About Our Students

Alumni

Doctoral Students

Masters Students

Alumni

• Dr. Tali Aldouby-Schuck
   

  Dissertation: Roman Catholic and Conservative Jewish Bible Teachers: Perspectives on the Nexus of Personal Background and Professional Practice 

• Dr. David Bryfman
   

  Interests: Jewish Adolescent Identity Development, Experiential Jewish Education, Qualitative Research Methodology

  Dissertation: Giving Voice to a Generation: Role of the Peer Group in the Identity Development of Jewish Adolescents in the United States 

  David Bryfman completed his PhD in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU in 2009. His dissertation focused on the role of the peer group in the identity development of Jewish teenagers in the United States. David is also an alumni of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. David has worked in formal and informal Jewish educational institutions in Australia, Israel, and America. He completed his undergraduate and Masters degrees in education in Melbourne, where he was also active in youth movement and Jewish student life. He has lived and studied in Israel, participating in the Institute for Youth Leaders from Abroad, the Melton Senior Educators Program at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and at Pardes. In Australia he was the Director of Informal Jewish Education at a large Jewish day school, a Hillel Director, and the Director of Birthright Israel in Australia. David lived in St. Louis for two years where he was the Director of the Central Agency's Community Supplementary High School and Teen Initiative Programs. David is also a graduate of Brandeis University's Informal Jewish Education Leadership Seminar. David is currently the Director of the New Center for Collaborative Leadership at the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York. 

• Dr. Leslie Ginsparg Klein
   

  Interests: Jewish History, History of Education, Gender Studies 

  Dissertation: Choosing Bais Yaakov: A Historical Study of Orthodox Girls' Education in Postwar America 

  Leslie Ginsparg Klein will be receiving her PhD is Education and Jewish Studies at New York University in September 2009. She focused her studies on Jewish history, history of education and gender history. Leslie currently teachers Jewish history and Jewish studies at the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community High School in Baltimore. Previously, Leslie served as an Assistant Professor of History and Jewish studies at Touro College in New York City.
  
  Leslie also spent the past few years researching the history of Orthodox Jewish Education for girls in America, with a special focus on the relationship between changes in American society and changes in Jewish education. She defended her dissertation, "Choosing Bais Yaakov: A Historical Study of Orthodox Girls' Education in Post-War America," in June 2009.
  
  In her spare time, Leslie organizes "open mike nights" and concerts for women, at which she also performs. She is the founder and director of Girls' Night On, a not-for-profit organization that promotes Jewish women in music & the arts.
  
  A native Chicagoan, Leslie left her hometown to study abroad at Michlalah in Jerusalem. From there, she continued on to New York, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yeshiva University's Stern College for Women with a BA in history. She received her MA in history, with a focus on Jewish history, from New York University.
  
  In the past, Leslie has worked as a writer and editor and her work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Chicago Sun Times and the Los Angeles Times.

• Dr. Tali Hyman Zelkowicz
   

  Interests: Jewish Identity Formation, Qualitative Methodologies, Sociology of Jewish Education

  Dissertation: An Ethnographic Investigation of the Role of Dissonance in Jewish Identity Building at a Community Jewish High School 

  Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Dr. Tali Hyman Zelkowicz completed her undergraduate work in Sociology at the University of British Columbia (1995) before attending HUC-JIR Los Angeles. She received an M.A. in Jewish Education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education (RHSOE) at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles (2000), and was ordained at HUC-JIR, Los Angeles (2002). She earned her doctorate at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development as a Wexner Graduate Fellow, and received the 2006 Young Scholar's Award from the Network for Research in Jewish Education and was granted a Writing Dissertation Fellowship for the 2006-2007 year from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Her dissertation, titled "The Liberal Jewish Day School as Laboratory for Dissonance in American Jewish Identity-Formation," examines various cultural strategies by which individuals and communities navigate processes of forming multiple and competing identities simultaneously.

  Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Jewish Education in the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, and also serves as the Director of Jewish Programming for Day School Leadership through Teaching (DeLeT), a California state credentialed program innovatively designed to recruit, prepare, and retain high quality teachers for Jewish Day Schools who can think and act in sophisticated ways about teaching, integration, and educational leadership. She specializes in the sociology of Jewish Education, and is interested in the roles of conflict and dissonance in Jewish identity formation as they relate to teaching and learning.

