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.

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.

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. 

Shai is thrilled to support IJS’s retreats, events, and systems as Program Operations Manager. Their professional background in program and project management has centered on supporting mission driven organizations by streamlining complex systems and elevating accessibility within workforce development, higher-education, and arts focused non-profits. Shai holds a B.A. from Oberlin College. A multi-disciplinary performing artist and somatic practitioner by night, Shai is passionate about the collective healing of all beings, the power of storytelling, and touching soft moss in the woods.

Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, has been a practitioner of mindfulness meditation for nearly 30 years, and brings a wealth of experience in Jewish education and contemplative practice to his work. In his role as Senior Core Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (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.

His previous leadership roles include serving as Director of Camp Ramah in Canada from 2019-2022 and as the founding Director of Ramah Beyond. Earlier in his career for IJS, Jordan was a teacher of Jewish Mindfulness and Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training, and he also taught meditation to clergy through IJS’ Clergy Leadership Program. After his ordination in 2008, Jordan served as a congregational rabbi and co-founded the Center for Jewish Mindfulness in Chicago, which became part of Orot.

A recipient of the 2014 Covenant Foundation Pomegranate Prize, Jordan lives in Toronto with his wife Yael and three kids. Outside of work, you can find Jordan in his kayak exploring new waterways or in a hot yoga studio.

Rabbi Nicole Auerbach (she/her) is the URJ’s director of Community Growth & Strategy, focusing on bringing leaders of innovative and emerging communities into the Reform Movement. She has dedicated her rabbinate to creating opportunities for people to create and deepen relationships with one another, with Jewish community and tradition, and with sacred experience. She is a co-author, with Dr. Ron Wolfson and Rabbi Lydia Medwin, of “The Relational Judaism Handbook: How to Create a Relational Engagement Campaign to Build and Deepen Relationships in Your Community” (Kripke, 2018).

Rabbi Caryn Aviv (she/her/hers) serves as Rabbinic and Program Director at Judaism Your Way, as well as Director of Studies at ALEPH. Caryn loves to create and facilitate transformative Jewish experiences that spark joy and meaning for Jews and loved ones. Prior to becoming a rabbi in 2020, Caryn earned a PhD in sociology from Loyola University Chicago in 2002. She taught, mentored students, and published research in Jewish Studies and sociology at University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Denver from 2003-2013 before entering the ALEPH Ordination Program. Caryn loves spending time with her family, hiking in the Rocky Mountains, singing with Denver Women’s Chorus, hugging trees as a spiritual practice, organizing for justice, and making art.

Rabbi Sassoon Brown wants Jews and their loved ones to feel that they are inheritors of Torah, stories, poetry, and music that they can use to experience and express their spirituality. Rabbi Sass teaches with a strong sense of identity and ancestry, and believes Torah is enriched when interpreted through the many cultures and backgrounds that make up Jewish community. 

Rabbi Sass was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2025. They hold an MA in Spiritual Care and Counseling (JTS), an MFA in Creative Writing (NCSU), and BA in Communications (UNC Chapel Hill). Before rabbinical school, Rabbi Sass worked running programs for Beth Meyer Synagogue and Camp JCC in Raleigh, NC. While at JTS, they worked as a rabbinic intern for USY, The Emanuel Synagogue, Ft. Tryon Jewish Center, and Ammud. They also worked as a chaplain intern supporting older adults at the New Jewish Home, people exiting incarceration through the Fortune Society, and the trauma and surgery department at UNC Hospitals. Rabbi Sass once wrote a book of queer Jewish poetry, The Shortest Skirt in Shul, which is available through Ben Yehuda Press. They currently live in Raleigh, NC.

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. 

