David Silber is the founder and dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York and Israel. Rabbi Silber received ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is a recipient of the Covenant Award, for excellence in innovative Jewish education, and is the author of A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn (Jewish Publication Society 2011), For Such a Time as This: Biblical Reflections in the Book of Esther (Koren Publishers 2017), and Malkhut Adam: Iyunim Bsefer Shmuel (Maggid 2021). He is also a nationally acclaimed lecturer on the Bible. Rabbi Silber is married to Dr. Devora Steinmetz. They have eight children and live in New York City.

Click here to access other recorded classes by David Silber.

Rabbanit Leah Sarna is the Associate Director of Education and Director of High School Programs at Drisha. She previously served as Director of Religious Engagement at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation in Chicago, a leading urban Orthodox congregation.

She was ordained at Yeshivat Maharat in 2018, holds a BA from Yale University in Philosophy & Psychology, and also trained at the SKA Beit Midrash for Women at Migdal Oz, Drisha and the Center for Modern Torah Leadership. Rabbanit Sarna’s published works have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Lehrhaus and MyJewishLearning.

She has lectured in Orthodox synagogues and Jewish communal settings around the world and loves spreading her warm, energetic love for Torah and Mitzvot with Jews in all stages of life.

Dr. Jonathan Sarna is University Professor and the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. He is also past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

Dubbed by the Forward newspaper in 2004 as one of America’s fifty most influential American Jews, he was Chief Historian for the 350th commemoration of the American Jewish community and is recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish history, religion and life. In 2009, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds four honorary degrees.

Born in Philadelphia, and raised in New York and Boston, Dr. Sarna attended Brandeis University, the Boston Hebrew College, Merkaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, and Yale University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1979.

From 1979-1990, Dr. Sarna taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he rose to become Professor of American Jewish history and Director of the Center for the Study of the American Jewish Experience. He has also taught at Harvard, Yale, the University of Cincinnati, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Dr. Sarna came back to Brandeis in 1990 to teach American Jewish history in its Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies. He chaired that department three different times, chaired Brandeis’ Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program twice, and now directs its Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. He also chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.

He is married to Professor Ruth Langer, and they have two married children, Aaron and Leah.

Selected Publications

Dr. Sarna has written, edited, or co-edited more than thirty books, including Lincoln and the Jews: A History (with Benjamin Shapell) and When General Grant Expelled the Jews. He is best known for the acclaimed American Judaism: A History, recently published in a second edition. Winner of the Jewish Book Council’s “Jewish Book of the Year Award” in 2004, it has been praised as being “the single best description of American Judaism during its 350 years on American soil.”

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Dr. Jonathan Sarna.

Aaron Koller is associate professor of Near Eastern and Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University, where he is chair of the Robert M. Beren Department of Jewish Studies, and also Core Faculty and Coordinator of Adult Educational Programming at Drisha. His most recent book was Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2014), and his next book, Unbinding Isaac, on the ‘aḳedah in religious philosophy, is forthcoming, but he usually works on Semitic languages and linguistics. Aaron has served as a visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and held research fellowships at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research and the Hartman Institute. He lives in Queens with his wife, Shira Hecht-Koller, and their children.

Miriam Gedwiser is the Rosh Kollel of the Drisha Summer Kollel and teaches Talmud and Tanakh at the Ramaz Upper School. She has a B.A. in the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from N.Y.U. School of Law. Miriam studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum and in the Drisha Scholar’s circle. She previously practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm and clerked for the Hon. Debra Freeman, U.S.M.J., in Manhattan. Miriam serves as a guest lecturer at synagogues and programs around the Northeast, and has written on topics of Jewish and Torah interest for The Lehrhaus, The Forward, the Center for Modern Torah Leadership blog, and Project 929. Miriam lives Teaneck, New Jersey with her family.

Aaron Koller is associate professor of Near Eastern and Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University, where he is chair of the Robert M. Beren Department of Jewish Studies, and also Core Faculty and Coordinator of Adult Educational Programming at Drisha. His most recent book was Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2014), and his next book, Unbinding Isaac, on the ‘aḳedah in religious philosophy, is forthcoming, but he usually works on Semitic languages and linguistics. Aaron has served as a visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and held research fellowships at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research and the Hartman Institute. He lives in Queens with his wife, Shira Hecht-Koller, and their children.