  Dr. Hyman Zelkowicz's thinking about her research has been greatly enhanced by opportunities to share and exchange ideas with broader scholarly communities. In March 2004, she delivered a paper entitled "Beyond Notions of Going Native: Jews Who Study Jews" at the Ways of Knowing in Educational Research conference, at Teachers College, Columbia University, NY. In December 2004, she was invited to write an article for the publication "Sh'ma." She wrote "At Home with Many Identities," for this identity themed issue. The following year, she was invited to be on a spotlight session panel entitled "Studying Jewish Identity: Emerging Trends and Challenges," at the June 2005 Network for Research in Jewish Education Conference at Brandeis University, Ma. She co-authored Jewish Identities in Action: An Exploration of Models, Metaphors, and Methods (2008) with scholars of contemporary American Jewish identity Stuart Charmé, Bethamie Horowitz and Jeffrey Kress, which offers new theoretical and methodological approaches to researching Jewish identity, and appeared in the Journal of Jewish Education. She also served a two-year term as the Book Review Editor for the Journal of Jewish Education, 2004-2006.

• Dr. Michael Kay
   

  Interests: Administration, Pluralism 

  Dissertation: The Paradox of Pluralism: Leadership and Community Building in Pluralistic Jewish High Schools

  Michael Kay is Director of Judaic Studies for the Upper School of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD. He earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Jewish Studies from New York University, where he wrote his dissertation on the topic of leadership and community building in pluralistic Jewish high schools. He holds an undergraduate degree in Religion and History from Harvard University. Michael previously taught at the Weber School in Atlanta, GA and in several adult Jewish education institutions in Atlanta, New York, and Washington. He is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Day School Leadership Training Institute, and he is a recipient of the Young Scholar Award from the Network for Research in Jewish Education. 

• Dr. Michelle Lynn-Sachs
   

  Interests: Congregational Education, Sociology of Education, Organizational Theory, Sociology of Religion, Congregational Studies 

  Dissertation: Inside Sunday School: Cultural and Religious Logics at Work at the Intersection of Religion and Education

  Dr. Michelle Lynn-Sachs is assistant professor of Jewish Education at the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education of The Jewish Theological Seminary. Dr. Lynn-Sachs's teaching and research focuses primarily on Jewish education in the congregational setting. She coordinates the synagogue education track for Davidson MA students, supervising student fieldwork and teaching the synagogue education practicum.

  Dr. Lynn-Sachs's areas of interest include educational leadership, congregational studies, sociology of education, and sociology of religion. Her recent research project, titled "Inside Sunday School: Cultural and Religious Logics at Work at the Intersection of Religion and Education," was a comparative, ethnographic study of the aspirations for religious education programs in a Catholic church, Protestant church, and synagogue. She has presented her work at conferences of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Network for Research in Jewish Education.

  Previously, Dr. Lynn-Sachs was a researcher and consultant for the Experiment in Congregational Education; congregational educator at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Ontario; and a mentor and supervisor for education students at both JTS and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is a founding member of the Synagogue Studies Academy and serves on the advisory boards of the Leadership Institute for Congregational School Educators and the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.

  Dr. Lynn-Sachs received a bachelor of arts degree in Literature and Society from Brown University (1993); master's degree in Jewish Education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC (1996); and a doctorate in Education and Jewish Studies from New York University (2007). She was a Wexner Graduate Fellow while at HUC and a Beam Family Fellow at New York University. 

• Dr. Karen Reiss Medwed
   

  Interests: Teaching and Learning of Jewish Text, Teacher Education, Intersection of CK, PCK, PPCK 

  Dissertation:  Three Women Teachers of Talmud and Rabbinics in Jewish Non-Orthodox Day High Schools: Their Stories and Experiences

  Dr. Reiss Medwed is joining the faculty at Hebrew College as an Assistant Professor of Jewish Education in August of 2009. She was the first graduate of the doctoral program in Education and Jewish Studies in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. Most recently she served as Director of Religious Education at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

  In her new capacity she will hold three distinct portfolios. The first will be teaching, and in that role she will continue to explore instruction in distance learning education for higher education. In her second portfolio she will be Director of a newly forged collaboration between Hebrew College and Northeastern University for students pursuing an EdD in Jewish Education. Dr. Reiss Medwed's third portfolio will be coordinator of the Pardes Educator's program, which is a collaboration on a teacher education program between Hebrew College in Boston, and Pardes in Jerusalem.

