Sources

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.

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).

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Jon Kelsen.

Dr. Rabbi Joshua Kulp is a Senior Scholar at the Conservative Yeshiva. He is the co-author of The Schechter Haggadah and Reconstructing the Talmud Volume 1 and Volume 2. He received his Ph.D. in Talmud from Bar-Ilan University and his semicha from the Hadar Institute.

Rabbanit Shimoni has learned at Migdal Oz, Matan, and the Susi Bradfield Women’s Institute for Halakhic Leadership at Midreshet Lindenbaum. She holds a BFA from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and a BEd in Torah Shebe’al Peh and Jewish Thought from Herzog College. She is currently studying towards an MA in Jewish Thought Education at Herzog College. Rabbanit Shimoni taught gemara and halakha at Pelech High School and served as a ramit for shana bet at Migdal Oz. She directs Meshivat Nefesh, the online responsa program of the rabbaniyot of Beit Hillel. She is also a plastic artist and member of “A Studio of Her Own.

Dr. Rachel Slutsky, Ph.D., is the Monsignor (Mahn-SEEN-yor ) John Oesterreicher (oste-richer) Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations in Antiquity at Seton Hall University. She completed her doctorate in ancient Judaism at Harvard University in May 2022. She is currently working on her first monograph, tentatively titled The Gentile Enigma: Divine Law and Identity in Early Judaism, based on her dissertation.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Jon Kelsen.

Rabbi Jonathan Ziring is a Ram and the Educational Coordinator at Yeshivat Migdal HaTorah. Rabbi Ziring received semichah from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University. He also received an MA in Jewish Philosophy from Bernard Revel Graduate School and a BA from the Honors Program at the Yeshiva College of Yeshiva University.

Rabbi Ziring studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and continued his learning there as a member of the Kollel Gavoah. He was also a fellow at the Tikvah Fund and Center for Modern Torah Leadership’s Summer Beit Midrash. Rabbi Ziring has previously served as Sgan Rosh Kollel of the Yeshiva University Torah miTzion Beit Midrash Zichron Dov and as the Rabbinic Assistant of BAYT in Toronto. He has taught in many contexts in the US, Canada and Israel, focusing particularly on the Halakhic Process.

Ms. Rachael Gelfman Schultz is a teacher and writer. She has taught in a variety of formal and informal Jewish educational frameworks in Israel and in the US, including high school, Hebrew school, adult education, and one-on-one tutoring. She specializes in teaching students in the process of conversion. Rachael writes, edits, and translates for Jewish non-profit organizations and publishers, as well as writing Jewish educational curricula. Rachael has a BA from Harvard University in Religion and an MA from Hebrew University in Jewish Thought. She also studied in the Bruriah Scholars program at Midreshet Lindenbaum and the Advanced Kollel at Pardes Institute. Originally from Sharon, MA, Rachael now lives with her family in Mitzpe Netofa in the Galilee.

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.