Our Staff, Teachers, and Board

Jett supports IJS programs by managing the online learning platform and designing graphics for social media. They are an alum of Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps and feel a deep connection between their Jewish values and movements for justice. They have a BA in Gender Studies from Pomona College. Jett is also a freelance artist, lifelong Brooklynite, and Prospect Park enthusiast.

You can learn more about their creative work at jettgeorge.com

With over 25 years of experience in marketing, communications, membership development, and strategy, Shari Bayer is a seasoned leader in service- and value-based marketing. Before coming to IJS she led all marketing and communications efforts for Jewish HomeLife, transforming the brand and positioning it as one of Atlanta’s leading senior care providers. With a career rooted in mission-driven work, her earlier roles included developing corporate sponsorships at the Marcus JCC of Atlanta and leading membership and marketing initiatives at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and several national trade associations. Shari is a proud Superfan and graduate of the University of Georgia, with a degree in Journalism and Political Science. She loves travelling, especially to see live music or UGA football, equally loves the beach and skiing, and has completed three half-marathons. An empty-nester and proud mom of a son and daughter, both in college, she lives in Atlanta with her beloved sharpei-boxer mix, Sonny, and volunteers with several nonprofits.

Elizabeth has spent most of her professional career in marketing positions of increasing responsibility at the American Express Company. In 2015, she switched to the nonprofit sector with a Development position at the American Committee for the Tel Aviv Foundation. She has a Bachelor’s degree in History from SUNY Buffalo and an MBA in Marketing from New York University. Her interests outside of work include film, theater, synagogue and French classes.

Molly plans and facilitates IJS events and fundraisers, engaging our donors and communities. She is a Virginia native now living in Brooklyn. She has previously worked in non-profit development and programming in settings of youth services, outdoor exploration, higher education, and multifaith dialogue. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Virginia, and is currently working towards an MFA in Fiction Writing. Outside of work, she enjoys nature, travel, the arts, and being with friends and family.

Alyse Erman (she/her) joined IJS as Chief Operating Officer in March 2022. With a background in urban planning, Alyse has often found herself in strategy roles deeply connected to communities, education, and social justice. Prior to her work with IJS, Alyse worked at the New York City Department of Education leading the strategic planning and implementation of a mental health initiative for educators and families with young children. In her spare time, Alyse can be found doing home improvement projects with her wife or testing out new playgrounds in Philadelphia for her two young children.

Josh was appointed Executive Director of IJS in January 2020 and became President & CEO in April 2022. He received ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in 2005, and served for six years as the Hillel Rabbi at Northwestern University, where he also earned a PhD in Religious Studies. In 2011, Josh helped found and served as Executive Director of Ask Big Questions, an initiative of Hillel International, which won the inaugural Lippman-Kanfer Prize for Applied Jewish Wisdom. Josh has also been a consultant and Senior Fellow at The iCenter for Israel Education. Most recently he served as Dean of Students at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Josh is a Wexner Graduate Fellow and was the founding co-chair of the Wexner Fellowship Alumni Committee. He is the author of Eternal Questions: Reflections, Conversations, and Jewish Mindfulness Practices for the Weekly Torah Portion (Ben Yehuda Press, 2022). Josh lives with his wife Natalie and their three sons in Skokie, IL.

Kohenet Keshira haLev Fife (she/they) sprinkles sparkles, disrupts expectations, and offers blessings wherever she goes. She serves as Founding Kohenet of Kesher Pittsburgh and Core Faculty Member with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and also enjoys working with beloved, The Jewish Studio Project, Kirva, the Avodah Institute for Social Change, and the Jewish Learning Collaborative, among other national Jewish organisations. Additionally, she delights in serving as a shlichat tzibbur, life spiral ceremony/ritual creatrix, consultant, facilitator, teacher, liturgist and songstress. Her work in these realms is informed by her lived experience as a queer, bi-racial, child-free Jewish person, her belief that Book, Body and Earth are equal sources of wisdom, the quandaries she has encountered as a scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, and her deep commitment to a thriving, liberatory Jewish future. Keshira received Kohenet smicha in 2017 and earned her BS (2000) and MS (2001) at Carnegie Mellon University. Though both the lands of the Osage & Haudenosaunee people (aka Pittsburgh, PA) and the Gadigal people (Sydney, AUS) feel like home, Keshira and her beloved have been in an extended period of travel since January 2023.