  To augment her academic work she has also been given the opportunity to work hands on in adolescent education and will be Dean of Faculty of the Hebrew College Prozdor program, an incredible school of some 800 teens. This provides her the opportunity to continue to be a Jewish educator practitioner, while also working in the academic world.

  Rabbi Karen G Reiss Medwed, PhD, resides with her family in Sharon, MA. 

• Dr. Renee Rubin Ross
   

  Interests: Sociology of Education, Sociology of Religion, Jewish Day Schools, Qualitative Research 

  Dissertation:  Parent Involvement and Community Cohesion at a Jewish, Catholic, and Independent Day School

  Dr. Renee Rubin Ross is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University. She is also the editor of the newsletter for the Network for Research in Jewish Education (NRJE), member of the Program Committee for the 2010 NRJE conference, and Co-Chair of the Sustaining Alumni Education Working Group for the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC.

  Dr. Ross’ work focuses on the sociology of Jewish day schools and other independent schools. Her dissertation, “Parent Involvement and Community Cohesion at a Jewish, Catholic, and Independent Day School,” explores how independent schools involve families and build community, and how religious language and rituals serve as tools to accomplish these goals. She presented a paper at a conference on “The School in the Community-Community in the School” at the Melton Centre for Jewish Education in Jerusalem in June 2006.

  Dr. Ross served as congregational educator at Temple Beth El in San Antonio, Texas and at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, California. Dr. Ross has served as an educational consultant in numerous settings. She was a research associate for the Jewish Educational Service of North America, and was a co-author of completing Redesigning Jewish Education for the 21st Century: A Lippman Kanfer Institute Working Paper (with Jonathan Woocher and Meredith Woocher). She was also a research assistant for the Experiment for Congregational Education, completing Outcomes of the Pilots and Initiatives at Five RE-IMAGINE Congregations (January 2007). She mentored many students who teach in supplementary and day schools in the Masters in Jewish Education program at the Jewish Theological Seminary, wrote several units for the Union for Reform Judaism’s Mitkadem Hebrew prayer curriculum, served as educator for toldot: an online museum of Jewish identity, and served for two years as the coordinator of the Education and Jewish Studies’ doctoral seminar. She was a founder of Doctoral Students in Jewish Education, a national network of doctoral students.

  Dr. Ross received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in history from University of California, Berkeley (1992), a master's degree in Jewish Education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC (1999); and a doctorate in Education and Jewish Studies from New York University (2010). While at NYU, Dr. Ross was a Steinhardt Fellow.

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Doctoral Students

• Alan Abrams
   

  Interests:  Chaplaincy Education 

  Alan Abrams, a rabbi specializing in chaplaincy and clergy education, believes that leadership and the ability to provide compassionate caring to people in crisis are not qualities one is born with – they are things that can be learned and can be taught. He currently serves as a chaplaincy supervisor/educator in Reading, PA, and has taught techniques in Israel for composing spontaneous prayer and will be giving a workshop on "Working the Midrashic Muscle" at the upcoming National Association of Jewish Chaplain’s annual conference in January. Alan has taught rabbinics at the Gann Academy/New Jewish High School in Boston. He holds Masters Degrees both in Talmud and in Public Policy. Alan loves to cook and is passionate about the bicycle as a means of alternative transportation that can help us be kinder to our planet.

• Galia Avidar
   

  Interests: Philosophy of Education, Integration of Judaic and Secular Studies

  Galia Avidar is a doctoral candidate in Education and Jewish Studies at New York University and is a Jim Joseph Fellow. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies Galia was the Educational Director of International Programs at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. She oversaw the education programs of the Tel Aviv-Los Angeles Partnership, working with schools to implement a collaborative approach in engaging in Israel- Diaspora education and developing a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary approach to educational engagement with Israel. She received a B.A. from Brooklyn College in Special and Elementary Education and a M.S. degree from Pepperdine University in Educational Administration. She has taught in several Jewish day schools in Los Angeles. She has co-authored and teaches a six-week professional development online course: Integrating the Internet into the Jewish Studies Classroom for the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Los Angeles. Additionally, she coauthored a web-based Israel education teacher training curricula: "Distant Friends II" for the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles. Her primary research interest is in a philosophical approach to systemic integration between secular and Judaic studies in Jewish day schools.

