman is the Director for Next Generation and Service Initiatives for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. She is responsible for developing and directing JDC’s efforts to build a movement of up and coming North American Jewish advocates, influencers, and leaders, who, through awareness, service, and leadership, create lasting impact on the global Jewish community. Sarah has a Master’s degree in Jewish Studies from Oxford University, and a BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and has worked for JDC for nearly 10 years.

Lisa Exler

Lisa Exler works at American Jewish World Service (AJWS), where she develops educational materials that promote the values of global citizenship in the Jewish community. Prior to joining AJWS, she taught at the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan. Lisa has a B.A. and an M.A. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Follow Lisa at http://blogs.ajws.org/

Dyonna Ginsburg

Dyonna Ginsburg is the Director of Jewish Service Learning at the Jewish Agency. Previously, Dyonna served as the Executive Director of Bema’aglei Tzedek, an Israeli social change organization, and was a founder of Siach: An Environment and Social Justice Conversation, an international network of Jewish social justice and environmental professionals.

Simon Klarfeld

Simon Klarfeld has served as the Founding Director of Genesis at Brandeis University, VP of the Andrea & Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and Executive Director of Columbia/Barnard Hillel. Simon has also served as a consultant around youth and young adults, Jewish pluralism, Israel, leadership and experiential education. He has recently become the inaugural executive director of Young Judaea.

Dr. Max Klau

Dr. Max Klau received his Doctorate of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2005. An alum of four Jewish service programs, he has completed two years of service in Israel, and led service trips to Ghana, Honduras, and Ukraine.

Jon A. Levisohn, Ph.D.

Jon A. Levisohn, Associate Professor of Jewish Education, also serves as Assistant Academic Director of the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education. He studies philosophy of education and philosophy of Jewish education. His particular focus has been on the myriad ways we have of making sense of texts – both religious texts and secular texts – especially in the contexts of teaching and learning.

Jody Myers, Ph.D

Jody Myers is a professor of Religious Studies and the Coordinator of the Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program at California State University, Northridge. Her research specialization is in modern Jewish thought and religious life.

Nahma Nadich

Nahma Nadich is the Director of Social Justice Programs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. Her responsibilities include the oversight of an array of programs, including the Greater Boston Synagogue Organizing Project, Programs. She also serves on the board of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization.

Micha Odenheimer

Micha Odenheimer is a rabbi, writer and social activist living in Jerusalem. Micha has written from such places as Somalia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Iraq and Burma. Micha was the founding director of the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews and founded Tevel b'Tzedek in 2007. TbT has programs in Nepal, Haiti and Israel.

Sandy Rechtschaffen

Sandy Rechtschaffen, is responsible for Congregation Emanu-El’s community engagement which includes all social justice programming, Rechtschaffen is an 2011 Epstein Communicate Award winner for her Jewish Service Learning Training Manual- A Guide for Youth and Family Education.

Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay

Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay is the Director of Alumni and Community Engagement at AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. Previously, Stephanie has served as Associate Director of Education at America Jewish World Service, the Program Director for Face to Face/Faith to Faith, and as a Jewish Service Corps volunteer in Bulgaria for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Irene Lehrer Sandalow

Irene Lehrer Sandalow is a program manager in the day school department at the Jewish Education Project. Previously she spent 6 years at the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs engaging the Jewish community in social justice campaigns, developing social justice curricula, and directing the Jewish-Muslim Community Building Initiative.

Ruthie Warshenbrot

Ruthie Warshenbrot is a Wexner Graduate Fellow/Davidson Scholar pursuing a dual degree at NYU, a Masters in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management as the Lisa Goldberg Fellow in Jewish Leadership, and a Masters in Hebrew and Judaic Studies and is a Program Leader for Jewish Funds for Justice’s Service-Learning trips. Prior to graduate school, Ruthie was the Executive Director of Limmud NY, a role she held for two years, after serving as Limmud NY’s Program Manager for three years. She grew up in Charlotte, NC and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Jewish Studies. Ruthie is the recipient of the 2009 Jewish Communal Service Association’s Young Professional Award.

Maital Friedman

Maital Friedman is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management with a specialization in International Development at NYU as a Wexner Graduate Fellow and is also secretary of the board for Hekdesh, a philanthropy collective of Dorot alumni. Maital grew up in Westchester, NY and attended Princeton University, where she studied religion and African studies. After graduation, she spent a year in Uganda establishing a library as the recipient of the Henry R. Labouisse ’26 Prize and then a year working at CASES, an alternative-to-incarceration, in NYC.

Rachel Meytin

Rachel Meytin is director of the BBYO Panim Institute, where she has worked since 2004 helping teens make the connection between Judaism and social justice. Meytin has graduate degrees in education and business from the American Jewish University, Los Angeles.

Dara

Suzanne Feinspan

Suzanne Feinspan is the National Program Director for AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps and previously served as AVODAH’s DC Program Director from 2007-2011. Suzanne coordinates AVODAH’s year-long program across the four cities where it is implemented and spearheads AVODAH’s organizational strategy work as well. Suzanne attended Wesleyan University undergrad and recently received her Masters in Jewish Studies from the University of Maryland where she focused on issues of gender and sexuality. Suzanne lives in Wheaton, MD.