Rabbi Shir Meira Feit is a musician, composer, ritual facilitator, and spiritual director who has facilitated countless circles of communal ceremony and song, helping people of myriad backgrounds connect with depth, wisdom, humor, and joy. Shir worked as a serial spiritual entrepreneur for twenty years in the Jewish Renewal movement, and in the Zen Peacemakers Order, co-facilitating their Bearing Witness Retreats in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Today, Shir offers teachings as an independent educator, performer, and spiritual companion, helping others to grow and flourish at the dynamic edge of spiritual emergence. Shir’s most recent offerings are influenced by the spiritual practice of parenting, interpersonal neurobiology, somatic psychology, neuroqueer theory, DJing, contact improvisation, and psychedelics. Shir lives with their family in New York’s Hudson Valley. 4worlds.net

Karen Frank has been a congregational nurse to several synagogues in New Jersey and a facilitator for Wise Aging since the early 2000s. Additionally, she, Rabbi Rachel Cowan z”l, and Dr. Linda Thal trained over 600 facilitators for the Wise Aging program nationally. She ardently believes that participating in the program encourages equanimity, mindfulness, and contentment in the aging process. Her work as a pastoral care nurse, Wise Aging facilitator, meditator, and Jewish Spiritual Director meld beautifully to assist people in aging, confronting disease, and coping with the challenges of our time.

Karen holds degrees in psychology, nursing, and certification in Jewish Spiritual Direction. She lives in Denville, NJ, is widowed, and is the mother of four adults.

Jes Golden (they/she—formerly Jes Heppler) is a meditation teacher and researcher who focuses on embodied experience in Jewish and Buddhist meditation. Grounded in their Sephardi and Ashkenazi lineages, Jes’ teaching weaves Jewish and earth-based spirituality with philosophical and neuroscientific insights. Jes teaches regularly for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS): they host the IJS LGBTQ+ Monthly Sit, guide the IJS Daily Sit, and lead both online and in-person programming for the IJS young adult community, Shevet. Jes has also taught for Or HaLev’s Ground & Center series. They are a graduate of Or HaLev and IJS’s Meditation Teacher Training Program. Jes holds a PhD in Philosophy from UC Berkeley and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Possible Minds at Indiana University, where they are researching bodily awareness in Buddhist and Jewish meditation.

Rabbi Lisa Goldstein is a teacher, consultant, and Master Practitioner of NARM, a modality of healing complex trauma. She consults in the fields of education, trauma healing and spirituality for organizations including M2 Institute for Experiential Jewish Education and the Covenant Foundation. She also works one-on-one to support people in their journeys of healing and spiritual growth.

Educated at Brown University and Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Goldstein has almost 25 years of executive experience, having served as the executive director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Hillel of San Diego. She teaches a wide variety of courses, both online and in person, with an emphasis on spiritual wisdom, prayer and meditation, and the teachings of R. Nahman of Breslov.

Rabbi Daniel Liben was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary and served as the Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel of Natick Massachusetts for 30 years.  Dan began to integrate his Jewish prayer practice with meditation through Eylat Hayyim’s Jewish Meditation Leadership Training programs.  He completed the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s 4th Rabbinic Cohort and Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Programs, and subsequently served on IJS’s Board.   Inspired by his experience in Spiritual Direction, he completed Bkhol Levavcha, HUC’s two-year training program for Spiritual Directors.

After retiring from the pulpit in 2021, he joined the Spiritual Direction staff at Hebrew College in Boston, JTS, and Hebrew Union College, and offers Spiritual Direction to Rabbinical students at those campuses.  He also advises students in JTS’s pre-Rabbinical School Mekhinah program, and mentors several new Rabbis in the early stage of their careers.  Dan and his wife Fran currently live in Teaneck NJ.

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.

Ashley Plotnick, LCSW, MAJS, MEd, PhD (ashleyplotnick.com) is a psychotherapist, spiritual director, and Jewish educator with extensive experience in the Jewish community. Ashley completed training in spiritual direction through the Morei Derekh program and is a spiritual director for HUC-JIR rabbinical students, as well as a mentor for the Kol Dodi spiritual direction training program at IJS.  Additionally, Ashley works with clergy through the CCAR as a spiritually oriented counselor. She recently completed a Doctor of Ministry degree in contemplative practice, spiritual renewal, and strategic leadership at Claremont School of Theology, where her research focused on the Shekhinah in the practice of spiritual direction.

She also recently completed training in compassion-based spiritual direction supervision, through the lens of internal family systems. Ashley’s extensive training in mindfulness practice enables her to hold each person’s story with compassion and to meet them with presence. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and three children, her greatest loves and most important spiritual practice.