• Jeremy Baruch
   

  Interests: Applied Psychology, Teaching and Learning 

  Jeremy Baruch is currently enrolled as a first year student in New York University's doctoral program in Jewish Studies and Education. He is also a Wexner Graduate Fellow studying for rabbinic ordination at YCT Rabbinical School. Jeremy graduated with High Honors from the University of Michigan Honors College, with degrees in Jewish Studies and Hebrew and Jewish Cultural Studies.  

• Eitan Bendavid
• Janet Bordelon
   

  Interests: Social Studies Education

  Janet Bordelon graduated magna cum laude from Colby College with a B.A. with honors in History and Government. As a Frankel fellow, she completed her M.A. in Judaic studies from the University of Michigan in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Her research focused on the "parting of the ways" between Judaism and Christianity; her masters thesis investigated religious syncretism in the Greco-Roman world through a study of ancient epitaphs. At Michigan, she served as a Graduate Instructor on courses in World religions and the Bible as literature.

  For the past four years, Janet has been teaching and developing history courses that emphasize the importance of religion and the development of world-views in human history. These courses entail critical reading of primary sources, classroom discussion and debate along with a significant amount of writing. Her research focuses on the current treatment of religion, in particular Judaism, in secondary school history classrooms. Her goal is to demonstrate that the academic study of religion and the historical development of world-views can be used by secondary school humanities teachers to enhance the learning processes and critical thinking outcomes in their classrooms. She hopes that her research will help teacher educators better understand how to support and train future history teachers with teaching about religion in an accurate, fair, and compelling manner in order to promote tolerance and understanding among adolescents. 

• Eli Ciner
• Orley Denman
   

  Interests: Mentoring, Reflective Practice 

  Orley Denman came to NYU from the east and the west. She moved from London to Los Angeles in 2000 to begin the MA Ed program at the American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism), thereby transitioning from secular to Jewish education. She was inspired to make this move in large part due to her involvement in the British Masorti movement and in the (now international) Limmud conference. After teaching for five years in Los Angeles day schools, she moved to NYU in 2007 to pursue her doctorate at Steinhardt. She is interested in exploring the extent to which teachers who become mentors are inspired to reflect on their own practice, and the extent to which their teaching practice develops as a result. Orley is now once again living in Los Angeles, where she recently took on the position of Jewish Studies coordinator at Beth Hillel Day School. 

• Adam Gaynor
   

  Interests: Jewish Multicultural Education, Experiential Teen Education, Jewish Feminist Theory 

  Adam Gaynor is the Executive Director of The Curriculum Initiative (TCI), an organization that supports Jewish culture and identity in independent high schools. Adam has worked as Assistant Director of the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU; as a social work consultant at The Educational Alliance for public school-based, post-9/11 programs; as a project co-coordinator at The Jewish Agency's Department of Education in Israel; and as Director of Multicultural Affairs at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Adam was recently named by the New York Jewish Week on its list of 36 top innovators under the age of 36. He has an undergraduate degree in Women's Studies and Masters Degrees in Jewish Studies and Social Work. His doctoral work in Education and Jewish Studies is supported through a Professional Leaders Project Academic Fellowship.

  Adam has found the interdisciplinary approach to the doctoral program to be one of its most exciting assets. Students and faculty come to the program from a range of Jewish, professional, and academic backgrounds. His own research interests include Jewish multicultural education, experiential teen education, and Jewish feminist theory.

