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Until his recent retirement, Avraham (Avie) Walfish taught Talmud and Jewish Thought at the Herzog College in Alon Shvut, and headed the M.Ed. program in teaching Talmud and Jewish Thought in Michlala College in Jerusalem.  At Yeshiva University he completed his B.A. in philosophy, while studying Talmud with Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik. After making aliyah, he received his rabbinic ordination from R. Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at Hebrew University, writing his dissertation on literary features of Mishnah. He has taught and lectured in many frameworks in Israel and abroad, including Pardes Institute, Bar Ilan University, and Drisha. His extensive publications in different areas of Jewish studies include the Iyun Mishnah website and a recently published commentary on Mishnah Berakhot, Mishnaic Tapestries. In 2005 he was awarded the Prize of the Israeli Minister of Education for creative work in Jewish culture.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Avie Walfish.

Until his recent retirement, Avraham (Avie) Walfish taught Talmud and Jewish Thought at the Herzog College in Alon Shvut, and headed the M.Ed. program in teaching Talmud and Jewish Thought in Michlala College in Jerusalem.  At Yeshiva University he completed his B.A. in philosophy, while studying Talmud with Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik. After making aliyah, he received his rabbinic ordination from R. Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at Hebrew University, writing his dissertation on literary features of Mishnah. He has taught and lectured in many frameworks in Israel and abroad, including Pardes Institute, Bar Ilan University, and Drisha. His extensive publications in different areas of Jewish studies include the Iyun Mishnah website and a recently published commentary on Mishnah Berakhot, Mishnaic Tapestries. In 2005 he was awarded the Prize of the Israeli Minister of Education for creative work in Jewish culture.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Avie Walfish.

Ariel Evan Mayse joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2017 as an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies and serves as the rabbi-in-residence at Atiq: Jewish Maker Institute (atiqmakers.org).

Previously he was the Director of Jewish Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Mayse holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in Israel.

His most recent publications include Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings for Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (University of Pennsylvania, 2020); Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community and Life in the Modern World (Brandeis University Press, 2020), edited with Sam Berrin Shonkoff, and The Language of Truth in the Mother Tongue (Magnes Press, 2020, in Hebrew).

Chanan Gafni Studied at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, while earning his academic degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (MA) and Harvard University (PhD). He currently teaches at Hebrew University and Midreshet Lindenbaum. His publications include The Mishnah’s Plain Sense (2011), and most recently: Conceptions of the Oral Law in Modern Jewish Scholarship (2019).

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.

Mr. Michael Bernstein is Drisha’s lead Administrator. Michael’s studies prior to earning his MSW at Wurzweiler School of Social Work focused on peshat-based Biblical interpretation & translation as well as Biblical intertextuality.
In addition to contributing editorial work to publications by scholars including Dr. Malka Simkovich, Dr. James A. Redfield, & Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Zuckier, Michael has published his own scholarship in the area of Karaite law codes, including a digital critical edition of the late-1400s Adderet Eliyahu produced for the Karaite Press / Karaite Jews of America online learning center.
Michael lives in Riverdale, Bronx with his wife Dr. Jade Gormady and their two children.

Shana Strauch Schick is a lecturer in at Bar Ilan University in Israel. She holds a PhD from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. Her first book is Intention in Talmudic Jurisprudence: Between Thought and Deed (Brill, 2021).

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.

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern serves as the senior advisor to the provost as well as the deputy director and chief strategy officer of the Zahava and Moshael J. Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. He has lectured across the US, Europe, Israel and Australia and is the editor of nineteen books, including the newly released Jewish Roots of American Liberty, as well as The Promise of Liberty: A Passover Haggada, Esther in America and Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States. His award-winning writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, Newsweek, the American Bible Society, Tablet, Jewish Review of Books, Tradition, First Things, The Washington Free Beacon, Sapir, City Journal, ARC, The Jewish Journal, JTA, and The Jerusalem Post.