Sources

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Jon Kelsen.

Shalhevet Schwartz is a student in the Kollel Iyun v’Halakha at Yeshivat Drisha in Kfar Etzion. Before arriving at Drisha, she served as a Research and Program Coordinator at Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where she focused on supporting the work of the Kogod Research Center, the Institute’s think tank. Shalhevet received her BA from Yale University, where she graduated in 2021 with a degree in philosophy. She spent several summers working in experiential Jewish education at Camp Stone, most recently in the roles of Rosh Moshava (Head Counselor) and Rosh Beit Midrash, and in 2023 taught a weekly Talmud shiur at Columbia University Hillel. She currently teaches a biweekly in-depth Talmud shiur as part of Hadran’s “Beyond the Daf” project.

Rabbanit Victoria Sutton is on the Judaic studies faculty at the Heschel School and has taught in the Drisha High School Summer Program. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Education and Community Engagement at Congregation Beth Israel, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley. She was ordained through Yeshivat Maharat in 2014. A graduate of Barnard College, with a BA in Biological Sciences, she also holds a Grand Diploma in Pastry Arts from the French Culinary Institute. Victoria sat on the board of Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay and was involved with community organizations in New York City focusing on homelessness, literacy, sexual assault and domestic violence.

Channa Lockshin Bob is the CEO of Drisha. Her background includes leadership roles in schools and nonprofits, including principal of Edu-Together, an online school, member of the leadership team of Yachad, a large mixed secular-religious school in Israel, and head of organizational assessment and program evaluation for TALI, an educational nonprofit.

She began her career in the classroom and has over twenty years of experience teaching Talmud and other Jewish texts. Her experience across educational leadership, program development, and strategic planning will help guide Drisha as it builds on its strengths and enters its next chapter.

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.

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.

Erin Leib Smokler is the Director of Spiritual Development and Internship Coordinator at Yeshivat Maharat, where she teaches Chassidut and Pastoral Torah. She earned her PhD and MA from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, her BA from Harvard University, and studied in Drisha’s Scholars Circle. She previously served as Assistant Literary Editor of The New Republic magazine, and her writing has appeared there as well as in The New York Times Book Review, The Jerusalem Report, and The Jewish Week.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Erin Leib Smokler.

Rabbi Haggai Resnikoff is the Dean of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. As Director of Community Learning (2014-2022), he spearheaded YCT’s effort to raise the priority level of the climate crisis in the Jewish community. In 2022, he took over the deanship of the yeshiva. As a member of the YCT Advanced Kollel he has worked intensively on dementia, eldercare, and mental illness in Jewish Law. He is the author of the most comprehensive Jewish legal treatment of the climate crisis to date.

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.

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.

Rabbanit Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld is the Chief Learning Officer at Sefaria, an online database and interface for Jewish texts. She is passionate about expanding Jewish textual knowledge for all. Sara is also a fellow at the David Hartman Center at the Hartman Institute of North America. Her previous experience includes serving as Director of Education at the Center for Jewish Life – Hillel at Princeton University as part of the OU’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus. She studied Talmud and Jewish Law at various institutions of Jewish learning in Israel and America including Midreshet Lindenbaum, Drisha, Nishmat, and Beit Morasha and speaks on various Jewish topics at synagogues, schools, and university communities. Sara and her family live in the Lakeview neighborhood in Chicago.

Click here to access podcasts recorded by Sara Wolkenfeld.