• Shira Hammerman
• Menachem Hecht
   

  Interests: Sociology of Education, Organizational Culture 

  Menachem Hecht is currently the Director of Education for Bnei Akiva of the US and Canada, as well as the Director of Moshava Ba'ir, a religious-Zionist day camp in Northern New Jersey. His past work in formal and informal education includes several years of teaching Talmud and Bible and coordinating student activities at the Frisch school in Paramus, NJ and serving as Head of Camp (Rosh Moshava) at Camp Stone, a Bnei Akiva affiliated summer camp in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

  Menachem is a PhD candidate at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, where he is writing his doctoral thesis in sociology of education, focusing on how Jewish day schools negotiate among multiple educational priorities. He studied for semicha at RIETS, the Yeshiva University seminary, where he received an honors fellowship in 2005. He received a BA summa cum laude in Judaic Studies from Yeshiva University in 2004. He is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship.

  When not educating or being educated, Menachem enjoys golf, tennis, biking, and snowboarding.

• Naomi Kalish
   

  Interests: Professional Education and Training, Multiculturalism 

  Naomi Kalish is a second year doctoral student at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and a Steinhardt Fellow. She works as the Coordinator of Pastoral Care and Education at New York Presbyterian's Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. In addition to providing direct pastoral care, Naomi teaches Clinical Pastoral Education, a nationally accredited program of study, to seminary students, clergy, and lay leaders. She has taught students from a wide spectrum of Jewish and Christian affiliations and she serves as an Instructor of Pastoral Counseling at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Naomi is a board certified Jewish Chaplain through the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and a board certified chaplaincy supervisor through the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. In 2006 she received the Lennart Cedarleaf Award for an Outstanding Theology Paper. Naomi received her undergraduate degree from Tufts University in American and Jewish Studies, and her rabbinic ordination and a Masters Degree in Jewish Philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is married to Rabbi Robert Scheinberg, a congregational rabbi, and they have three daughters. Naomi's research interests include the professional training of clergy, the history of pastoral counseling education, the interdisciplinary hospital team, and multicultural competency. 

• Daniel Lehmann
• Arielle Levites
   

  Interests: Applied Psychology, Arts Education, Text Study with Adolescents and Pre-Adolecents 

  Arielle Levites has worked in Jewish education for over 15 years, in New York, Philadelphia, and Mumbai in day schools, synagogues, camps. Most recently she was Publicity Manager at the Jewish Publication Society. She holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Brown University, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, and an M.S. Ed. in Religious Education from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a Wexner Graduate Fellow and Davidson Scholar. Her interests include the spiritual experiences of adolescents and pre-adolescents in Jewish educational settings, the integration of art-making and text study, and the psychological processes of personal meaning-making.  

• Gad Marcus
   

  Interests: Jewish Philosophy, Philosophy of Education, Teaching History, Special Education 

  Gad Marcus is a Steinhardt Fellow, who just began doctoral work in Jewish Studies and Education at NYU this fall. Born in England, he grew up in Switzerland and moved to Israel after High School. An officer in the I.D.F., he holds a B.Ed. from the David Yellin College for Education in Jerusalem, an M.A. in Jewish Philosophy from Tel- Aviv University and was a 'Melamdim' fellow at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem for the past two years.

  He has been teaching History, special education, and Jewish Studies at different high schools in Israel and also spent several years teaching American students on their year abroad programs in Israel. The focus of his doctoral work is on values in Jewish education. 

• Lisa Samick
   

  Interests: Early Childhood Education 

  Lisa Samick is currently the Director of Early Childhood Education at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. She has worked as a classroom teacher - in both Jewish and secular settings and later did extensive work in curriculum development, particularly in the area of informal Zionist education. Lisa also worked for several years at Park Avenue Synagogue as the Director of their High School and later as the Director of their day camp. She currently serves on the advisory board for Shalom Sesame and holds an executive board position in the Jewish Early Childhood Association.

  Lisa is a PhD candidate in the department of Teaching and Learning. Her research is focusing on the processes of cultural transmission in Jewish early childhood classrooms and its effects on the family. She is also teaching in the department in the Masters' program.

