Meet Your Cohort

Abi Weber: Abi is the Assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth Zion Beth Israel (BZBI), where she leads tefillah, teaches Torah, and fights for social justice in the city of Philadelphia. Ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in May 2021, Abi previously served as a Rabbinic Fellow at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City; the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton University; and Mishkan Chicago. A proud alum of Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, Camp Ramah in the Poconos, Moishe House Chicago, and SVARA: The Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, Abi is constantly seeking new ways to connect ancient tradition with our present-day struggles for personal and collective liberation.

Alisa Fineman: Raised Jewish, attending Hebrew speaking summer camps and Hebrew High, Environmental studies majority UCSC, singer songwriter touring and performing. Cantorial soloist, then attending and graduating from 4 years of a long-distance cantorial school program in 2018 from HUC in New York.

Batshir Torchio: A San Franciscan by way of New York, I was raised in a bi-racial, bi-religious home, the third child of 10 siblings. I am most at home when outdoors, on my bike, in the garden, with my family and friends. Davening is my song. Learning is my delight. I consider myself exceedingly blessed to be experiencing the life I live.

Blair Nosanwisch: I am passionate about building loving and nourishing communities through care, prayer, Torah, and food. I like to ask big questions about the world and how we live in it as humans and as Jews, and to foster a sense that we are responsible for ourselves and for each other. I was ordained at JTS in 2021 and serve as Director of Spiritual Care at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Michigan. In the past I have been board member and Chair of Education and Social Action at the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue (IADS); co-founder of an educational initiative for Jewish teens and tweens called Peercorps; a cross-cultural urban garden called Eden Gardens; and creator of “Pickle Torah” in which she combined a do-it-yourself food ethic, rooted in sustainability and personal responsibility, with an exploration of how Torah informs our lives.

Cyn Hoffman: I’m an over-educated, endlessly curious person, born and raised in Philadelphia, attended college and graduate school at UC Berkeley, and Rabbinical School at the University of Judaism/Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and Aleph Ordination Programs. I am married to a lovely woman from Toronto, and am owned by two cats. During the pandemic I’ve learned to ride an exercise bike for more than an hour every day, and when the world around me isn’t on fire, I walk at the park down the street from our house.

Daniel Lichman: I am the founding rabbi of Makor Hayim – a community in London, UK. I bounce between teaching neo-chasidic, mystical Torah and a more mind-based approach to Torah via twentieth century theology. Somewhere on the page between the mind and the body, the mystical and the rational I enjoy swimming, cycling and hiking.

David Basior: Rabbi David (he/him) is the rabbi for Kadima Reconstructionist Community on the Coast Salish Land of the Duwamish tribe in Seattle, WA. His focus is on intergenerational Jewish community building among progressive Jews. He graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2015 and the University of Florida with a BS in Business Management in 2001. At home he is a papa, partner, son, and neighbor.

Emily Aviva Kapor-Mater: Emily, the founding rabbi of the Portland Open Beit Midrash, is a transgender woman whose rabbinic work celebrates the margins of Judaism and the marginalized people who inhabit those spaces. Her work focuses on affirming trans identities and experiences through innovative yet traditional Jewish law, liturgy, and ritual. In addition to her rabbinic work, she is a software engineer and advocate for greater inclusion of women, people of color, transgender individuals, and other people from nontraditional backgrounds in the tech world.

Gina Rozner: I am an educator that is passionate about cultivating safe spaces where learners can be creative, investigators, and unapologetically themselves. I believe learning happens when there is trust and mutual responsibility for the learning space. With creativity, patience, and integrity I seek out opportunities to learn, grow, and build relationships in work and in pleasure. On a daily basis I tend to find a balance between my need for order and routine and drive for the adrenaline rush I get from extreme sports, live music, and playing games.

Leah Jordan: Leah is Rabbi of Kehillah North London, co-founder of Azara—Opening the Beit Midrash, and a founding member of Na’amod: British Jews Against Occupation. Having learnt at Yeshivat Hadar, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and the Conservative Yeshiva, Leah received semicha from the Leo Baeck College and holds an MA in Jewish Studies from King’s College London. She hails from “deepest, darkest” midwestern America, and lives in London with her partner, also a confirmed yeshiva bucher, Benji Stanley. (They/She)

Liana Wertman: Liana Wertman is a Talmud Torah loving human living on Tongva/Chumash land (Los Angeles). When it’s not Shabbat, Liana started and runs The Torah Studio, an accessible and inclusive Torah learning space, to share her love of Jewish texts with as many people as possible. She’s first and foremost a camp counselor (Gindling Hilltop Camp, *clap clap*) who also happens to have worked as a Youth Director at Temple Israel of Hollywood, has learned Talmud at Pardes Institute Year program and the HUC Beit Midrash summer program, and is working toward getting her Masters in Jewish Education Leadership at HUC-JIR.

Miriam Geronimus: Rabbi Miriam Geronimus received ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in May 2021. As the founding rabbi of the Cleveland Jewish Collective, she is committed to cocreating a community that reflects and celebrates the diversity of the Jewish people and fellow travelers. They draw on experience working with queer folks, interfaith families, and people with disabilities.

Robin Podolsky: Rabbi Robin Podolsky serves on the Board of Governors for the Sandra Caplan Community Bet Din, writes at TribeHerald and jewishjournal.com, advises the Jewish Student Union at Occidental College, and serves as writing facilitator and script editor for Queerwise, a spoken word and writing group.

Sarah Wolf: Sarah Wolf is Assistant Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She holds a Ph.D in Religion from Northwestern University. Sarah currently lives in Harlem with her spouse, and her favorite things (besides Talmud!) include ice cream, puzzles, singing, and her cats.

Uriel Levy: Raised as a kibuznik, Israeli, observant nice Jewish girl. Only late in life discovered all I wanted to do was sit in the BM and learn. And since then, my journey moved from being a feminist orthodox Jewish woman to laying down the mechitza and becoming egal to discovering I’m queer – both in my body and in the way I look at world. Nowadays, I earn my living doing administrative work and I try to hold space and time for the BM and learning – both personally and communally

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