Lizzie serves on the Clergy Leadership Program faculty and teaches the IJS weekly Monday Online Yoga Studio class, integrating Torah and liturgy with embodied practice. She is a graduate of IJS’s CLP (first cohort) and Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training (4th cohort). Lizzie is passionate about helping others bring Judaism into the body, voice, and heart through both methodical (alignment/keva) and creative (improvisational/kavanna) embodied practice. Her many years as a professional opera singer provided in-depth training in breath, voice, and movement that deeply inform her teaching and understanding of contemplative practice. She is a graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Manhattan School of Music (Masters in Vocal Performance) and Brown University (BA in Italian Studies). Lizzie has been a yoga student since 1993 and teacher since 2001.

Jane Shapiro is passionate about all aspects of Jewish teaching and learning. She has been a teacher to many over the last thirty five years, in classes ranging from weekly Torah study to Jewish thought, history, and literature and has worked with organizations which include the Florence Melton School, Camp Ramah, Spertus Institute for Learning and Leadership, and Orot. She likes to explore new ways to assist learners in bringing Jewish wisdom into conversation with their lives. Currently she is thinking and teaching about the spiritual practices of being a grandparent. She is a graduate of Princeton University, and received her doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 2017, Jane received an Educators Award from the Covenant Foundation. In 2018 she was featured in an Eli talk on “The Torah of Bubbiehood.” She lives in Skokie, Illinois with her husband David and is also mother to four sons, mother-in-law to three daughters, and grandmother to six.

Rabbi Daniel is a spiritual seeker, rabbi, educator, accredited Jewish meditation teacher (JMMTT) and MC/poet whose journey of healing, creativity, studying and teaching has brought him to Buddhist retreat centers, Chi Kung courses and six years of study in Orthodox yeshivot (rabbinical seminaries). Daniel lives in Israel with his family, where he directs Applied Jewish Spirituality, an online portal which makes the transformative spiritual wisdom of our tradition accessible to all who seek it (www.appliedjewishspirituality.org/).

Eleanor Harrison Bregman has been writing about and working with interfaith families and couples for the past 25 years. Before converting to Judaism, she was ordained as a Protestant minister and worked at Romemu as the Director of Multi-faith Initiatives and at the Jewish Home and Hospital as a staff chaplain. She continues to officiate weddings and to see couples, families, and individuals for pastoral care and counseling related to interfaith family life, parenting, spiritual identity, conversion, and belonging. She holds an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary and lives in New York City with her husband, Peter, and their three children.

Éloge Butera is a human rights advocate and public servant whose journey—from surviving the Genocide against the Tutsi to working in government and global peacebuilding—has been shaped by a deep commitment to justice and healing. He has led work in national security, reconciliation, and international development, both in Canada and abroad. Rooted in a spiritual practice that honours memory and human dignity, Éloge strives to help build a more compassionate and connected world.

Havi Carrillo-Klein is a social impact organizer and consultant dedicated to building spaces for constructive, nuanced dialogue on Israel and Palestine and decreasing polarization across the country. Throughout her career, Havi has worked on building and executing learning cohorts and international travel delegations focused on multi narrative perspectives in Israel and Palestine, Jews of Color and our intersecting identities, multi stakeholder criminal justice reform, and more. In her role as Project Shema’s Program Manager and in her independent consultancy, Havi is dedicated to combating antisemitism, racism, and other intersecting forms of hateful rhetoric. Havi lives in Cleveland, Ohio where she can be found rooting for the Cleveland Browns or browsing new reads at Loganberry Books.

Lisa Colton is a strategic systems thinker who loves interdisciplinary approaches to solving complex problems. With a passion for intentional community building and thoughtful design, she has built a consulting practice over the past 25 years, working with a wide array of Jewish organizations, nonprofit organizations and other social causes. Through Darim Online, a nonprofit, she runs grant funded programs for communities and foundations, and during the pandemic, executive produced the Great Big Jewish Food Fest and the Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest, online festivals that engaged top talent and over 35,000 people collectively. Through Darim Consulting, LLC she works with organizations to align their work to be successful in today’s attention economy.  Lisa is a graduate of Stanford University and the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, currently also serves on the board of Jewish Family Service in Seattle, and is involved in a range of other local and national civic efforts. She and her husband are the parents of 2 college age young adults, a resident canine and a rotating cast of foster dogs.