Shira Hecht-Koller is the Director of the Dr. Beth Samuels Summer High School Program at Drisha and Director of Education for 929 English.  She teaches Talmud and Jewish identity to a wide variety of audiences, and writes and speaks on topics of education, creative living and family life. She was a Fellow at the Paideia Institute of Jewish Studies in Stockholm, where she continues to serve as a consultant. She holds a certificate in Experiential Jewish Education from M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, where she is adjunct faculty. She is a graduate of the Beruria Scholars program at Midreshet Lindenbaum and holds a JD from Cardozo School of Law. Prior to embarking on a career in Jewish Education, she was an associate in the Intellectual Property department at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP.  She is an avid tennis fan, amateur photographer and loves to hike and explore the world with her partner Aaron and children Dalya, Shachar, Amitai and Aiden.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Shira Hecht-Koller.

Sarah Zager received her PhD from Yale University in 2022, where her research focused on the influence of Judaism and Christianity on moral philosophy. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sarah earned an MA in Religion from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a BA from Williams College. She was awarded the Leo Baeck Fellowship for the study of German Jewry, and was a David Hartman Center Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She has also learned at Yeshivat Hadar. She has written for The Lehrhaus, JewSchool, The Journal of Jewish Ethics, and Nashim.

Raphael Magarik is a shoel u’meishiv and teaches aggadah at Mechon Hadar and is a graduate student in English literature and Jewish Studies at the University to California, Berkeley. He has studied at Yeshivat Maale GIlboa, Drisha, and Yeshivat Hadar, as well as at Berkeley, Yale (where he received his BA), and Hebrew University. He teaches for Kevah and is a co-founder of Minyan Dafna, a traditional egalitarian minyan in Berkeley.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Raphael Magarik.

Rabbi Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Ph.D., Skirball Professor of Jewish Thought & Literature at New York University, and author of a number of books and articles.

Book Publications

Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz has spent more than fifteen years in the field of Jewish secondary education. She currently serves as the Associate Principal, General Studies at SAR High School, and has served as Director of General Studies at the Frisch School. Dr. Schwartz earned her BA in Physics and History of Science at Case Western Reserve University.  She earned her MA and PhD from Princeton University, writing her dissertation about the cultural history of the Manhattan Project.  In addition to teaching high school, she has served as an adjunct professor of history at Yeshiva and Stern Colleges.  She lectures widely both on the history of science and on Jewish topics, frequently addressing issues of contemporary importance in the American Jewish community.

Dr. Bernard Steinberg, Director Emeritus of Harvard Hillel, also served as President of the Harvard Chaplains, and lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government. He has conducted workshops on moral leadership for The Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York, a year-long fellowship for distinguished museum curators from the US and around the world, and teaches at the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Steinberg was a founding Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute and among the founders of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. He taught Jewish thought at the Hebrew University and served on the faculty of The Wexner Heritage Foundation, a national fellowship program for Jewish leaders. He has a PhD in Jewish Philosophy from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, an MA in modern Jewish thought from Brandeis University, and a BA in literature from Wesleyan University. Dr. Steinberg is a recipient of the Benjamin J. Shevach Award for Distinguished Leadership in Jewish Education conferred by the Boston Hebrew College and the Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.

Yonatan Brafman is assistant professor of Jewish Thought and Ethics and the director of the MA Program in Jewish Ethics at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as a visiting research scholar at Princeton University. His research focuses on the intersection of Jewish thought, Jewish law, and contemporary moral and legal philosophy. He also studies the implications of religious practice for critical social theory and praxis. He has published or has forthcoming articles on these topics in the Journal of Religious Ethics, Diné Israel, Jewish Studies Quarterly, Journal of Jewish Ethics, and Journal of Religion and Violence. He is coeditor, with Leora Batnitzky, of an anthology titled Jewish Legal Theories: Writings on State, Religion, and Morality (Brandeis). He is currently working on a manuscript entitled Critique of Halakhic Reason: From Divine Norms to Social Normativity (Indiana). He holds a PhD in Philosophy of Religion and Jewish Thought from the Department of Religion at Columbia University, where he also received his BA, MA, and MPhil.

Shlomo C. Pill teaches in the Drisha Kollel. He is the founding Director of The Institute for Jewish Muslim Action. He is a Senior Fellow and Post-Doctoral Fellow in Law and Religion at The Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, as well as an Instructor in Emory College’s Middle Eastern Studies Department and the TAM Institute for Jewish Studies where he teaches courses on Jewish and Islamic law. A licensed attorney with expertise in religious freedom, church-state, arbitration, and related issues, he received his JD from Fordham Law School, and LLM and SJD degrees in Law and Religion from Emory Law School.  His current work utilizes the comparative study of the Jewish, Islamic, and American jurisprudential traditions to develop new ways of thinking about a range of issues in contemporary American life, including religious freedom, faith-based arbitration, judicial and legal ethics, interactions between religious traditions and secular societies, and legal interpretation and decision making processes and methodologies.