• Yona Shem-Tov
   

  Interests: History Education in Jewish Schools, Facilitating Interfaith Ties between North American Jewish and Muslim Communities 

  Yona Shem-Tov is a PhD candidate in the Education and Jewish Studies program at New York University where she is undertaking a comparative study of citizenship and history education in an American Jewish high school and an American Muslim high school. She serves as the Director of Education and Outreach for "Re/Presenting the Jewish Past," a joint-initiative of NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network, focusing on improving the teaching of Jewish history in North American Jewish high schools. Prior to working as a consultant for The Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, Yona worked as an interfaith educator and dialogue facilitator for Abraham's Vision, co-teaching with a Muslim teacher at The Abraham Joshua Heschel High School in Manhattan and at the Al-Iman School in Queens, NY. Yona has worked for American Jewish World Service group-leading service trips for Jewish college students in El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua. She earned a B.A. Honors in Religious Studies and a Bachelor of Education with a Certificate in Jewish Education from York University in Toronto, where she also taught Jewish history at the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto. She is interested in issues of history education in Jewish schools and in facilitating stronger interfaith ties between the Jewish and Muslim communities in North America. Yona is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship.

• Leah Strigler
• Abigail Uhrman
   

  Interests: Special Needs, Learning Disabilities 

  Abigail Uhrman is an advanced doctoral student in Education and Jewish Studies at New York University. Abigail graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a major in history and a minor in education studies. Following graduation, she spent two years as a fellow at the Drisha Institute of Jewish Education. During this time, she also worked at Matan: The Gift of Jewish Learning for Every Child, a non-profit organization that creates educational opportunities for students with special needs. Abby then worked for three years as a fifth grade teacher at the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan; while completing her coursework, she continued to work at the Solomon Schechter School as a literacy coach and new teacher mentor. Beginning this Fall, Abby will be entering her fourth year in the program. She will also be working at the Steinhardt Foundation and teaching an undergraduate education seminar. Abby lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her husband, Izzy.

• Iscah Waldman
   

  Interests: Teaching Religious Texts  

  Rabbi Iscah Waldman came to NYU’s doctoral program in Education and Jewish Studies to examine how visual culture affects the teaching of rabbinic texts. She has taught in a large variety of Jewish educational settings, and has spent the past 7 years as a teacher of Talmud and rabbinic literature at the Solomon Schechter High School of Long Island. In addition to her love of rabbinic literature, Iscah is involved in her own artistic pursuits including cartooning and woodworking. She looks forward to the marriage of both of these interests this year in her teaching at the artist beit midrash in Teaneck, NJ. Iscah holds a BA degree from Columbia University in Ancient studies, and a BA, MA and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. She lives with her husband, Matt Agin and daughter, Netanya, in New Jersey.

• Sharon Weiss-Greenberg
   

  Interests: Gender Studies in the Summer Camp Setting 

  Sharon Weiss-Greenberg is a doctoral candidate in Education and Jewish Studies at New York University. Her research for her dissertation will focus on gender studies in the Jewish summer camp setting. She is a Wexner Fellow and Davidson Scholar. During the summers of '07 and '08, Sharon was the Rosh Moshava (Head of Camp) at Camp Stone in Pennsylvania. Prior to assuming the position of Rosh Moshava she had spent many summers in different leadership roles in Camp Stone. She has taught at Yeshiva University High School for Girls in New York and Yavneh Academy in New Jersey. She has also taught at and developed fascinating curriculum for the Bergen County High School of Jewish Studies in New Jersey. She spent the academic year of '08-'09 studying Talmud and Halakha at The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. She received her Masters in Education from the Azrieli Graduate School of Yeshiva University and received a B.A. in Sociology and Jewish History from Yeshiva University. While as an undergraduate at the Stern College for Women, Sharon served as president of the student council during the academic year of '02-'03. Sharon is currently the co-director and Orthodox advisor of the Seif Jewish Learning on Campus Initiative at Harvard Hillel. Sharon is also a chaplain at Harvard University.  

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Masters Students

• Lea Aizenman
   

  Interests: Teaching Jewish History in High Schools, Jewish History

  Lea Aizenman is from Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Yeshiva University's Stern College of Women in 2008 with a BA in History. Before attending college she studied at the Seminary Chaya Mushka in Tsfat, Israel. She also spent time teaching Jewish history to junior high school students at the Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy in Orange, Connecticut. Throughout college Lea worked at the American Jewish Historical Society as an archival and library assistant. Since graduation she has been a Yeshiva University Presidential Fellow for the Office of the Dean of Libraries where she developed programs to help undergraduates and graduate students use library resources effectively. This fall Lea will begin her graduate studies in the dual MA in Jewish Education and Hebrew and Judaic Studies. Lea will study at NYU as a Jim Joseph Foundation Fellow and a Wexner Graduate Fellow in Jewish Education.

