Dalia Wolfson is a doctoral candidate in the Comparative Literature department at Harvard University. She is Texts & Translations editor at In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies and is a 2021 Translation Fellow at the Yiddish Book Center. 

A.J. Berkovitz is a scholar of Jewish Antiquity. His research explores Jewish texts, traditions and history from the creation of the Hebrew Bible until  the rise of Islam. He received his Ph.D. in Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity from Princeton University and a BA/MA in Jewish Studies/Bible from Yeshiva University. His forthcoming book, A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity (University of Pennsylvania) explores the history of Psalm reception in late ancient Judaism through the lenses of materiality, exegesis, liturgy, piety and magic. He is also the co-editor of Rethinking ‘Authority’ in Late Antiquity: Authorship, Law, and Transmission in Jewish and Christian Tradition (Routledge, 2018) and the author of numerous academic articles and popular essays. He was a Starr Fellow at Harvard and also a Wexner Graduate Fellow. He serves as Assistant Professor of Ancient Judaism and Liturgy at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

Rabbi Dr. Yosef Bronstein received rabbinic ordination from RIETS, and a PhD in Talmudic Studies from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies with a focus on Midrash Halakha. 

He currently teaches Jewish philosophy and halakha at Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim (MMY) and online for Yeshiva University’s Isaac Breuer College.  His books, Engaging the Essence: The Philosophy of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Maggid Books) and Reshimot Shiurim shel Maran ha-Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik al Masekhet Kiddushin are, God willing, forthcoming.

Rabbi Joe Wolfson grew up in London and spent ten years studying, working, and loving life in Israel. He studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and Bet Morasha, through which he received hissemikha from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. He thought he was going into politics and did degrees at Cambridge, where he was president of the Jewish Society and UCL. He decided to go into Jewish education and has taught texts on four continents primarily as a faculty member of London School of Jewish Studies. Beyond music, good books, cycling and HBO, Rabbi Joe is passionate about the way in which texts link up to larger issues of Jewish identity. He has worked in areas as diverse as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, religious-secular relations in Israel, and European Jewish communities.

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.

Jonathan K. Crane, PhD, Rabbi, serves as the Raymond F. Schinazi Scholar in Bioethics and Jewish Thought at Emory’s Center for Ethics. A Professor of Medicine and of Religion and Director of the Food Studies and Ethics program, Crane is a past president of the Society of Jewish Ethics, founder and co-editor of the Journal of Jewish Ethics, and author or editor of several books, most recently Judaism, Race, and Ethics: Conversations and Questions.

Rabbi Aviva Richman is a Rosh Yeshiva at Hadar, and has been on the faculty since 2010. A graduate of Oberlin College, she studied in the Pardes Kollel and the Drisha Scholars’ Circle and was ordained by Rabbi Danny Landes. She is completing a doctorate in Talmud at NYU. Interests include Talmud, Halakhah, Midrash and gender, and also a healthy dose of niggunim.

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.

Rabba Amalia Haas teaches at the intersection of Judaism, food justice and mindfulness.  An experiential educator, writer and beekeeper, she specializes in Jewish honey bee education. Through her company Bee Awesome, she facilitates professional development programs and retreats grounded in Judaism, creativity and nature, and works to avert climate crisis.  She sells raw honey for Rosh HaShanah and year round at https://mkt.com/honeybeejewish. She is the “Rabba of the Bees” at the Shalom Institute in Malibu, California.  She is an activist with Hazon, Greenfaith and the Jewish Farmer Network.  Rabba Amalia was ordained in 2020 by Yeshivat Maharat’s Kollel, Advanced Executive Ordination track.  Previous education includes Machon Pardes, MaTaN, Shearim, Yeshiva University and Oberlin College.  She lives in Beachwood, Ohio with her husband, six children and many bees. Rabba Amalia can be reached at BeeAwesome.ah@gmail.com or 330-552-8BEE.

Yadidya Greenberg, Executive Director at Lev Farm and Shochet/Educator at The Kosher Cut®

Yadidya is an Israeli born shochet, aspiring poultry farmer, and educator. In his twenties Yadidya learned at Yeshivat Bat Ayin for 3 years, where he became interested in animal related mitzvos. A few years after leaving Yeshiva Yadidya decided to learn shechita so he could process his own naturally raised animals. After receiving kabbalah (certification in shechita) from the honorable Rabbi Yisroel Landsman Z”L in the fall of 2011,  Yadidya went on to work in a kosher beef slaughterhouse. During this time Yadidya studied humane animal handling techniques and began teaching about shechita and animal well being in venues such as Yeshiva University, Vermont’s Sterling College, Hazon, Warren-Wilson college, and many more. Today, along with working to start Lev Farm (a forthcoming sustainable standardbred heritage poultry farm), Yadidya gives in depth presentations about shechita and provides shechita training to a diverse range of students and institutions through his personal business, The Kosher Cut®.

Michael Fraade is a rabbinical student at Hebrew College, a pluralistic institution in Newton, MA. After earning a BA in history from Yale University, he spent five years in the South working as the Jewish Outdoor, Food, and Environmental Education Director at the Louisville, Kentucky JCC and on a number of small farms. Michael has learned Torah at Hadar, Drisha, Pardes, the Conservative Yeshiva, and Yashrut, and is also an alumnus of Hazon’s JOFEE Fellowship. He has previously worked for Drisha as the Assistant Program Director.

Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Zuckier is Director of Education and a member of the Drisha faculty. A Research Fellow in Philosophy of Religion at Notre Dame, he received his PhD in Ancient Judaism at Yale University and was a member of Yeshiva University’s Kollel Elyon. Previously he served as Director of the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Yale University and as the Flegg postdoctoral fellow in Jewish Studies at McGill University.

Shlomo is an alumnus of Yeshivat Har Etzion and RIETS, as well as of the Wexner and Tikvah Fellowships. He has lectured and taught widely across North America, as well as at Yale Divinity School, Yeshiva University, the Tikvah Fund, and Bnot Sinai. A Founder of The Lehrhaus, Shlomo serves on the Editorial Committee of Tradition and has edited two books on contemporary Jewish thought.