2010-2011 Incoming Students
We are proud to introduce and welcome such an outstanding group of incoming students in the Fall of 2010. This is Education and Jewish Studies' tenth doctoral cohort and second masters cohort.
Doctoral
- Jeni Friedman
Interests: Adult Education
Rabbi Jeni Friedman is a doctoral candidate in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU where she is a Wexner Graduate Fellow/Davidson Scholar and a Jim Joseph Fellow. Jeni works with the LOMED project at the BJENY-SAJES where she consults on Congregational Education for synagogues in the New York area. For the past five years Jeni was a rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom, Roslyn Heights, NY. She chairs the Advisory Board to the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship for the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Jeni holds a B.A. in Jewish Studies (Rabbinic Literature) and English Literature (Creative Writing) from the American Jewish University and Rabbinic Ordination and an M.A. in Midrash from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She currently resides in Brooklyn.
- Owen Gottlieb
Interests: Digital Media and Learning, Convergence Culture (contemporary media culture as a hybrid of new media and old media), Games and Simulations for Learning, Creativity, Wilderness Education, Gifted Education, Narrative and Learning
Rabbi Owen Gottlieb’s eclectic background includes software development, screen and television writing, work in the film festival world, and teaching dance in Israel. He received a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters and rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR, New York. His rabbinic capstone/thesis explored Sefer Yetzirah, the book supposedly used to create the Golem, through lenses including brain science, history, and psychology. Owen served as a student rabbi at Temple Beth Am, in Monessen PA and Temple Shaaray Tefila in Manhattan, and as a rabbinic resident at the URJ Press. He taught religious school for four years at Central Synagogue in Manhattan, where he piloted a program teaching modern Hebrew to 7th graders using an Israeli TV teen soap-opera. He holds an AB from Dartmouth College, an MA from USC School of Cinematic Arts, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
Owen is the co-editor of The Gender Gap: A Congregational Guide for Beginning the Conversation about Men’s Involvement in Synagogue Life and a contributing author to The Still Small Voice: Reflections on Being a Jewish Man, both publications of the URJ Press.
Owen is studying at NYU as a Jim Joseph Fellow.
- Ben Lewis
Interests: Informal Education, Supplementary School Education, Individualized Curriculum and Elective Education
Ben Lewis has worked in Jewish education for over 15 years throughout the Midwest and along the East Coast. He has worked as teacher, youth director, vice principal and head of school in Conservative congregations around the country. Currently, Ben serves as the Director of Congregational Learning at New City Jewish Center in Rockland County, NY. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Jewish Studies from Indiana University and an M.Ed. in Administration and Supervision from Loyola University Chicago.
Based on significant studies that show that the overwhelming majority of non-Orthodox Jewish students attend supplementary schools rather than day schools, Ben, a Jim Joseph Fellow, is focusing his doctoral work at NYU on elective education in congregational schools.
- Simcha Willig
Interests: The history and value of individualized education in Yeshivot and Jewish day schools
Rabbi Simcha Willig has been active in Jewish schools, synagogues, youth groups, and camps. His interests in formal and informal Jewish education have brought him to the classroom and pulpit as well as around North America, Israel, and South Africa. He earned a Bachelor's in Talmudic Law from Ner Israel Rabbinical College. He completed his Master's from the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, and received his Semicha (rabbinical ordination) from RIETS (YU's Rabbinical School). Simcha is studying in the doctoral program as a Jim Joseph Fellow, and he is also a Wexner Fellow and Davidson Scholar. He is the Rabbinic Intern at the Young Israel of Scarsdale, NY.
Masters Students
- Michael Emerson
Interests: Bridging the gap between informal and formal Jewish education; Teaching in Jewish High Schools; Jewish History
Born in Boston and raised in Memphis, Michael Emerson went to high school at the Feinstone Yeshiva of the South/Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys, followed by a two year stint in Yeshivat Shaalvim in Nof Ayalon, Israel. He attended Columbia University, where he majored in Medieval Jewish History and wrote his senior thesis about the American Association for Ethiopian Jews and their iconoclast leader Graenum Berger. He was involved with Columbia’s Hillel and worked to develop the broader Columbia Jewish community. During his time at Columbia, Michael also attended Talmud shiur at Yeshiva University, where he is currently enrolled in the RIETS seminary for rabbinic ordination.
Michael has been involved with a number of Jewish and non-Jewish organizations including NCSY, AJWS, Alternative Spring Break, Encounter, and Meorot. He has worked for a number of years for Camp Stone where he most recently was director of their Machal Leadership Training Program, and was Youth Director at Beth Jacob synagogue in Columbus, Ohio in 2008.