Aliza is a dynamic leader and social entrepreneur. She served as the founding CEO of OneTable, a powerful platform designed to make hosting and guesting at Shabbat dinners easy, beautiful and meaningful. Since launching in 2014, OneTable has convened more than 160,000 dinners for close to 300,000 people in 700 cities across North America. Aliza was also the founding executive of Mayyim Hayyim, a community mikveh and education center open to the full diversity of the Jewish people, near Boston. She has served as a board member of multiple organizations including JPro and JOIN for Justice. You can find Aliza, her husband, Rabbi Bradley Solmsen, their three daughters, her parents, and her siblings’ families all in Brooklyn, NY.

Bill lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his family. He has been an enthusiastic participant in several IJS lay programs including Kivvun, JMMTT and Amukah. Bill is also a member and officer of Rodef Shalom Congregation in Pittsburgh. He previously worked as a senior executive with PPG Industries, Inc. for 35 years and is currently President of a consulting company to provide management and technology services to in international glass producers.

Lena currently serves as the Head of School of Solomon Schechter in Chicago. She began her career at Schechter in 1997 as a classroom teacher and over the years served in several administrative roles, becoming Head of School in 2018. Lena holds bachelor’s degrees from the University of Michigan in Education and Organizational Behavior, as well as a Masters of Education in Instructional Leadership and a Doctorate of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Loyola University Chicago.

Lena has been teaching mindfulness practices in both secular and Jewish contexts for over a decade. Over the years, she has led regular meditations for adults and children at school, taught mindful parenting classes, led teacher professional development about key mindfulness practices, and created a 6-week mindfulness course as well as a Mindful Leadership course. She has additionally taught mindfulness practices to camp staff members and to teams at various organizations and businesses in the Chicagoland area.

Lena lives with her husband and best friend, David, in Deerfield Illinois and they are proud of their two young adult children, Ann and Nathan.

Ellen Lippmann is the founder and Rabbi Emerita of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives, where she worked for 25 years to build a progressive antiracist Jewish community in Brooklyn, which continues into its current 29th year. She was in the R3 clergy cohort at IJS and has taken part in many Hevraya retreats, as well as the Institute’s meditation sessions, classes, and special events. In addition to serving on the board of IJS, Rabbi Lippmann serves on the board of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) and Integrate NYC.

Rabbi Lippmann was ordained in 1991 by HUC-JIR. She and her wife are long-time Brooklyn residents and believe to be absolutely true what a Kolot Chayeinu member once said in jest: “IT DON’T GET ANY BETTER THAN BROOKLYN!”

Rabbi Rex D Perlmeter is the Founding Director of the Jewish Wellness Center of Montclair. He credits the vision of this provider of holistic teachings and services leading toward personal and communal sh’leimut in large part to the inspiration received from his participation in several of the programs of the Institute. A former member of the Senior Staff of the Union for Reform Judaism, he resides in New Jersey with his wife, Rabbi Rachel Hertzman and family.

Benjamin Richman is the founder of Openlev, a Brooklyn-based community nonprofit that cultivates purpose and belonging in daily life, rooted in ancestral Jewish wisdom. Openlev brings together curious minds for inspiring programming, intentional coworking, and intimate gatherings. Benjamin also serves as VP of Digital Assets at Nexus, a technology startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Previously, Benjamin was Managing Director of Digital Currency at Silvergate Bank, where he led a large business development team responsible for strategy, growth, operations, and onboarding for over 1,000 crypto-native clients, representing $16 billion in deposits. Before that, he was Director of Business Development at Blockstream, leading go-to-market and strategic partnership efforts. Benjamin began his career as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, managing technical product teams and large-scale IT programs for federal agencies. He holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Benjamin is also a certified Tantric Hatha yoga and meditation teacher, and regularly leads Kabbalah-inspired meditation and movement practices. He facilitates men’s gatherings and retreats that cultivate vulnerability, accountability, and the capacity to give and receive care.