www.keshirahalev.com

Maidelle is responsible for maximizing the philanthropic support for IJS, so it continues to grow its programs and audience. She has had a distinguished 35-year career in Jewish Communal work and held senior positions at Educational Alliance, UJA-Federation of NY, Jewish National Fund, Anti-Defamation League, Hillels of New York, and The Shefa School. She holds a Masters degree in Community Social Work from Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work and a BA from Barnard College. She is a lifelong resident of Brooklyn, NY, and is the proud mother of three, friend to 2 daughters-in-law, and grandmother of five.

Previously, Marc served as rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan and Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, PA, where he pioneered a Shabbat-centered model of congregational engagement. He developed and led the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project at the Legacy Heritage Fund from 2005-2010, an initiative to promote systemic educational change in congregations around the globe.

Long active in social justice activism, Marc is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and of Yale Law School and lives in New York City.

Firkins serves as Senior Director of Programs, working closely with all IJS Faculty, the Program Operations team, and other departments to ensure the smooth delivery of all IJS programs and offerings. Prior to this, she served as IJS’s Director of Program Operations and  Manager of Foundation Relations. Before she came to IJS, Firkins worked over many years in a variety of schools and educational non-profits, including Facing History & Ourselves and the Boston Public Schools, serving as an English teacher, program director, and grant writer. Firkins holds an M.A. from Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College and an M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She and her husband live in Natick, MA.  They love to hike, travel, and spend time with friends and their two adult daughters. 

Andrew has over two decades of experience in ensuring seamless operations and delivering top-notch customer service. Outside of work, he is passionate about learning and playing traditional Irish music, mastering culinary delights in the kitchen, and unraveling the mysteries of escape rooms.

Laura Sullivan (she/her) brings many years of professional non-profit experience to her role as Director of Finance and Administration for IJS. She has had a wide variety of nonprofit experiences, including most recently Chief Operating Officer of JPro and then VP of Operations for Leading Edge, after the coming together of JPro and Leading Edge. For five years, Laura served Jewish Family & Career Services in Louisville, Kentucky as CFO/COO where she further developed her interest in advancing Jewish communities. She also has worked at the Muhammad Ali Center and the Louisville Ballet in Louisville, Kentucky. Laura holds degrees in Economics and Accounting, as well as a Masters of Divinity. She has served on several start-up non-profit boards providing operational and financial guidance. In her spare time, she dabbles in oil painting and photography and enjoys the creativity that those outlets provide. She and her wife, Johanna, live in Atlanta and have three adult kids who live in North Carolina, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell is Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS), where he teaches Jewish mindfulness and text and directs cohort and retreat programs. Jordan began working for IJS as rabbinical student intern in 2005, and was on staff from 2011-2017, as a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness, leading retreats, and as Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training. Jordan also taught meditation to rabbis and cantors through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program.

Currently at IJS, Jordan focuses on teaching Jewish mindfulness and text, planning and directing retreats, and leading the development of a new training program for advanced teachers of Jewish mindfulness.Jordan will also continue to share his expertise through online courses and on retreats, fostering mindful engagement with Jewish wisdom and tradition.

As Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Sam directs the IJS Clergy Leadership Program and serves on the faculty of Gates of Awareness, a training program for aspiring teachers of Jewish mindfulness meditation. He is one of two lead teachers for our online course on the fundamentals of Jewish mindfulness meditation, The Gift of Awareness, and has written the IJS year-long Hasidic text study offering for a number of years running. After close to fifteen years teaching contemplative practices grounded in mindfulness to teens and educators, Sam originally came on board at IJS to develop and direct the Educating for a Jewish Spiritual Life Program, which brought these practices to hundreds of Jewish day- and religious-school educators and their students.