• Esther Mishan
   

  Interests: Leadership and Administration, Special Education, Jewish Literature 

  Esther Mishan is a first year student in the Dual Masters program at NYU in Education and Jewish Studies and Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She recently graduated cum laude from NYU with a BA in Judaic Studies and a minor in Education. Over the past few years, she has taught in a Hebrew day school in Manhattan, worked one-on-one with many students, who had difficulty in both secular and Jewish studies, and managed the art program at a day camp in Brooklyn. She hopes to become an administrator in a yeshiva. 

• Layah Steinberg
   

  Interests: Jewish Leadership and Programming 

  Layah Steinberg is a student in the M.A. in Education and Jewish Studies at New York University. For the past two years, Layah has worked on a research study for the University of Utah looking at longevity in the elderly population. In 2006, Layah was honored with a Gold Star Award from the Human Development Honor Society for her outstanding work in social research. Since moving to New York, Layah has been involved with the early learning center at the the Chabad of North East Queens. Layah obtained her undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Utah.  

• Lawrence Szenes-Strauss
   

  Interests: Education, Special Education, Hebrew Bible 

  A native New Yorker, Lawrence Szenes-Strauss received his B.A. in music from Brandeis University, and his Master of Sacred Music and investiture as a hazzan from the H. L. Miller Cantorial School at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was a two-time recipient of both the Cantors Assembly Hazzanut Study Award and the Cantors Assembly Richard H. Holzer Memorial Prize. During his training he served for three years as the student cantor at Congregation Sons of Israel in Nyack, NY, where he taught both typical and special needs learners in the Hebrew school and benei mitzva programs-an experience that was an important motivator in his decision to pursue a degree in education. He has been involved with the Ramah camping movement since 2005, and has served in the capacities of storyteller, guitar and harmonica teacher, outdoor specialist and challenge course facilitator. He enjoys baking bread, playing chess and riding his bike on the Hudson River Greenway with his wife, special educator Terri Machtiger. 

• Ilana Weltman
   

  Interests: Holocaust and Museum Education, Supplementary Education and Leadership, Curriculum Development, Jewish Literature 

  Ilana Weltman grew up in metropolitan Detroit, where she began teaching in a Hebrew School during her first year of high school. She carried her love for working in a Jewish educational setting with her during her time at Michigan State University, where she taught sixth grade at the religious school of Shaarey Zedek East Lansing. Upon graduating, Ilana moved to Jacksonville, Florida to teach full time at a middle school, where she taught sixth grade Critical Thinking and eighth grade U.S. History. Ilana also taught in the Jacksonville's Beit Midrash program and the Temple Institute of Religion. She has staffed Birthright Israel trips, participated in the University of Florida's Summer Holocaust Institute for Florida Teachers, tutored, and worked in the summer of 2009 as the Judaica Director at Camp Seneca Lake. She is currently a Lipper Intern at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where she teaches public school students about the Holocaust. She enjoys painting, foreign films, hiking, and of course, teaching!

• Simcha Willig
• Evan Zauder
   

  Interests: Educational Administration, Classroom Teaching 

  Evan Zauder is a dual masters student in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU. After high school graduation from CHAT in Toronto, Canada, he went on for two years of study at the renowned Yeshivat HaKotel in Jerusalem's Old City. He continued his education at Yeshiva University, achieving a BA (with honours!) in Political Science and a minor in Hebrew Language. Upon his arrival in New York, he began working for Bnei Akiva of New York as a Regional Director, and quickly moved his way up the ranks at Bnei Akiva to director of the In-School Programming division. He is now in his second year at Teaneck's largest Orthodox congregation, serving as Director of Youth Programming. He spends his summers at Camp Stone where he serves as a division head. Outside of work and school, he sits on the National Board of Bnei Akiva of North America and serves as the Founding and Current Director of the Yeshivat HaKotel Alumni Association of America. 

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