A Wexner Fellow/Davidson Scholar and a Jim Joseph Fellow, he is beginning his studies at NYU in Fall 2010 as part of the Dual Masters’ program in Education and Jewish Studies and Hebrew and Judaic Studies.
- Chaviva Galatz
Interests: Hebrew Language Education, Judaism and Social Media, Conversion to Judaism
Chaviva Galatz was born in Missouri and bred in Nebraska with hopeful dreams of someday being in the New York City area. With a Bachelor's of Journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Chaviva interned with The Denver Post and worked after graduating for The Washington Post. Chaviva then moved to Chicago, where she worked for a Nobel-prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago, while honing her social media and web 2.0 skills through her blog, Twitter, Facebook, and other web platforms. In 2008, Chaviva moved to Connecticut, where she began an M.A. in Judaic Studies, which she completed in the Spring of 2010. Chaviva is now a student and a Jim Joseph Fellow in NYU’s Dual M.A. program for Education and Jewish Studies and Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She is also working at BJENY-SAJES in the Fall of 2010 as a Social Media Intern. Chaviva ultimately hopes to teach Modern Hebrew in some capacity, while also developing her passion for Midrashic literature, medieval conversion narratives, and just about everything else Judaic Studies-related. When not studying, Chaviva can be found blogging, Twittering, taking photos, and expanding her social media influence!
- Erica Korman
Interests: Jewish-American Assimilation Studies, Jewish Law
Erica Korman grew up in Fort Lauderdale, FL with little interest, even disdain, for her own Jewish education and identity. Later in life, while participating on Taglit-Birthright, Erica became keenly aware of the dire consequences of living as an apathetic, assimilated Jew in the Diaspora. Now, her life is devoted to improving Jewish education and communal opportunities, reviving vigor for Jewish life, and reconciling tradition in the age of modernity. Erica graduated with honors from Florida State University, where she studied humanities and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. There she received her first taste of Jewish communal service as she played major leadership and volunteer roles in her Jewish community. A strong Zionist, Erica has staffed two Birthright trips. She hopes to continue to be an effective advocate for Israel whenever possible. Just recently she spent six months in Jerusalem studying Talmud, Torah, Hebrew, Jewish philosophy and history at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies. Erica is studying in NYU’s Dual Masters’ program as a Jim Joseph Fellow.
- Yehudis Kramer
Interests: Leadership and Administration, Jewish History
Yehudis Kramer is from Melbourne, Australia. She recently moved to New York and is enrolled in the Dual Masters' program at NYU in Education and Jewish Studies and Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Yehudis completed her undergraduate degree majoring in Jewish History and Jewish Civilisations in Monash University. During the years prior to and upon completing her degree, she worked for the United Jewish Education Board in Melbourne, Australia creating Hebrew School curriculums and for the Jewish Children Museum in Brooklyn, NY as an after school program coordinator. She also spent time teaching Jewish Studies to junior high school students in Morristown, New Jersey, and in Manhattan Beach, California. Since moving to NY, Yehudis has been very involved volunteering her time and skills to organizing events and educational programs for Young Jewish Professionals in New York City.
- Shifra (Staiman) Friedman
Interests: Teaching Bible, Informal Education, Leadership Training
Shifra (Staiman) Friedman is beginning her studies in Fall 2010 in NYU’s Dual M.A. program as a Jim Joseph Fellow. She graduated with a B.A. in Judaic studies from Stern College's S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program in May 2010. During her junior year at Stern College, she was the vice president of the student council. Before Stern College, she studied for a year at Migdal Oz in Israel.
Shifra has been involved in formal educational endeavors ever since she can remember. Last year she spent her weekends as a teacher at Fifth Avenue Synagogue's Shabbat Academy. This past year she was a teaching fellow at the Ramaz Upper school, where she facilitated group learning sessions and aided students in their Talmud study. During her time at NYU, she will also be assistant teaching Judaic studies at SAR Academy in Riverdale, NY.
She has always had love for informal education as well, which was fostered at Camp Moshava in Indian Orchard, PA, where she worked as a counselor and division head. This past year she also served as a teen advisor and programmer at a synagogue in Teaneck, NJ. This summer she will take part in Bnei Akiva's new day camp, Moshava Ba'ir, as an educator and programmer. Shifra hopes to teach Judaic studies in a Jewish high school.
She lives in Washington Heights, NY with her husband Noam.