Miriam has a long and rich association with IJS, having taught on various retreats and programs over the years. She joins the Institute as a Senior Core Faculty after over a decade as the rabbi of the Danforth Jewish Circle in Toronto. She is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Jerusalem Fellows at the Mandel Leadership Institute. Miriam as a founding faculty member at the Romemu Yeshiva, serving as a fellow with the Rising Song Institute, co-founding Encounter – the award-winning educational program working toward informed, courageous and resilient Jewish leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and recording her original Jewish music with the Hadar Rising Song ensemble.

Marc developed and teaches in our newest online course, Awareness in Action: Cultivating Character through Mindfulness and Middot. He also spearheads the daily online meditations that IJS developed as part of our response to the coronavirus pandemic. He directs our immersive programming for lay leaders and works closely with our clergy alumni as director of the Hevraya program. Marc authored several years of IJS’s weekly Text Study, exploring the weekly portion through mindfulness and middot.

Alison Cohen (she/her), also known as Ali, loves supporting people in strengthening their capacity to connect: with themselves, with others, and with ancient and contemporary wisdom traditions. Ali’s journey to practice began as a young adult when she was desperate for guidance on how to compassionately navigate her tumultuous internal landscape, not to mention the world. On a young adult retreat, she found what she was looking for. Ali has practiced extensively in Buddhist and Jewish meditation spaces ever since. A former public high school teacher and mindfulness program director, Ali guides Two Wings Mindfulness, which offers courses, retreats, and coaching grounded in the wisdom of trauma-sensitive mindfulness. 

For over two decades, Rabbi Elisa Goldberg has accompanied others on their spiritual journeys as a spiritual director, professional chaplain, congregational rabbi, and educator. Rabbi Goldberg served until 2021 as a long time spiritual director at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and currently at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She teaches at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College on Rabbinic Ethics and Pastoral Counseling, and provides clinical supervision for students. She has served as Director of the Office of Rabbinic Placement for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and led community chaplaincy services at the Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Philadelphia for fourteen years.

Rabbi Goldberg authored a guidebook on spirituality and recovery with Drexel University and consults on the integration of spiritually informed care. She was honored to be the first woman to lead the Philadelphia Board of Rabbis. She maintains a private spiritual direction and pastoral counseling practice and provides consultation and coaching for rabbinic colleagues.

Melila is a research fellow at Shalom Hartman Institute, a professor of Jewish mysticism and Zohar at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a central figure in the Israeli renaissance of Jewish text study. She’s written And a River Flows from Eden: On the Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar and Seekers of the Face: The Secrets of the Idra Rabba of the Zohar. Melila is active in Sulha, a reconciliation project bringing together Israelis and Palestinians.

Jes is a writer, researcher, meditation teacher, and writing doula. As a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at UC Berkeley, they are writing a dissertation on gut feelings and the body. During Jes’ doctoral studies, their long-standing philosophical interests in perception, knowledge, and emotion brought Jes to explore these topics through Jewish and contemplative practices. Since then, they founded and led the Queer Sit Collective in Boston, MA, and have taught Jewish meditation in Paris, France for the Radical Mitzva community. As a writer, practitioner, and teacher, Jes is passionate about exploring the ineffable through mindfulness, felt sense, and language. They’re currently a student in the Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Training and the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training through the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Or HaLev.

Anya Kamenetz speaks, writes, and thinks about thriving and caring for others on a rapidly changing planet. Her newsletter on these topics is The Golden Hour. She covered education for many years including for NPR, where she co-created the podcast Life Kit: Parenting. Her last book was The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, And Where We Go Now. Kamenetz is currently an advisor to the Aspen Institute and the Climate Mental Health Network, working on new initiatives at the intersection of children, well-being, education, and climate change. Her next book, forthcoming from Bloomsbury, is about how to cope with the world right now.

Rebecca Minkus Lieberman is the cofounder and executive director of Orot.  Having taught in a variety of Jewish educational settings over the past 25 years, Rebecca cofounded Orot to open up Jewish wisdom to all who are seeking meaning and nourishment. Rebecca received a B.A. in Jewish Studies from Princeton University, a M.Ed. from DePaul University, and a M.A. from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago with a focus on Modern Jewish Thought and the philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig. Rebecca was a Joshua Venture Group fellow and was selected to be a part of the first cohort of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s new pluralistic rabbinic ordination program from which she will receive semicha. She lives in Deerfield with her husband and her three children.