Adina C. Levine teaches in the Drisha Kollel. She is currently an associate at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, a full service New York law firm, where she specializes in litigation. Prof. Levine received her JD from Harvard Law School, with a focus on comparative law.  She holds a Masters in Jewish Education from Azrieli Graduate School for Jewish Education, with a focus on secondary Jewish education.  Prior to attending law school, Prof. Levine participated in the Avi Chai Program for Advanced Talmudic Studies at Yeshiva University and received her Bachelors in Journalism from Stern College for Women as a Golding Distinguished Scholar. She is an adjunct professor at Touro Law School in Jewish Law, and also currently serves as an adjunct professor at Yeshiva University Stern College for Women, teaching a wide-range of law courses including Constitutional Law, Women and the Law, and Comparative American law and Talmudic law.

Devora Steinmetz serves on the faculty of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School and the Mandel Leadership Institute. She is the founder of Beit Rabban, a Jewish day school profiled in Daniel Pekarsky’s Vision at Work: The Theory and Practice of Beit Rabban. She is the author of scholarly articles on Talmud, Midrash, and Bible as well as of two books, From Father to Son: Kinship, Conflict, and Continuity in Genesis and Punishment and Freedom: The Rabbinic Construction of Criminal Law. She has served on the faculty of Drisha, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Yeshivat Hadar, and Havruta: a Beit Midrash at Hebrew University.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Devora Steinmetz.

Mark Winne was the Executive Director from 1979-2003 of the Hartford Food System, a Connecticut non-profit food organization dedicated to finding solutions to the food insecurity problems of the greater Hartford area. He is the co-founder of the Community Food Security Coalition, a former Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Fellow, and is currently a Senior Advisor at the Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future. Through his own firm, Mark Winne Associates, Mark speaks, trains, and writes on topics related to community food systems, food policy, and food security. He is the author of two books, Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty and Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas. Both books are published by Beacon Press.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Mark Winne.

Lisanne Finston first encountered the growing population of people who were hungry and homeless when she was a college student in the early 1980s living in Washington DC.  A volunteer trip to a soup kitchen and homeless shelter set the course for her life’s work: using food as a tool for change.  Currently, as director of Gould Farm in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, Lisanne is part of a caring community that promotes recovery for people managing mental illness and addictions through meaningful work, community living, and clinical care.   Previously, Lisanne served as Executive Director of Elijah’s Promise in New Brunswick, New Jersey for twenty years.  Through her work there, she turned a local soup kitchen into a culinary center that feeds hundreds of individuals and families with nourishing, locally grown food and provides job training and employment opportunities for people who are food insecure, homeless and unemployed—moving people from the streets to success. Lisanne has a BA from American University, an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an MSW from Rutgers University.  She is ordained in the United Methodist Church.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Lisanne Finston.

Miriam Gedwiser is the Rosh Kollel of the Drisha Summer Kollel and teaches Talmud and Tanakh at the Ramaz Upper School. She has a B.A. in the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from N.Y.U. School of Law. Miriam studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum and in the Drisha Scholar’s circle. She previously practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm and clerked for the Hon. Debra Freeman, U.S.M.J., in Manhattan. Miriam serves as a guest lecturer at synagogues and programs around the Northeast, and has written on topics of Jewish and Torah interest for The Lehrhaus, The Forward, the Center for Modern Torah Leadership blog, and Project 929. Miriam lives Teaneck, New Jersey with her family.

Dr. Jonathan Sarna is University Professor and the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History and Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. He is also past president of the Association for Jewish Studies and Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

Dubbed by the Forward newspaper in 2004 as one of America’s fifty most influential American Jews, he was Chief Historian for the 350th commemoration of the American Jewish community and is recognized as a leading commentator on American Jewish history, religion and life. In 2009, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds four honorary degrees.

Born in Philadelphia, and raised in New York and Boston, Dr. Sarna attended Brandeis University, the Boston Hebrew College, Merkaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, and Yale University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1979.

From 1979-1990, Dr. Sarna taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he rose to become Professor of American Jewish history and Director of the Center for the Study of the American Jewish Experience. He has also taught at Harvard, Yale, the University of Cincinnati, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Dr. Sarna came back to Brandeis in 1990 to teach American Jewish history in its Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies. He chaired that department three different times, chaired Brandeis’ Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program twice, and now directs its Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. He also chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.

He is married to Professor Ruth Langer, and they have two married children, Aaron and Leah.

Selected Publications

Dr. Sarna has written, edited, or co-edited more than thirty books, including Lincoln and the Jews: A History (with Benjamin Shapell) and When General Grant Expelled the Jews. He is best known for the acclaimed American Judaism: A History, recently published in a second edition. Winner of the Jewish Book Council’s “Jewish Book of the Year Award” in 2004, it has been praised as being “the single best description of American Judaism during its 350 years on American soil.”

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Dr. Jonathan Sarna.