Bob Schechter and his wife, Susan, live in Weston and Monterey, MA with their poodle pack. They are blessed with two adult children, Mike and Brian, one daughter in law, Anya, one daughter in law to be, Michelle, and, just recently, one beautiful granddaughter, Lila.

Bob served in several leadership capacities at Temple Beth Elohim, most recently as board president from 2018 through 2020. Bob is also a past chairman of the Boston Children’s Museum and along with Susan, has volunteered and worked with a number of not for profit organizations. He is a Kivvun 3 alum, a Meah graduate and a frequent participant in Jewish studies.

Professionally, Bob is a mostly retired technology industry executive who continues to dabble in the industry serving on corporate boards and occasionally advising entrepreneurs. He worked in the software industry at the dawn of the personal computing and internet eras and later in the telecom industry as it transitioned to the mobile era and became part of the internet.

Marte V. Singerman, Esq. graduated from the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida in 1983 and practiced commercial and bankruptcy law in Miami for 15 years. Since retiring from the practice of law she has volunteered for and held leadership positions at many non-profits and currently serves as an officer and director of both the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, Florida. At Temple Beth Sholom, Marte began and leads the Kavanah Council. The Council’s mission is to live mindful Jewish lives and to help others do the same using the spiritual practices Marte learned at IJS. She is also a certified yoga instructor and Jewish Meditation Teacher and leads bi-weekly Jewish Mindfulness Mediation sits via zoom. Marte resides in Miami Beach with her husband, Paul Steven Singerman. Their daughters Eliza and Rickie study and work in Boca Raton, FL.

Madison Slobin is a Queer Jewess living in Vancouver, Canada. By day she is the Lifelong Connections Coordinator at Vancouver Aboriginal Child & Family Services, working to connect youth in care to their families and communities. Outside of work hours, Madison coordinates Hamakom-a Jewish community that offers ritual and education programming through a social justice lens. She is also the founder of YVR Yenta- a modern matchmaking collective and Shiva Delivers (Jews in solidarity with Black grief). Madison loves living between the ocean and the mountains and prioritizes spending time outdoors. She also loves reality TV dating shows and gardening alongside her neighbors.

Rabbi Aaron Weininger is Senior Rabbi at Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Minnetonka, MN. He holds the Berman Family Chair in Jewish Learning. Aaron earned his BA at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2007 he became the first openly gay person admitted to rabbinical school in the Conservative movement of Judaism. That experience taught him the power of listening at the margins rather than pulling people into whatever the center is at that moment, and he is attuned to the spark each person brings to Torah, prayer, and acts of kindness in the warmth of community.

Chloe Zelkha is the rabbi at Congregation Eitz Chayim in Cambridge, MA, and would love to learn, sing, and build community with you there. She is drawn to Jewish spaces where we can taste the world as it could be and also practice being with things just the way they are.

Her earliest spiritual practice was watching her parents transform their home into a place where people could land—family from Iran, her father’s closest friends, and many others gathering around the dinner table. That spirit of welcome continues to guide her work.

Chloe has spent fifteen years designing transformative experiences for young people and adults. As Fellowship Director at Urban Adamah in Berkeley, she led cohorts through residential deep dives into organic farming, Jewish spirituality, mindfulness practice, and social action. She began as a community organizer in Boston, building youth power around environmental justice.

Grief has been a profound teacher on her path. After personal loss, Chloe completed chaplaincy residency at UCSF Medical Center, offering spiritual care to patients and families. When COVID-19 emerged, she co-founded the Covid Grief Network—now a project of Reimagine—building national support for people grieving loved ones.

More than most things, Chloe trusts in the Torah of song and silence. A dedicated meditation practitioner, she has sat over 150 nights on silent retreat, and regularly teaches classes, retreats, contemplative song, and prayer for communities nationwide.

She was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2025 and lives in Boston with her husband, Jesse, and their toddler, Akiva.