Spring Faculty

Past Faculty

Ma'ayan's faculty has included outstanding scholars including
Erica Brown, Reuven Cohn, Ahuva Halberstam, Rabbi Benjamin Samuels, and Dr. Atarah Twersky.

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C O U R S E S

Spring 2004 Faculty

Channa Lockshin Bob is a PhD candidate in Talmud at Columbia University. She received her MA in Religion from Columbia University and has completed the Drisha Scholars Circle program. Channa has taught at the Drisha Institute and at other adult education programs in New York City.

Reuven Cohn, designated as a Master Teacher at Ma’ayan, received his ordination from Yeshiva University, did graduate work in Jewish Studies at Harvard University, and earned a law degree from Yale Law School. He has taught numerous adult education classes in the Boston area, and is currently on the Talmud faculty at Maimonides High School.

Marilyn Finkelman received a BA in Religion from Barnard College and her JD from Wayne State University. After teaching Writing and Research in law school for fifteen years, she now supervises the home schooling of her son. She has taught extensively in Jewish adult education programs, most recently at Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, California.

Elisha Fishbane is a PhD candidate in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and is a Wexner Fellow. His main area of study is the intellectual and religious history of medieval Jewry, especially its relationship with Arabic thought of Golden Age Spain. He received his BA in Classical Studies from University of Chicago and has completed studies at Columbia University, Oxford University, Gregorian University in Rome, and Institute for Advanced Study, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

Ora Genkina teaches Torah classes to Russians at Beth Israel Congregation in Malden and is the founder and coordinator of the Russian Judaica Library at Covenant House in Brighton. She received her BS and MS in Physical Engineering from Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. She is a graduate of the Education Program Melton Center at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has completed the Teachers Improvement Training Program at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel. Ora has taught in pre-schools, high schools and Sunday schools in Russia and the United States, and has given Torah classes at the Shaloh House in Brighton. Ora and her family immigrated to the U.S. in 1998.

Rachel Levitt Klein is an alumna of the Jerusalem Fellows Program, earned a teacher’s certificate from Michlalah in Jerusalem, a BA in Judaic studies from Stern College for Women, and received her MA from Yeshiva University in Jewish education. She has served as a Torat Miriam Scholar in Riverdale, NY, and as a member of the Machon Gavoha at Nishmat in Jerusalem. She teaches Tanach at Maimonides High School and serves as Director of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute Teaching Fellows Program.

Gil Pereg received his LLB and his MA in Jewish Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University. He has a teacher’s diploma from the Herzog Teaching Institute and has studied at Yeshivat Or Etzion. As a Wexner Fellow, he is currently studying Public Administration at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is the principal of Amit Gush Dan High School for boys at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

Avi Rockoff received his BA in Math from Yeshiva University and his MD at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Over the past 25 years, he has taught classes and has both organized and led Adult Education programs in Newton and Brookline synagogues.

Cookie Rosenbaum is the Judaic Studies principal at the Striar Hebrew Academy in Sharon. She has taught in several adult education settings as well as the University of Denver. She served as founding board member and faculty member of Lishmah, a women’s study center in Denver, Colorado.

Rabbi Benjamin Samuels, designated as a Master Teacher at Ma’ayan, is the Rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Tefillah in Newton. He received his ordination, a BA in English Literature, and a masters degree from Yeshiva University, and he is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship program.

Michal Bar-Asher Siegal is a Masters student in the Hebrew University’s Talmud department with a specialization in Midrashei Halacha. She received her BA in Talmud from Hebrew University. Michal has studied and taught at several Israeli seminaries, including Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem.

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Leil Iyun Speakers

Deena R. Zimmerman, MD MPH IBCLC is a physician with a life-long love of Judaic Studies. She received her BA from Yale University and her MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She did a pediatric residency, chief residency and Masters in Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where she served on the faculty as Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics for four years. One of the first graduates of the Nishmat Keren Ariel Program as a Yoetzet Halacha (Women’s Halachic Advisor), Dr. Zimmerman has written a number of articles related to women’s health issues and halacha. She is currently running the Nishmat Women’s On Line Information Center, a website dedicated to Women’s Health and Halacha. She currently lives in Israel with her husband Rabbi Sammy Zimmerman, and children Ari, Akiva, Yosef, Rivka and Tikva, where she practices as a pediatrician and lactation consultant.

Dr. Nehemia Polen is Professor of Jewish Thought and director of the Hasidic Text Institute at Boston's Hebrew College. He received his Ph.D. from Boston University, where he studied with and served as teaching fellow for Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. He received his rabbinic ordination at the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, and served as a congregational rabbi for twenty-three years. In 1998-99 he was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, working on the writings of Malkah Shapiro (1894-1971), the daughter of a noted hasidic master, whose Hebrew memoirs focus on the spiritual lives of women in the context of pre-war Hasidism in Poland. The research culminated in his latest book, The Rebbe's Daughter (Jewish Publication Society, 2002), recipient of a National Jewish Book Award.

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Past Faculty

Jon A. Levisohn has earned graduate degrees in Education, Philosophy, and Religious Studies from Stanford University; has studied at the Shalom Hartman Institute, the Hebrew University, and Yeshivat Sha'alvim, and earned his BA in Philosophy at Harvard College. He is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and is currently an assistant professor of Jewish Education at Brandeis University.

Shari Lowin is Assistant Professor of Religion at Stonehill College. She earned her BA at Columbia University and her PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. She has lectured at CUNY's Brooklyn College and Yeshiva University's Stern College for Women, and at Ma'ayan.

Miriam Udel-Lambert is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at Harvard University and a writer. She holds a BA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard, and has studied at MaTaN and Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem. She is the director of the Drisha Summer High School Program.

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